Raw soup, smoothie, blended salad, whatever it is, it's delicious!! I drink at least one or two smoothies a day, usually for breakfast and dinner. I love creating seasonal flavour combinations, and this is one of my go-to, no-fail summer ones. Vary the ingredients and proportions to suit your needs, but be judicious with strong flavours such as salt, spice, garlic, or bitter greens. Try your own combos based on seasonal fruits and vegetables!
I won't endlessly extol the virtues of eating wholesome foods, but suffice to say that eating almost no commercially processed foods, less grains and mostly fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and their derivatives such as oils, is the way to live. After you have this or any other smoothie, notice the rush of energy you feel. Food is also related to mental well-being. Eating fresh, seasonal, life-giving foods will make you a more pleasant, balanced person, able to handle the stresses of work and other things with a cooler, more solid demeanour. And your taste buds will be more sensitive to flavours so you'll enjoy all foods much more.
Try it for a week: have a large smoothie for breakfast, and a large one for dinner. At these meals, if you're still hungry after the smoothie you can have a handful of nuts or as many fruits/vegetables as you want. With a vegetable smoothie like the one below, have vegetables if you're still hungry. With a fruit-based green smoothie, have fruit. Don't mix fruit and vegetables. And, you should have no grains, no dairy, no meat 2-3 hours before or after the smoothie.
And definitely don't put things like almond milk, milk, yogurt, kefir, etc. in your smoothie. Just water or coconut water.
1. Wash, cut and prep everything.
I won't endlessly extol the virtues of eating wholesome foods, but suffice to say that eating almost no commercially processed foods, less grains and mostly fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and their derivatives such as oils, is the way to live. After you have this or any other smoothie, notice the rush of energy you feel. Food is also related to mental well-being. Eating fresh, seasonal, life-giving foods will make you a more pleasant, balanced person, able to handle the stresses of work and other things with a cooler, more solid demeanour. And your taste buds will be more sensitive to flavours so you'll enjoy all foods much more.
Try it for a week: have a large smoothie for breakfast, and a large one for dinner. At these meals, if you're still hungry after the smoothie you can have a handful of nuts or as many fruits/vegetables as you want. With a vegetable smoothie like the one below, have vegetables if you're still hungry. With a fruit-based green smoothie, have fruit. Don't mix fruit and vegetables. And, you should have no grains, no dairy, no meat 2-3 hours before or after the smoothie.
And definitely don't put things like almond milk, milk, yogurt, kefir, etc. in your smoothie. Just water or coconut water.
Raw Summer Soup/Smoothie
Servings: makes 1 large soup/smoothie, enough as breakfast/dinner/snack
- 2 medium zuchhini
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes
- 1 avocado
- 2-3 cups greens of choice - spinach, arugula, lettuce (any other than Iceberg), kale, chard
- 1 handful of fresh basil leaves
- 1/4 - 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper (the kind you put on pizza)
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 3/4 - 1 tsp. good quality salt
- 1 small clove garlic (optional)
1. Wash, cut and prep everything.
2. Add the heavy vegetables first - anything non-leafy.
3. Leafy things go at the top. In this case the avocado was an after-thought so it's on the top!
4. Add 1/2 - 3/4 cup of water and blend.
5. This will create a "creamy" base before you add more water. (Too much water from the very beginning will result in a non-smooth smoothie - a bit contradictory, really. And definitely not tasty.)
7. Add water, 3/4 cup at a time, until you have the consistency you want.
8. Pour into a glass if you're having it immediately. Otherwise pour into a container and refrigerate.
Will try this for sure - I don't do smoothies...but green ones sure look appealing. Fruits - we all (even the kids) just eat them raw.
ReplyDeleteBeing grain free is such a wonderful feeling but living as a vegetarian, particularly an Indian vegetarian, makes it a little more challenging than it needs to be. I do big salads on my grain-free days, and fruit smoothies. I need to try this all veggie smoothie next. It's interesting that you say not to mix fruit and veggies because most green smoothie recipes suggest using fruit to disguise the vegetable flavors. I'm guessing the seasonings in this one take care of that issue!
ReplyDeleteMy sister Angela will love this recipe! Will try it willingly myself, but will have to force feed it to Devin. :) Hugs & kisses, Jules
ReplyDelete