10 Mar Kale Cilantro Smoothie

Smoothies are an incredibly efficient method of ensuring you get lots of plant-based nutrition in your diet. They take minutes to make, and they can be enjoyed throughout the day. As many of you can attest, I am often, if not usually, found with a smoothie by my side.

One of the tricky things, however, is that there is a tendency to make smoothies too sweet and rely a little too heavily on fruit. It’s great if you can gradually reduce the sweetness and add more vegetables to your smoothie. The overall sugar content will be less, and the potential for enhanced nutrition is significant.

I recently came across a smoothie recipe by Stacy Stowers (author of Eat Raw Not Cooked) that included parsley, green apple, lemon and celery. I found it incredibly refreshing and a nice departure from my typical spinach/mango/ banana combo. We regularly have fresh herbs in the house, but I had never thought of adding them to my smoothies. Fresh herbs do so much more than simply enhance the flavour of a meal. Herbs, especially parsley and cilantro, are loaded with vitamins (especially K, C and A), folate, iron, flavonoids, calcium and polyphenols. These compounds play a huge role in the prevention of metabolically based chronic diseases such as diabetes. So I encourage you to get creative and expand your smoothie repertoire to include more vegetables and even herbs!

On Friday, I enjoyed a refreshing smoothie with kale and cilantro. It was just so good that I’ve continued to experiment with herbs in our smoothies. Here’s one you may wish to try:

Kale Cilantro Smoothie

2 cups filtered water
1 green apple – in chunks (include seeds), or 2 peeled oranges
Juice of 1 lime
handful of cilantro
1 – 2 kale leaves
1 stalk celery

Blend and enjoy 🙂

As many of you know, we enjoy receiving organic produce from two local delivery services: Organicslive, and The Kitchen Garden Farm. They are both locally owned and operated, and we are impressed with their dedication to serve their customers well.