Month: September 2010

Kale, Peach, Watermelon Smoothie

Kale is one of those amazing garden plants. You can plant it just about anywhere and you’ll get something that stands up big and strong. I’m sure it’s got ‘weed’ in its ancestral tree somewhere. The plants that came up in my garden this year took a while to come on, but when they did, a hand full of leaves really was all that it took.

But look at that, I’m writing as if the plants are dead and gone. Far from it! I just pick the bottom leaves and let the plant keep growing. They are all three feet tall now and still pumping out leaves. I fully expect that these will be the last greens that I get out of the garden this fall. Next year, I’m going to put in MORE and get enough to make kale chips. But that’s a posting for another day.

Recipe:

  • 2 peaches
  • Juice of 1 lemon (no seeds)
  • 1 inch wide slice of watermelon
  • 8 to 10 Kale leaves
  • 1 probiotic (optional)

I don’t like to add lemon seeds to my smoothies so I cut them in half and squeeze them over a bowl. Once I’ve extracted all the juice, I remove the seeds with a spoon before dumping the juice into the blender. It seems that life is just easier that way. 

Notice that the watermelon has nearly filled the blender. I spun the fruit for a few seconds before removing the top to add the kale. When adding the kale, I pick off the leaf and leave being most of the steam. But I’m willing to bet that the stem is where the bulk of the metals are, for it’s a pretty stiff stem and, for some reason, it reminds me of bone.

In sixty seconds, the blend makes easy work of this chewing concoction. The lemon juice if a must here. It counters the bitters in the kale with the acids from the citrus. Once these two balance each other out, it’s just a matter of adding a little sweetener – dates!

I’m sure I’ll have more of these come this fall when the weather really turns cold. If I had a little more gardening room, I’d grow a plant for you two.

Beet greens Peach and Watermelon Smoothie

Every year there’s one crop that stands out better than all the others in the garden. This year, I’ve been blessed with beets! What a wonderful veggie. Most people grow them for the wonderful bulb, but I put them in specifically for the greens! I like the fact that the greens are not really bitter and the pests don’t like them like lettuce of spinach. They are also pretty hardy. You can take off for a week and know that your plants will still be alive when you get back. They may have wilted a bit, but a gentle watering brings them right back to life.

Another great part about beets is that you can pinch off leaves while the plants growing and you don’t have to worry about losing the ‘bulb’ crop. As long as you get sunlight hours, the plant will keep pumping captured sunlight into the bulb so you can enjoy the juice (mixed with carrots and celery) later in the year.

But for now, I’m getting smoothie after smoothie with nutrient rich leaves that look like this:

Recipe:

  • 3 peaches
  • Watermelon (about 1 inch slice ½ way through)
  • 5 to 6 little dates
  • Probiotic (optional)

You’ll have to notice that I didn’t add any water or juice to this smoothie. The watermelon is going to provide all we need.

Just make sure you place the watermelon on the bottom for it’s not until that gets ground up that anything else starts. I love just being able to through watermelon in as the base without having to juice it before hand. Normally, I’ll juice up a watermelon and get 4 quarts that last a few days. This way, I get just what I want when I want it. It’s like juice to order.

The beet greens always give off a redish color, thus the end result is nearly always brown. If you look closely at this one, you’ll see that it’s pretty creamy. The smoothie is standing up just a little at the top of the jar. I love these drinks thick. Most people don’t. To make it runnier, just add ½ cup water or a bit more watermelon (like a full ½ inch slice).

Peach, Watermelon, Beet greens Smoothie

I love it when I can harvest a half dozen beets the size of baseballs and get enough greens for two smoothies. I also love 24 lbs peaches for $7.50. What a screaming deal. The abundance this year looks to be peaches and beet greens.

Even through the base ingredients are the same, the smoothies don’t have to all taste the same day after day. In this case, the difference between this smoothie and the previous day’s smoothie is that I’m adding sesame milk to make it more like a milk shake.

Recipe:

  • 3 peaches
  • 1 inch slice watermelon ½ way through the fruit (seedless)
  • 4 to 5 little dates
  • Big handful beat greens from the garden
  • 1 ½ cups sesame milk (with pulp)

Combine all ingredients into the blender with the wettest items on the bottom.

Turns out that when putting this one together, I had to spin the fruit before adding the greens.

If you look closely, I like to spin the fruit just long enough to get it turning and then stop. The less you time you spend running the blender, the less heat you generate. Thus, I want to turn the greens for a minute so I spend as little time as possible getting the fruit to turn.

The end result, once again, looks a bit muddy. This is beets we’re talking about even if it’s just the tops!

When it really comes down to it, beet greens are really good for you. They have a metric butt ton of vitamin A and K along with Potassium, Calcium and Magnesium. Even if the greens are not the ‘stored sunlight’, they are the chlorophyll factories. And as we’ve seen before (Is food another form of light?), the chlorophyll molecule is a great molecule to consume.

Orange Pineapple Banana and Lettuce

But this one has a twist of Honeydew melon to really round out the flavor. I can’t stress it enough, if you get a chance to make juice for the base of your smoothie, there are a few that work really well:

  • Watermelon
  • Honeydew melon
  • Orange
  • Apple + berry (whatever kind you really like)

Or, if there’s something else that stands out as easy for you, consider it. Juice makes the best base. I look forward to the start of summer every year for the first Honeydew melons to arrive. I know they are a little ‘crunchy green’ having been shipped half way around the world, but when you juice them, you get all the flavor that you can sweeten up a little if need be. It’s pure goodness!

  • 3 oranges
  • 1 banana
  • 1 inch ripe pineapple
  • 1 cup fresh Honeydew melon
  • A few small dates as a sweetener
  • 1 bowl fresh garden lettuce

I simply love the fact that my garden’s provided me with more than enough beautiful crisp green left lettuce all summer. I hope it lasts for a few more months.

Notice that I picked apart each slice of orange to see if it had seeds in it or not. If so, I removed the seed(s). There’s something about orange seeds that I really don’t like to blend. It’s up to you, but I remove them.

I’m sure this blender full made a little more than this quart. But yum.  Give it a try, I’m sure you’ll love it.

Peach Grape Lettuce

With Coconut ice cubes to really give it a zing! I don’t think I could stress it enough, if you get a chance to pick up fresh coconuts always save the extra juice (water) and freeze it into cubes. They’re oily, refreshing and flavorful for just about any smoothie.

Garden lettuce also makes a big hit with just about any smoothie. Pick out more than you think you’d eat – more than a store bought bundle – and you’ll get a full bodied smoothie everytime.

  • 6 fresh coconut ice cubes
  • 2 peaches
  • 6 to 7 little dates
  • Handful grapes (as ripe as you can get)
  • Bowl fresh garden lettuce
  • 1 little probiotic

As you can see, I must have been a little hungry when I started this smoothie for I noticed that as I started filling the blender, I really didn’t need three peaches nor all those grapes. The main idea with the smoothies is to get good tasting greens into your system (body), so cutting out some fruit is not a bad thing!

Even after running the blender on high for a minute, the ingredients didn’t reduce in size at all!  In fact, I think they actually grew!

It’s not bad having a little extra. Just make sure that when you eat it, the smoothie mixes well with the saliva in your mouth so it digests fully.  And, stop drinking when your body says your full.  It’s ok to not drink it all at once. Take your time. Enjoy it!