Hit your mental reset button with a sweet green smoothie

Recipe: Reset Button Green Smoothie

A spritely emerald green, this smoothie is packed with kale and spinach, but sweetened naturally with pear, banana and pineapple, so as good as it is for you, it doesn’t taste like medicine.

By Louise Crosby

(January 16, 2017) If you’re anything like me, you’ll be glad that all that holiday business is behind us and we can get on with ordinary life. Downtime is good, bingeing on movies is fun, but there comes a time when you need activity and structure to your day. It lifts your spirits.

And if you roared in to January with a new resolve to be healthier and more physically fit, then this smoothie is for you. It’s from Angela Liddon’s second book, Oh She Glows Everyday. (Her first, The Oh She Glows Cookbook, was wildly successful.) A spritely emerald green, this drink is packed with kale and spinach, but sweetened naturally with pear, banana and pineapple, so as good as it is for you, it doesn’t taste like medicine.

Liddon, who lives in Oakville, Ontario, helpfully gives us two versions of this recipe – the family size and the half-batch. It’s best made in a Vitamix blender, but if you don’t have one of those, a regular blender will do an adequate job. Freezing the bananas and the pineapple first gives the smoothie a creamy texture.

Reset Button Green Smoothie (Family-Size)

¼ cup (60 mL) water or coconut water, plus more if desired
1 cup (250 mL) chopped cucumber (unpeeled is fine)
2 cups (500 mL) packed stemmed kale leaves, chopped romaine lettuce, or baby spinach
3 cups (750 mL) packed baby spinach
½ cup (125 mL) fresh mint leaves
1 very large or 2 small ripe pears, cored and chopped (1¼ cups/300 mL chopped)
1½ large frozen bananas, roughly chopped
Heaping 1 cup (275 mL) frozen pineapple chunks
1 tablespoon (15 mL) fresh lime juice
2 or 3 ice cubes (optional)

In a high-speed blender (64-ounce/2 L capacity), combine all the ingredients and blend until smooth. If using a Vitamix, use the tamper to press the ingredients down into the blade. You can add a bit more water if necessary to get the blender going.

Make it kid-friendly: Omit the mint (the flavour can be a bit strong for some kiddos) and use all spinach instead of a mix of spinach and kale or romaine.

Makes 5 cups (1.25 L) (3 servings)

Reset Button Green Smoothie (Half Batch)

¼ cup (60 mL) water, more if desired
½ cup (125 mL) chopped cucumber (peeled or unpeeled)
1 cup (250 mL) packed stemmed kale leaves, chopped romaine lettuce, or baby spinach
1½ packed cups (375 mL) fresh baby spinach
¼ cup (60 mL) unpacked fresh mint leaves
1 ripe medium pear, cored and chopped (3/4 cup/175 mL)
1 medium frozen banana, roughly chopped
Heaping ½ cup (140 mL) frozen pineapple chunks
1½ teaspoons fresh lime juice
1 or 2 ice cubes (optional)

Put the water and cucumber in a high-speed blender and blend until the cucumber is liquid. (This step helps the rest of the smoothie ingredients blend more easily.)

Add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. If using a Vitamix, use the tamper to press the ingredients down into the blade. You can add a bit more water if necessary to get the blender going.

Make it kid-friendly: Omit the mint (the flavour can be a bit strong for some kiddos) and use all spinach instead of a mix of spinach and kale or romaine.

Makes 3 cups (750 mL) (2 servings)

Photo by Louise Crosby
THE EX-PRESS, January 16, 2017

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