Drink your veggies via savory cocktails

If you’ve never been a big fan of Peter Rabbit’s chosen diet, perhaps a little tequila will change your mind.

Savory cocktails incorporating farmers market veggies and herbs are totally en vogue. If you haven’t already tried one, you are depriving yourself of a true farm-to-bar experience.

Although the ingredients could be considered atypical, the balanced flavors offer a culinary experience that will only broaden your concept of what eating your veggies can mean.

Here are a few examples, ranging from crowd-pleasing concoctions to some that are for the select crowd of foodies who dare to be challenged.

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Note: The liquors and liqueurs used in these recipes are widely available from Oahu liquor stores and some supermarkets.

Hey Yoga Girl

Green Goddess-inspired and craft-cocktail approved, this is a totally different way to get your potassium. Plus, it’s blended, so that makes it more fun.

2 ounces Agricole Style Silver Rum

1 ounce fresh lime juice

1 ounce local honey syrup

1/2 medium avocado

3 mint leaves

3 cilantro leaves

Combine all ingredients in a blender with ice. Blend thoroughly and pour into pre-rimmed highball glass.

Garnish: Sea salt on half the rim, avocado fan and mint sprig

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The Beet Goes On

Beet syrup adds an earthiness that brings just the right amount of funk to this otherwise refreshing libation. The color is intense and stunning in the glass. Finishing touches include half a rim of chili pepper sea salt, which lends a nice little kick at the end.

Handful fresh mint

3/4 ounce lemon juice

3/4 ounce beet syrup (recipe follows)

1-1/2 ounces American-style gin

1/2 ounce Aperol Aperitivo

Press mint with lemon juice and syrup. Add liquors and ice, shake and strain over ice into pre-rimmed glass.

Garnish: Chili pepper salt (Sea Salts of Hawaii brand preferred) on half the rim, pickled beet cubes on bar pick with mint sprig

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Beet Syrup

2 large beets, peeled, cleaned and cut into rough cubes

2 large ginger chunks, cleaned and smashed

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

Combine ingredients in pot; bring to boil, then reduce heat and let simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool completely. Strain into sterilized container.

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Secret Garden

The secret here is there’s arugula — yes, arugula — in the cocktail. Don’t be fooled by this spicy little lettuce. Its chameleonlike character adds just the right amount of spice to this saucy little redhead. This particular cocktail drinks like a salad, with fresh strawberries, balsamic glaze and a crispy Parmesan chip on the top to balance the sweet with some salty goodness.

4 strawberry halves

6 arugula leaves

1/2 ounce lemon juice

A few drops balsamic glaze

1/2 ounce brown sugar syrup

1-1/2 ounces bourbon whiskey

1/2 ounce Averna Amaro

Muddle strawberries and arugula with lemon juice, balsamic glaze and brown sugar syrup. Add liquors and ice, shake and strain over ice into glass.

Garnish: Diced strawberry soaked in Aperol with freshly torn mint leaves and Parmesan crisp

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Shishito Roulette

Shishito peppers are among my favorite bar snacks. I love the luck of the draw, wondering if the next one I bite into will be the spicy one (about 1 in 10 are spicy). Besides being downright tasty, they add a wonderful “green” character to a drink. Highlighted with yuzu, silver tequila and an herbal, orange liqueur like Royal Combier, it is a match made in heaven.

1 blistered shishito pepper

1/2 ounce fresh lime juice

1/4 ounce yuzu citrus juice

3/4 ounce simple syrup

1-1/2 ounces blanco (silver) tequila

1/2 ounce orange liqueur (such as Royal Combier D’orange)

Muddle pepper with lime and yuzu juice and simple syrup. Add liquors and ice; shake and pour into pre-rimmed glass.

Garnish: Sea salt mixed with wasabi powder on half the rim (Sea Salts of Hawaii Fresh Hawaiian Ginger preferred) and a blistered pepper

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Farmers Market Mary

When you’re still feeling effects of the night before and all you want is to dive into an uber-thick bloody mary overflowing with ridiculous garnishes like onion rings, sliders and a fried egg, this drink is definitely not for you. This is for your other half, the one who let you sleep in after a night of revelry and decided to go for a jaunt to the farmers market. The fresh bounty, in muddled form, offers the freshest, lightest, flavor-packed bloody you have ever had, yet it’s still light enough that you could have two or three.

3 strawberry halves

6 grape or cherry tomatoes

3 basil leaves

1/2 ounce lemon juice

1/4 ounce simple syrup

1/2 ounce chili pepper water

1-1/2 ounces American-style gin or cucumber-infused vodka

1/2 ounce Dry Fino Sherry

Muddle strawberry, tomatoes and basil with lemon juice and simple syrup. Add chili pepper water and liquors with ice. Shake and double strain into pre-rimmed glass.

Garnish: Kiawe-smoked sea salt (Aloha Spice Co. preferred) on half the rim; skewer of sea asparagus, pipikaula slice, red pepper, cherry tomato and sprig of basil

Nutritional information unavailable