Green Smoothie

I’m not sure why I have resisted green smoothies for so long. One reason perhaps is because I don’t have a proper blender, let alone one of those high powered jobs that people who make green smoothies always recommend. I’ve always found my stick blender sufficient for making my favourite yoghurt smoothie. Another thing I resist is buying greens. I want them freshly picked from the garden and still buzzing with vitality. Last week, I gave the green smoothie a go with my old faithful stick blender and it worked well enough. Every winter I am recommended by my wonderful osteopath to consume fresh, young raw greens. My gut goes into stagnation around this time of year and needs chlorophyll-rich living food. Well I came home from an osteopathic session last week and wandered around the garden picking a bit of this and a bit of that, stick blended it up with a little water and added some fresh fruit and a little honey. I am hooked now, and my gut has responded beautifully. Gone is the uncomfortable bloating and thankfully the gas. Kale is recommended as a major player in green smoothies, but I wanted to use only what was growing in the garden. This was to incorporate some of the edible weeds that I wax lyrical about on my blog.

For my first smoothie, I picked a few leaves each of cos lettuce, silverbeet, kale, NZ spinach, parsley, dandelion, nasturtium, clover, puha and sorrel. The list is endless, you could add chickweed, plantain, violet leaves, lambs quarters, coriander (cilantro), rocket, land cress, mizuna, any of the rocket mixes etc etc, pretty much whatever you have on hand. As always make sure you have a thorough knowledge of any weeds you use to ensure they are safe for consumption.

For today’s green smoothie I used kale, silverbeet, puha, red clover leaf, sorrel, dandelion leaf, cos lettuce, parsley and fennel leaf. Wash your greens. I removed the white stems of the silverbeet and the stems of the parsley as I’m using the less powerful stick blender.

Add a small glass of water to the greens to help the blending process.

Blend until smooth.

Now add fruit of your choice. Bananas are good, adding creaminess. I had some persimmons. Pineapple is another really good addition. Ripe pineapples were only $2.99 each at Fruit World so I bought one, peeled it and cut it into chunks, keeping it in the fridge for my smoothie.

Now add a little sweetener. You can use stevia powder, honey or maple syrup. Spirulina, chlorella or any of the other superfood green powders can be added now.

A final blend and you are ready to go.Delicious, nutritious and so easy to make and digest……Enjoy!