I am a massive fan of the green smoothie. A trend that has gone mainstream judging by the number of green drinks you can now see in sandwich bars and supermarkets. However, many of these are what I call fake green smoothies – they are just a fruit smoothie in disguise - all fruit with a token bit of greenery thrown in. When you look at the ingredients see how far down the list the green vegetables are. If spinach is the only veg listed and it is sitting in last place there isn’t much of it in there.
For me a good green smoothie should be predominantly green vegetables with maybe one portion of fruit thrown in to soften the flavour. I appreciate that this might be a bit hard-core for many. But personally I love the bitter grassy taste… however I do appreciate that my tastes might be a bit strange!
It is easy to make things a bit complicated with lots of ingredients but here is one that I often whizz up in my Vitamix (it will work in any high powered blender). It needs just 5 ingredients along with a bit of water.
For one person:
Two large handfuls of washed baby spinach
3 leaves of calvo nero (I remove the tough central stalk) or a handful or two of kale
1/4 avocado for creaminess
1/2 banana for sweetness (equally nice with a small apple)
Slice or two of lemon (with skin) for zing
Glass water (if too thick then add more)
Put all ingredients into the blender, whizz up and enjoy.