Green Smoothie Recipe #6 – Passionfruit & Banana

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”]The smell of fresh Passion fruit always reminds me of my Mum’s favourite dessert – and culinary specialty – Pavlova. Since becoming a vegan, pavlova is out of my reach, I do have dreams of creating the perfect vegan Pav, but until I do (or someone else does, get to it team!) I satisfy my passionfruit cravings with passion fruit green smoothies. My Mum lives in QLD and has a beautiful passion fruit vine climbing in her yard so we have an abundance of beautiful fresh passion fruit ripe for the picking while we are here on holidays, what a treat!

Passionfruit & Banana Green Smoothie

Ingredients:

4 passionfruit (flesh & seeds only)
1 banana, peeled
1 apple, core removed
4 large silverbeet leaves
1 tbs ground chia seeds (optional)
1/2 cup water

Method:

1. Place your fruit in the blender, add water and blend until smooth, add your ‘greens’ and blend again until smooth. Add your chia seeds and blend until they are mixed through. Serve.

Amounts above will be enough for 2 smoothies.

NOTE: The amount of water you use will depend on how thick you like your smoothie, I just use enough to get the blender going nice and fast, if you like your mixture to be less thick, add more water.

________________

Become a fan of Vegan Chickie on Facebook

Advertisement

Green Smoothie Recipe #5 – Kiwi & Peach

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”] Savoy Cabbage is one of the stronger flavoured leafy greens out there so I recommend saving it until you have a bit of green smoothie practice under your belt, you’ll notice that in the recipe below I have replaced my usual creamy ingredient (banana) with avocado, this reduces the sweetness of the smoothie but adds a wonderful creamy texture.

Savoy, Kiwi & Peach Smoothie

Ingredients:

2 handfuls of savoy cabbage leaves
1 avocado, peeled and seed removed
1 kiwi fruit, peeled
1 cup pineapple chunks
1 peach, pit removed
1 tbs agave nectar (or other sweetener)
1 tbs chia seeds (optional)
1/2 cup frozen berries (optional)

Method:

1. Place your fruit in the blender, add water and blend until smooth, add your ‘greens’ and blend again until smooth. Add your chia seeds and blend until they are mixed through. Serve.

Amounts above will be enough for 2 smoothies.

NOTE: The amount of water you use will depend on how thick you like your smoothie, I just use enough to get the blender going nice and fast, if you like your mixture to be less thick, add more water.

________________

Become a fan of Vegan Chickie on Facebook

Green Smoothie Recipe #4 – Pomegranate Smoothie

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”] Pomegranate has always been a favourite of mine. When I was growing up we had a pomegranate tree in our backyard and I used to love picking them and eating them seed by seed until my finger tips were stained red, unfortunately we aren’t able to get them in the town where I live but at the moment bare-chested-chef and I are on holidays in sunny QLD so I am able to experience pomegranate joy once more.

Pomegranate Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 pomegranate, seeds only
1 banana
1 apple
3 handfuls of spinach leaves
1 tbs ground chia seeds (optional)
1/2 cup water

Method:

1. Place your fruit in the blender, add water and blend until smooth, add your ‘greens’ and blend again until smooth. Add your chia seeds and blend until they are mixed through. Serve.

Amounts above will be enough for 2 smoothies.

NOTE: The amount of water you use will depend on how thick you like your smoothie, I just use enough to get the blender going nice and fast, if you like your mixture to be less thick, add more water.

________________

Become a fan of Vegan Chickie on Facebook

Green Smoothie Recipe #3 – Spinach & Berry

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”] I have my doubts about adding berries to green smoothies, I’ve read that adding berries to green smoothies is a great way to convince kids to give them a try because they change the colour from a frightening green to a much more appetising purple, but in my experience, as soon as I add the greens, my smoothie goes from beautiful purple to a very uninspired brownish-black sludge (yum, right?). If you can ignore the colour, this spinach, berry mixture is my favourite smoothie combo, it might be best to drink it out of a covered cup though so that you don’t have to see the colour! It might be a matter of simply adding more berries to get a better colour. If you manage to get a purple green smoothie, let me know, I’d love to hear your secret.

