I tried it anyway.
I blended just enough raw parsley with lime, sugar, and water, and ended up with a verdantly refreshing, summery cooler. Eyebrows rose as we gathered to taste the concoction—and the verdict was unanimous that this was a tasty beverage. It was enough vindication to settle my ego.
But this little story is not about my ego; it’s about my liver. It’s about what happens to my body when that liver grows weary of processing alcohol and decides to teach me a lesson. I get cranky; I get a headache, cold sweats, and nausea. Some people call this condition a hangover. And as you may have heard, there is no cure. Well, there was no cure.
It just so happened that I developed the recipe for the parsley-lime cooler on a bleak, rainy morning. Inside the test kitchen, the lights seemed a little too bright, the noises a little too loud. Indeed, I was afflicted with a hangover. But as I downed my first cooler, glowing green with chlorophyll, I began to feel better. A lot better. After five minutes, I was downright cured. The drink shone in the glass like a lantern of hope…a Green Lantern.
Someone suggested adding a little vodka or gin. It sure seemed like a good idea to me—one shouldn’t feel too healthy on bleak, rainy mornings.
Alcohol or not, this refreshing tonic will change the way you look at parsley.
--Ian Knauer
--photo by Romulo Yanes
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