It’s rapidly getting to the point of the season when I’m just overwhelmed with veggies enough to think that making a tomato celery green smoothie is a good idea. Fortunately, it really was a good idea. Yes – I’m getting to a point of vegetable overload. It’s ok – it’s a pattern I go through every year. Around January, I miss fresh veggies so bad, I’m driven to purchasing tomatoes and cucumbers from the store (and instantly regretting it). April brings some degree of hope: after all, morels are showing up in the market and there are the occasional snap peas. May and June are much more hopeful. July is reasonable in its level of abundance. September, well, September is a full out onslaught of squash and tomatoes and greens.
This week was especially bad. We got our CSA veggies (zucchini, tomatoes, red onion, cucumbers, carrots, collard greens, peppers, strawberries, and celery) and then went to the farmer’s market and bought more zucchini, more peppers, lettuce, basil, red cabbage and cherry tomatoes. I could have managed if I’d just left it there. But no, then I went on Saturday and helped a friend can 300 pounds of Albacore tuna. Yes – you read that number right. 300 pounds of fish. I still smell like tuna. I also can’t wait to dig into a jar and make a tuna salad, but that’s a post for another day. What’s more important to this post is that by Sunday, my back had said no more. Forget it – don’t even dream about even moving. Abundance of veggies in the fridge versus cranky back. The back won.
I ate the cucumbers and cherry tomatoes as snacks. I made zucchini pancakes, despite the protests of my back. I sat and drank sangria and read. That was Sunday. By Monday, Labor Day, the Icy Hot had kicked in. I did yoga and then contemplated the contents of the fridge. I couldn’t let the beautiful celery leaves go to waste. (The celery itself will survive a few more days.) I couldn’t neglect the collard greens for another week without serious guilt. Plus, all those tomatoes.
So, I made a tomato celery green smoothie with the tomatoes (did I mention that somehow in the process of tuna canning, we ended up walking away with even more tomatoes from our friends’ garden?), the celery leaves, and a few of the collard greens. The only thing that it was missing was vodka – but that’s just not healthy. This is a healthy tomato celery green smoothie. And I’ll totally look the other way if you add an ounce of vodka to this and call it a Bloody Mary smoothie.
This week, I’ll be working on catching up with the abundance. I’m pretty sure we’ll skip the farmer’s market this week and just eat what comes in the CSA. I’m positive that by January, I’ll be missing all of this again and the cycle will start all over. In the meantime, I’m going to be drinking my tomato celery green smoothie and being just the slightest bit annoyed by all the produce that keeps coming my way.
Ingredients
- 4 medium tomatoes, cut into quarters
- 1 cup celery leaves
- 4 collard green leaves, spines removed, and roughly chopped (or 2 cups spinach leaves)
- Juice from 1 lemon
- 3 dashes green Tabasco
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend. Add water as needed to smooth out the smoothie. Serves 4. Enjoy!