Spinach & Berry Smoothie

Ingredients:

3 handfuls spinach leaves
1 banana, peeled
1 cup pineapple chunks
1 cup frozen berries
1 peach, pit removed
1/2 cup water
1 tbs chia seeds (optional)

Method:

1. Place your fruit in the blender, add water and blend until smooth, add your ‘greens’ and blend again until smooth. Add your chia seeds and blend until they are mixed through. Serve.

Amounts above will be enough for 2 smoothies.

NOTE: The amount of water you use will depend on how thick you like your smoothie, I just use enough to get the blender going nice and fast, if you like your mixture to be less thick, add more water.

________________

Become a fan of Vegan Chickie on Facebook

Mushroom Pâté

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”] I made this pâté as part of the Vegan Beef Wellington recipe I made a couple of weeks ago but I liked the pâté so much that I thought I would post it as a separate entry, it’s such a fast and easy recipe and it’s definitely delicious enough to deserve it’s own post. Also it will be much easier for me to find this way! Apologies in advance for the dodgy photo, I know it doesn’t look appetising, but pâté is just one of those things that looks kinda gross, you’ll have to take my word for it that it’s delicious.

Mushroom Pâté

Ingredients:

1 tbs non dairy margarine
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 small leek, chopped
2 cups button mushrooms, chopped
2 tsp tamari
1 tbs vegan mayonnaise
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup soft silken tofu
1/2 cup walnuts
1 tsp dried thyme

Method:

1. Heat half your margarine a fry pan over medium heat, add your leek, mushrooms, tamari and the thyme. Cook for approximately 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until mushrooms are cooked.

2. Place the mushroom mixture into your blender, add mayonnaise, breadcrumbs, tofu and walnuts and blend until smooth. Place in a small bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.

________________

Become a fan of Vegan Chickie on Facebook

Green Smoothie Recipe #2 – Spinach & Peach

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”] Spinach is a great ‘green’ ingredient to work with when you’re just starting out on green smoothies. It is especially good if you plan on making smoothies for your children because of all the leafy greens I’ve tried, it has the least strong flavour so your smoothie will taste much more fruity than if you use other types of green leafy vegetables.

You’ll notice over the course of Green Smoothie month here on Vegan Chickie that I consistently put ground chia seeds in my smoothies, this is a totally optional ingredient, personally I try to use chia seeds as much as possible because they have so many nutritional benefits but if you don’t have them it’s not a problem at all.

Spinach & Peach Smoothie

Ingredients:

3 handfuls spinach leaves
1 banana, peeled
1 navel orange, peeled
1 peach, pit removed
1/2 cup water
1 tbs ground chia seeds

Method:

1. Place your fruit in the blender, add water and blend until smooth, add your ‘greens’ and blend again until smooth. Add your chia seeds and blend until they are mixed through. Serve.

Amounts above will be enough for 2 smoothies.

NOTE: The amount of water you use will depend on how thick you like your smoothie, I just use enough to get the blender going nice and fast, if you like your mixture to be less thick, add more water.

________________

Become a fan of Vegan Chickie on Facebook

Leek, Mushroom and Lentil Samosas

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”] I guess technically this shouldn’t be called a samosa recipe since I used puff pastry instead of the traditional short-crust pastry. You could use either with success though, so it’s up to you which you choose, in my case the puff pastry was just the only stuff I had in the freezer. Either way, the filling was delicious, really rich and warm and mushroomy.. hmmmm.. I’ll definitely be making this one again. This is the kind of recipe you pull out when the omnivores come to visit, to knock their socks off. This one would also freeze really well if you wanted to make a double batch.

