Fruit and Veg Smoothies

Carrots, celery, cranberries and an orange…yum.

I’ve been a big fan of carrot juice for a while, and nothing beats V8 and vodka with a little Worcestershire and Tabasco but I recently stepped up the game a little to try to justify purchasing an industrial blender for the kitchen.  Here are some of the recent efforts.

Post Burderop Hill run Carrot/Orange/Rice/Blueberry Smoothie
280 g carrots, soaked in cold water during an hour-long run, then scrubbed and capped
1 orange, peeled but leaving the membrane
about a shot glass of leftover brown rice
1/2 cup of yoghurt
a big handful of blueberries

Used the food processor to grate the carrots then spun the result in my crappy blender with the orange and a half cup of water.  Magnificent colour, which I then speckled with the remaining ingredients making a thick, grainy shake that filled a pint glass 1½ times and thoroughly disgusted Jackie.  To help with the absorption of carotenoids you need to include some fat so I fixed a bacon sandwich to go with it.

Sunday Morning Breakfast Drink (pictured above)
150 g carrots
100 g celery
an orange
250 mL cranberry juice

Refreshing and a bit sweeter with the juice added.  Great accompaniment to two barely fried eggs on toast and a shitload of bacon (for the carotenoid absorption, of course).

Overly sweet start to the week smoothie
1 Banana
1 Orange
1 Kiwi
6 Strawberries

All fruit, but after a typical gin-soaked weekend I really needed to level out my blood sugar. You also require some protein and soy powder would suffice; having none, I fixed steak and eggs to fill the nutritional gaps.

General verdict: I’d really like to have the powerful blender but my old, decrepit processor/blender combo is doing an adequate job…the bits that aren’t truly liquified are not an unpleasantly coarse texture.  I only have to satisfy my Philistine tastes, anyway.