The Green Goddess

My Mum turned me onto making these green smoothies as a great way to get some extra veggies into your diet.  She was the one that coined the name "Green Goddess".  Yes, I was skeptical at first - just look at that colour! - but one taste had me hooked. These smoothies are sweet, refreshing, and oh-so-good-for-you.

The Basic Green Goddess

Ingredients:

• half a glass of Iced Jasmine Green Tea
• About 1 Cup of Frozen Green Grapes
• A couple handfuls of Spinach

The Great Green Goddess

Ingredients:

• Half a glass of Iced green tea (for this special version, I used Coconut Oolong tea from Davids Tea, iced)*
• About 1 Cup of Frozen Green Grapes
• A few sprigs of Mint
• A handful of Frozen Spinach
• A squeeze of Lime Juice

Method:

Blend ingredients until completely smooth**, serve in a large glass and enjoy!

*If you cant find the coconut tea in your area, try experimenting with a bit of shredded coconut.

**If you find the smoothie to be a little thick to blend, just add a bit more iced tea or cold water to help it liquify.

These smoothies can pack in a lot of vegetables, acting like a drinkable salad.  If you aren't a very big vegetable eater, this is a great way to get some leafy greens into your diet.  The best part about these smoothies is that they aren't juiced.  This means that you still get all the fibre from the spinach.  One tip I have to mention is that the grapes/ spinach absolutely have to be frozen.  They make the smoothie cold, and let me tell you, you wouldn't want it any other way when it comes to drinking straight vegetables.

The Basic Green Smoothie is delicious.  The sweetness of the grapes balances the taste of the spinach (you wont taste the spinach, I promise!), and the jasmine green tea is very refreshing.  If you only have plain green tea, it will work just as well.  I have a Basic Green Goddess almost everyday.  I buy a whole bag of grapes and some spinach, wash and freeze them whole at the beginning of the week.  The tea is never a problem for me to prepare, because I just store some from the bottom of a pot the day before in a glass container in the fridge.  The next day I have perfectly iced tea!

I have been playing around with the Basic Green Goddess a bit to see what type of variations I could mix up.  The Great Green Goddess is what emerged from this experimentation.  I Iced some of my Coconut Oolong tea from Davids Tea and blended in mint and lime; my experiment did not disappoint.  The Great Green Goddess has a tropical update with coconut, and the lime and mint are reminiscent of a mojito.  Holy Bahamas Batman! 

Have you ever tried a Green smoothie?