A lot on her plate: super green kale smoothie

Hello! This week I decided this week to continue along the simple recipe path and make the one recipe that stuck in my mind when I first skimmed this book, a green kale smoothie.

The title may seem a little offsetting to some or intriguing to others, but this smoothie has a lot of fresh and healthy ingredients. To the author, this smoothie seems to be something she makes often, one of her go-to drinks. "Working in food involves eating out a fair bit, so I've been known to harbor the odd 'food hangover. When I was living in Vancouver I got into kale smoothies because they were everywhere." (pg. 33 Birkett)

To start this recipe, you've got to gather your ingredients and make sure you have the right equipment, which in this case was a blender.

ingredients:
-100g of kale, washed, stems removed and leaves patted dry
-thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
-1 ripe banana, peeled and cut
-20 fl oz coconut water
-2 teaspoons runny honey
-squeeze of lemon juice

equipment:
blender or food processor

The directions to this are very straightforward, "Put the kale, ginger and banana in a blender or food processor and blend to a pulp, then add the coconut water, honey and lemon juice. Blend thoroughly and drink straight away." Of course, the author says you can change some parts of the recipe to whatever you prefer. for example, "if you can't find coconut water (...a brilliant source of good things like potassium and minerals), use pineapple or orange juice instead." (pg. 33 Birkett) I tweaked the recipe a bit by splitting the portion of kale and making the other half spinach.

Following the recipe, I started with washing the kale and spinach.

   

Next, I cut the stems off the kale, putting the stalks and spinach into the blender.

  

After that was done, I cut a thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled, and sliced it. I then, put it in the blender with the rest of the ingredients.

  

Next I peeled and cut a banana and put into the blender before blending the ingredients until they turned to a think paste.

  

After blending, I squeezed and juiced one lemon, adding it to the mix.

  

Finally I added the honey, and coconut water.

  

After all the ingredients were added, all that was left to do was to blend until the smoothie was well combined.

  

After it was blended, I decided it was too runny so I added some more spinach and also some ice to make it colder.

The finished product tasted really good! "Kale is packed full of good things, from antioxidants and calcium, to vitamin C and beta carotene, and is a great way to give yourself a morning boost." (pg. 33 Birkett) She definitely had me converted from being hesitant about eating kale, to thoroughly enjoying it. Though I may not be making this smoothie as often as she does, i'll definitely try making it again.

Q: Are their any foods in particular that you're hesitant about trying? If so, why? 

Q: What are your favorite smoothie flavors?