Smoothie of the Week: Spinach Mango!

August 5th, 2008 → 4:34 pm @ Margaret

9


Spinach Mango Smoothie

I L.O.V.E. this smoothie. And no, I’m not a glutton for punishment. Nor do I love it only for its nutritional value, which is pretty high. I actually truly enjoy the taste of this smoothie. At first, I was afraid to make and drink something so green. I expected to have to pinch my nose and guzzle the whole thing as quickly as possible. When I finally got up the courage to try it, I was pleasantly surprised by its not-so-green flavor. When I have this for breakfast, my mornings seem to get along just a little better than usual.

Ingredients:

1 mango

2-3 handfuls fresh spinach

about 1/2 cup cold water

Jar of Canned Mango

I try to use fresh ingredients whenever possible, but sometimes I run out. When it comes to mangoes, I don’t always have enough time or energy to deal with the mess of cutting them, so these come in handy.

Fresh Organic Spinach from Trader Joes

Instructions:

Step 1: Add Ingredients

In a blender, add 1 mango, a couple handfulls of spinach (I do 3 big handfulls), and just enough water (about 1/2 cup) to make it blend-able.

Put 1 to 2 hanfuls of spinach into blender

Add 1/2 cup water into blender

ratio of spinach to mango

This is what my ratio of spinach to mango to water looks like. The strong sweetness of the mango covers up the spinach flavor pretty well. Spinach is a fairly mild green…I tried this once with that fancy lacy-looking lettuce called frisee, and boy was that spicy. That’s what I get for abandoning my spinach.

blend mixure

Step 2: Blend

If you don’t have one of those blenders with the fancy tamper that pushes stuff into the blades, you can CAREFULLY use a plastic spatula (is that what it’s called?) through the hole in your blender lid. I stress the word “carefully” because it’s really easy for the spatula to get caught in the blades, which could probably be dangerous. Even if it’s not dangerous, you don’t want little pieces of plastic floating in your drink. If you choose to do this, keep the spatula near the side of the blender while pushing down the spinach.

This is what a spatula looks like when you’ve used it to push down spinach a few too many times…

blend spinach into super tiny pieces

Make sure you blend it long enough to get the spinach into super tiny pieces. How gross would it be to drink your smoothie and have a whole spinach leaf float into your mouth? gross.

Finished product: super green smoothie

Step 3: Enjoy!

There are some benefits to drinking your spinach versus eating it. We tend to speed through our meals, which means we probably don’t chew our food enough…which means less of those good nutrients can be absorbed. I don’t think I’ve ever chewed my spinach this small…mmm, tasty  :)

More Smoothies of the Week

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