Monday, April 26, 2010

the best smoothie ever

I first tried green smoothies last year while I undertook a 30 day raw/vegan challenge (me being the sole challenger and challengee)*. I fell in love with them instantly and vowed to drink them all the time.

Then the holidays happened. And my son spent a lot of time in the hospital. And I got caught up with other things. And green smoothies gradually faded out of my diet.

I am grateful to Suzanne for initiating this challenge. I had forgotten how yummy and nutritious green smoothies are. I am also grateful for all the new recipes and smoothie ideas she and other green smoothie challengers are providing.

See, I had been caught in a green smoothie rut. My smoothies always consisted of banana, spinach and whatever frozen or fresh berries I had on hand. And for the first week of this challenge that is what I drank every day. After learning about the importance of mixing up the greens, I am now determined to try new things.

This goal was helped along by the fact that I ran out of spinach yesterday. The only greens I had in my fridge were a few pea sprouts. And my toddler is in a phase where getting him dressed takes about an hour, so running out to the market was out of the question if I wanted my smoothie in a timely manner.

Then I remembered I had already started work on my patio container garden. Just last week I planted a whole bunch of new herbs and leafy greens. So I grabbed my kitchen shears and a basket and headed out to the patio.

First I snipped off some swiss chard,



then some watercress



and cilantro.



The parsley was the only herb to survive winter, so I added lots of that.



A little bit of arugula and I was almost done.



I discovered a rogue dandelion in my holly bush recently and I figured that I would also add a few dandelion leaves. I have often had the urge to harvest wild dandelions from the parks and gardens around my apartment but have been worried about pesticides and other pollutants that they might possibly contain, being city weeds and all. I figured I would give these ones a good wash and delight in the fact that these beautiful flowers (weeds? pffft!) are so nutritious and readily available.



I took my small harvest back into the kitchen, washed it and dumped it into one of my Magic Bullet cups. After adding water, the remaining pea shoots, a banana and some frozen mango, I whirred it all up. It looked a little more chunky than my usual spinach smoothie, but I didn't hesitate at all on my first sip.

MMMMmmmmmm...

It tasted bright and green, way more fresh and flavourful than my usual smoothies. All the herbs gave it an almost spicy tang. Delicious!

It was the best smoothie ever.

* If you are interested in reading about my raw-vegan month, it is on my blog at http://candicerider.blogspot.com/ under labels: raw-veganism 30-day trial. Be warned: it is not terribly comprehensive or detailed, as I am not a post-a-day blogger.

2 comments:

  1. wowee candice! i'll definitely be checking out that raw vegan month! awesome stuff.

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  2. I love your container gardens! I had never thought about trying to grow watercress at home, but I love it. I thought it had to grow in running water, but yours sure looks healthy. I've heard that cilantro and parsley are called "poor man's chelation therapy" because they help rid the body of heavy metals. So I often make a pesto of cilantro or parsley. That's delicious, too.

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