If you like ‘em tart, this is a great combo! It’s kind of like green apples in a way, it’s got a kick to it. It’s something that should be tried, but it’s not something that you’d want to consume every day. Yet, I bet things would be different if I had a kiwi vine of my own and harvested vine ripe fruit and then combined it with sun ripened strawberries from the garden. I’ll bet it would be a completely different experience.
The beauty of this one can’t be matched.
What to mix up:
Couple cups strawberries
Three pealed kiwi
4-8 little dates (more the better)
½ lb fresh young baby spinach
¾ cup coconut milk (vanilla flavored)
1 little probiotic for good measure.
I love the color contrast between the kiwi and the strawberries. I couldn’t bring myself to add the banana to this one.
Note that I really had to pack that spinach in! It’s also fun watching this one mix. It starts out green and quickly turns pink from the strawberries. Then, as you press the spinach down into the blades it starts to pick up the signature green that we’ve all come to love:
Spinach is wonderful. I wish it were a little cheaper.
Cherries are in season! I’ve waited all year for this. There’s something special about cherries that’s similar to the first buds of spring. It’s like you know that the abundance of summer is upon you! It won’t be long before peaches, apricots and pears make their arrival. Thus, I look forward to getting my first green stemmed bounty of wonderful stone fruit.
The other day one of my daughters picked up 10 lbs or so at her local fruit stand. She got a great deal – a fraction of the ‘$5 a pound’ cherries that you find around here. And, they are even better – at least I like to think so.
Last year for father’s day I received a pitter as a gift.
It’s been patiently sitting in the pantry awaiting the work of early summer. Well, I’ve finally got to dig it out.
watch out for the flying juice!
I love this little pitter. It makes fast work of removing the seeds from the fruit – mostly. As it turns out, about 1 in 20 cherries will have a problem being pitted. Thus you have to watch closely as the seed pops through into the catch basin (the handle stem points down towards the little catch basin. You can kind of see it in the picture above). Sometimes, the seed is too big to push through (rarely) so you have to deal with that. And, even after all this checking, I pressed a pair of pits out of one cherry the other morning! I’ve never seen two pits in one fruit before. That explains why I’ve gotten some ‘wood’ in my green smoothies.
Ultimately wash the cherries, pick off the stems, place them on the pitter and then press the pits out. Afterwards, inspect the berries to make sure all the seeds have been removed.
Oh, also, last year I learned how to tell the fresh picked cherries from the cherries that have been sitting in the store’s fridge for a long time – it’s all about reading the stems! When cherries are picked, the stems are green. The longer the time they’re off the tree the browner they get. Thus, always look for cherries with green stems.
Now what about breakfast?
These dates are really small
This one gives me a new appreciation of lettuce. At the farmer’s market I found a vendor selling absolutely HUGE heads of romaine lettuce for a couple bucks. Thus, what you see here is only half that plant – yet it still fills the bowl. Next to that is more cherries then you’ll need. I washed these up and only pitted ½ of them.
Ingredients:
½ head huge romaine lettuce (one regular store head)
About 3 cups pitted cherries
8 little dates (like this one sweet)
1 banana (thought I might need two, but I pitted enough cherries)
¾ cup coconut milk (or juice or water)
1 little probiotic.
Just pile the ingredients in the blender and grind away. It might take a couple spins to get all the lettuce fed into the blender. I usually grind up the fruit first – just to get it turning and add a big handful of lettuce. I spin that in and then add more lettuce until I’ve got it ground in the roughest sense. Then, I flip the blender on high and start counting. About 60 seconds is good.
When all’s said and done, you end up with a browner “green smoothie”. And my signature green smoothie container with finished product…
Love the color and texture!
The key to this smoothie is adding enough cherries. The taste of cherries is fairly mild, thus you have to really go overboard. If you think adding 3 cups cherries will be more than enough, you might be in for a surprise when you add another cup or so.
I can’t wait for the cheaper boxes of cherries to come on sale! At that point, I’ll take a Saturday afternoon to pit, package and freeze what I’ll need for the entire year.
I’ve got to admit that I’m taking a liking to mangos. Up until recently, you couldn’t get me to take a bite let alone a sniff of one. Friends raved about them, talking them up more than I could stomach. Yet, something’s changed. For some reason, I’m finding myself actually liking mangos. But not on their own. Not like eating an Apple or Orange. A mango, to me, still needs to be combined with something.
As it turns out, that little mango combines really well with greens! In this case, spinach.
So, I know you’ve heard me say that ‘this is the best smoothie ever’ before, but, it really holds for this little concoction. If you love creamy smoothies, this one just about tops the charts!
bananas, spinach, coconut milk, dates and mango
As you can see in the picture, the ingredient list is pretty small.
2 bananas
1 mango
7 – 8 small dates
1 ½ cup coconut milk
½ lb Spinach.
Unlike a number of other smoothies, this one needs the extra sweetness so it melts in your mouth like a liquid candy bar. These little dates I picked up at Top Foods for $4.50 a lb. I always buy a few pounds at a time, I just turn the plastic bag inside out over my hands and then scope out as many as my hands can hold. At this price, you can add them to just about anything.
