Add These Spring Superfoods To Your Cocktails To Make Them (Sorta) Healthy

Spring is the time of rejuvenation and rebirth. Don't expect to be personally reborn at winter's end each year, but do expect to see a lot of great, seasonal spring superfoods reaching their peak deliciousness at this time of year. If you're looking for an easy way to describe spring superfoods, we suggest using "crisp" when picturing the fresh dark, leafy greens, root vegetables, and thistles in their prime from the end of March to the end of June.

These crisp foods, available at a particularly crisp time of year, are usually enjoyed in the manner that most foods are: We use them in salads. We roast them. We put some of them in smoothies. They're featured as sides and garnishes and everything else that solid foods can appear as in dishes. What you may be surprised to hear, though, is that you can spend that open quarter of your alcoholic year mixing up enviable cocktails that incorporate such spring superfoods. They may not be super healthy, but spring superfood cocktails certainly have more nutritional value than drinks sans superfoods.

Click ahead to see Add These Spring Superfoods to Your Cocktails to Make Them (Sorta) Healthy.

Cynar, an artichoke-based Italian apéritif, is made from a blend of this thorny thistle and 13 herbs. You can enjoy your liquid artichoke in plenty of ways — the Swiss drink Cynar with orange juice and the French mix it with beer.

Yes, artichokes may be fuzzy before they're properly prepped and, yes, if you have enough Cynar, you'll probably feel a little fuzzy yourself, but by adding artichokes into your cocktails you'll be boosting your antioxidant intake as well as improving your cholesterol. Don't take our word for it, try it for yourself. This Tobacco Road cocktail recipe includes Cynar, mescal, sherry, bitters, a grapefruit twist, and a pinch of sea salt.

Arugula is one of our favorite leafy greens, and it is so for good reason: It's rich in not only vitamin C and vitamin K but also beta-carotene, fiber, magnesium, and folate. We also hear that it's great for sexual health. Have we piqued your interest yet?

Add arugula to your cocktails in order to make them a veritable multivitamin. Try a Winthrop Gimlet, a cocktail with arugula leaves, sliced cucumber, vodka, lime juice, and simple syrup, if a refreshing superfood cocktail is something you'd like to have in your life this spring.

Click here for the Winthrop Gimlet cocktail recipe.

Improved bone health, an energy boost, and an increase in vitamin K and iron are all benefits you could be experiencing by adding asparagus to your cocktails. Are you wondering how on earth you could do that? It's simple: Put pickled asparagus into your next Bloody Mary. To get the most out of the potential probiotic properties associated with pickled asparagus, make sure that it has been fermented properly and not just preserved in some sort of acidic medium as most store-bought pickled vegetables are.

Beets are having a great year in terms of trendiness, and we hope that you'll consider upping your "hip" factor by incorporating them (or beet juice or beet water) into your next spring cocktail. Beets can help reduce blood pressure and boost energy, and they're full of fiber, magnesium, potassium, and vitamin C.

Watch How to Make a Beet Negroni.

The peak season of lemons lasts through April, but we're pretty sure that you won't have any trouble finding them throughout the rest of the year once April has passed. We've already told you Why Putting a Lemon in Water Will Change Your Life, but we think that putting some lemon into a cocktail is a more socially freeing way to keep your digestive system running properly. It will also help you to detoxify your liver, which may not be such a bad thing to do while you're actively toxifying it.

You probably won't have any issues tossing a lemon into nearly any cocktail, but we suggest this Lemon Lovely cocktail recipe if you're looking for the feeling of sunshine and a cool breeze in your glass.

Parsley is highly nutritious, anti-inflammatory, and an excellent source of nutrients like vitamins A, C, and K as well as folate. It's also believed to help neutralize particular types of carcinogens. If you'd like all of that nutritional power in your drink, then we suggest putting some of this superfood into your next cocktail. Try muddling it with lime juice and simple syrup, shaking with gin, and stirring in some club soda for a simple, healthy-ish, parsley-infused julep.

Spring is the best time for crisp, colorful, and slightly peppery radishes. They'll help you up your fiber, folate, and potassium intake and they're teeming with vitamin B6. If you'd like to include this earthy root into your cocktails, use kimchi including daikon. Daikon is an often-pickled, mild-flavored radish. This Gin Kimchi cocktail recipe uses pickled daikon, pickled ginger, shiso leaves, and ginger beer for a perfectly tasty, healthy-ish treat.

Spinach is everywhere, especially in the world of cold-pressed juices, and we're pretty sure that there are zero things unhealthy about it (as long as it's properly washed, that is). Most of the calories in spinach come from protein, and it's incredibly rich in iron — your muscles will thank you for adding spinach to your cocktail.

This Green Mule cocktail recipe incorporates a cold-pressed juice that has enough spinach (and other healthy greens) in it to render it one of the healthier cocktails we've ever come across.

Looking for a spring superfood that will not only make your cocktail taste great but also help your sex life? Try strawberries: These berries are dense in folate (which can increase sperm count) and vitamin C. From sweet strawberry daiquiris (not the kind that's basically a boozy milkshake, but a simple one with little added sugar) to this tart, acidic Strawberry Balsamic Shrub cocktail recipe, there's a plethora of ways in which you can work strawberries into your spring cocktail repertoire.