blueberries

When life gives you beets, make a green power smoothie – this might just be my new motto. We’ve had a project going on for the past three months that has involved a lot of driving, a lot of weekends away from home, and, unfortunately, eating what feels like a lot of fast food. Since that project is pretty much over, I’m feeling like it’s time to detox. Fortunately, it is summer and the farmer’s markets are in full swing, which means I have an abundance of fresh produce in the fridge. This past weekend, in addition to first of the season tomatoes, I also came home with Chioggia beets and a bag of mixed kale greens (though the latter was by accident – I actually thought I was grabbing a bag of spinach). My first impulse with the beets was to recreate a beet tartin recipe I’d had in Bandon, but then I decided that would take too much work, so opted to create a smoothie instead.

Chiogga beets are wildly striped pink beets. They are a variety of beet that hails from Italy and they have a decidedly un-beety taste. In other words, a beet hater might find them more palatable than the traditional dark red beet. I’ll take beets in any form, but I do like the milder, sweet taste of the Chiogga for a smoothie. I hate wasting beet greens, so decided to wash up a handful and toss them in the smoothie too. And of course, I had that bag of kale greens that needed to be used up. We also brought home blueberries and thus, a power smoothie was born.

I made up freezer smoothie packs. This entails putting together some or all of the fruits and veggies for a smoothie in individual freezer bags and freezing them. It makes it easier to blend a smoothie a day for the week. I’m not a fan of including the greens in these, so left them separate and will add them as I go this week. I also added banana for a bit more flavor and to get some additional potassium in my diet. The most time consuming part of this is boiling the beets, but that’s a very hands-off process.

Green Power Smoothie
Makes 5 Servings

3 beets of any variety
4 bananas, peeled and chopped into chunks
1 pint blueberries
Several bunches of greens (kale, spinach, and/or beet greens)
Coconut water

Wash the beets to remove any major deposits of dirt. Add the beets to a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring them to a boil and let simmer for 45 minutes to an hour. You’ll know the beets are done when a knife or fork goes into them easily. Remove the beets and run cold water over them. When they are cool enough to handle, slip the peels off. Chop the beets into chunks.

To make smoothie packs, distribute the chopped beets, the chopped bananas, and the blueberries evenly into five freezer bags. Freeze.

When you are ready to make smoothies, add one frozen smoothie pack to about a cup of washed and de-stemmed greens in your blender. Add a half cup of coconut water and blend until smooth, adding more coconut water if needed to get a smooth consistency.