Oh, and there are techniques to pitting a mango. I don’t remember (right now) where I learned how to pit one, but it’s pretty easy. I get out a cutting board and peal the outside with an apple peeler. Then, I stand the fruit up so that I can get the two haves cleanly separated. Lastly, I trim the extra ‘meat’ so as to leave the seed fairly clean.
But don’t take my words for it. Try Kopkitty! I love this little video. It almost makes you want to give her a hug!
Can
I think I’ll watch that one again. I love her laugh at 6.26 into the video. What a sweet mess.
In any case, just get as much of the fruit as you can in the smoothie rather than on your hands.
Take a look at the final results.
Wish I had more
Notice how it’s standing at the top of the jar and that the air bubbles are trapped by how thick it is. Yum. If you’ve never made a smoothie, don’t start with this one for you’ll never find a liking for any of the other ones!
I think I’m really starting to like Swiss Chard! Especially when it’s used to color this smoothie green. The combination of all the ingredients seem to come together with just the right texture to make this one stand out.
I know, I know, you’ve heard that from me before, but this time I’ve gotten feedback from a couple other people that have tried this one and, most of the time they kind of shrug their acceptance, yet this time they perk up with a – wow! That’s good!
For three days now I’ve made the exact same smoothie and its better each time. I love it when I can find enough ingredients to make good smoothies for multiple days.
Swiss Chard, Coconut milk, probiotic, banana, mangos, dates and Pineapple
Here’s what I used
If you remember from the Masking the bitters out of a lettuce smoothie article, I’m using a slice of pineapple that really adds to the tropical flavor. The mangos where also a great deal at Wholefoods. They were ripe but not overripe.
Ingredients:
2 mangos
1 banana
Slice of pineapple (about 1 inch thick)
Four or five little dates (got a great deal on these little dates)
1 – 1 ½ cups Vanilla flavored Coconut milk
1 probiotic
And, of course, 1 bunch Swiss Chard.
When I bought the Swiss Chard at WholeFoods, I commented to the woman at the checkout that this was the dirtiest Swiss Chard I’d ever seen (been raining for what seems like forever) and she responded “we won’t charge more for the extra earth.” Ha. What a great spin on things. So, wash the Swiss Chard well.
Ok, build from the liquid up. Add Coconut milk, Mango, banana, pineapple, dates, probiotic and then pile in the Swiss chard. Looks pretty cool all stacked in the blender.
All stacked up
Start off at lower speeds because you’re going to have to use the ‘plunger’ on this one.
Starting the blend
I love how the colors separate during the grinding process. After you hear the dates and greens grind up, flip it on high and start counting. Because the mango and banana is going to give this some texture, you want to make sure to not spin it too long. It will quickly heat up.
In the end, this is what it looks like.
Finished product
I highly recommend giving this one a try. That is, if you’ve got a good deal on mangos and pineapple when Swiss chard is in season.
Seems like the only greens of any quality right now is lettuce. That is, if you’re getting your greens from the local grocer. In the herb garden, mint and fennel are stretching tall with the full force of spring behind them. The fennel, when it’s young like this can’t be beat. And the mint, that is a wonderful addition to just about anything. Unfortunately, even though I love these two herbs, they don’t mix all that well with lettuce.
Lettuce is a little bitter. The closer you get to the core, the stronger the bitters. I’ve been looking for something that will tame that taste, but the old tricks didn’t seem to work. Normally, if you get a bitter green, you add in lemon; sometimes lime. Yet when you do that with a lettuce smoothie you just get the full taste of bitter and the tart lemon or lime.
Yesterday, in the process of ‘throwing in the kitchen sink’, I think I found a working mix. A palatable lettuce smoothie that you’ll really want to drink. I think the secret is pineapple. It cuts through the bitterness and lets all the flavors shine through.
So, what did I make?
Ingredients
1 cup water
2 oranges pealed (seedless)
1 inch pineapple pealed and cored
4 small dates (or 2 large dates)
2 bananas
1 probiotic
And, of course, 1 head crisp green organic leaf lettuce
Place the water in the blender first. Add dates, probiotic, pineapple, oranges and get it all to spin. Next add lettuce a big handful at a time and get it to turn. Eventually, after the lettuce is all added and ground up so that it turns, you’ll add the banana and then flip it on high to really break everything down.
After it’s run until smooth, taste it. Is it too bitter? Is it too sweet? I’m guessing that you’ll find it’s just right.
Volume, about seven cups
As you can see, this recipe makes about 7 cups. If you want to make a little less, cut out a banana, an orange and include a little less pineapple.
At this point, if you have any super-food powders that you want to add, do it. The ORMUS greens take the beautiful light green color and turn it into a dark leaf green earthy tasting mix. The Reliv gives it a little more fullness.
The end result is something that you’ll actually enjoy drinking! Lettuce is good and it can taste that way if you whip this up.