Leek, Mushroom & Lentil Samosas

Ingredients:

1 tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small leek, chopped
3 cups chopped button mushrooms
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 tbs mushroom soy sauce
1 tbs hot curry powder
1/3 cup of frozen peas
1/2 400g can of lentils
2 sheets of puff pastry

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a medium pan over medium heat, add the garlic and leek and saute until translucent. Add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are cooked. Add vegetable stock, soy sauce, curry powder and mix well. Simmer for 5 minutes and then add your peas and lentils. Simmer until most of the moisture has disappeared. Remove from the heat and allow mixture to cool.

2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Cut your puff pastry sheets into 4 equal squares, spoon the mixture onto the middle of the pastry square and then fold the square in half to make a triangle, press the edges of the pastry down with your fingers to seal the edges. The mixture will make approximately 8 samosas, depending on how much mixture you put in each.

3. Place the samosas on a baking tray and bake for 30 minutes.

________________

Become a fan of Vegan Chickie on Facebook

Green Smoothie Recipe #1 – Silverbeet & Banana

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”] Silverbeet is my favourite ‘leafy green’ smoothie ingredient, it’s super cheap, excellent for you and it doesn’t have a very strong taste like some of the other ingredients (savoy cabbage anyone?). Best of all, the dark green leaves give a great green smoothie colour.

When I first started making green smoothies I did used to add a little sweetener (agave nectar usually but whatever you have is fine), these days I rarely add a sweetener because I find that the fruit makes it sweet enough but if you do need your smoothie sweetened a little, you’ll find that a tablespoon of agave makes all the difference.

Silverbeet & Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 red apple, core removed
1 banana, peeled
1 navel orange, peeled
2 handfuls of silverbeet leaves
10 mint leaves
1 tbs ground chia seeds (optional)
1/2 cup of water

Method:

1. Place your fruit in the blender, add water and blend until smooth, add your ‘greens’ and blend again until smooth. Add your chia seeds and blend until they are mixed through. Serve.

Amounts above will be enough for 2 smoothies.

NOTE: The amount of water you use will depend on how thick you like your smoothie, I just use enough to get the blender going nice and fast, if you like your mixture to be less thick, add more water.

________________

Become a fan of Vegan Chickie on Facebook

Green Smoothie Month

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”] I’m nominating April as Green Smoothie Month here at Vegan Chickie. I will continue posting about my meals and desserts as usual, but during the month of April will also be showcasing some of my favourite green smoothie recipes.

For those of you not yet in the know, a green smoothie is exactly like it sounds, just imagine your favourite smoothie a startling shade of green and you’ll be picturing the right thing. They are made with fresh fruit, just like a regular smoothie, but it’s the addition of leafy greens that give them their amazing colour. Although they can look a bit scary, they taste great and since they are made with fresh fruit and leafy greens they are just about the healthiest things on earth! Not only that but they are also a magnificent way to get all your daily fruit and vegetable requirements in before you’ve even had breakfast!

The one thing you’ll need in order to have a successful green smoothie is a decent blender. It doesn’t have to be top of the line, but if your blender ends up making your greens stringy instead of smoothie then you just aren’t going to enjoy the green smoothie experience. We have a Kenwood Kmix 800W blender and it does a great job and didn’t cost the earth. If you have the budget for it, a Vitamix is always going to be a wonderful addition to your kitchen and comes highly recommended from lots of smoothie buffs around the world.

A good rule of thumb when making your smoothie is to have 60% fresh fruit and 40% leafy greens, which greens or fruit is totally up to you. As you are starting out you might find that you need a little more fruit than veg, just until you get used to drinking your green vegetables, but after just a few days you’ll find you need less and less fruit to get your desired sweetness.

A great trick is to make sure that you add some banana or avocado to your smoothie every day to give it a creamy texture. Below are a list of some of my favourite green smoothie ingredients, it will give you the chance to experiment with your own concoctions, but I’ll give you a much better idea as I come back through the month and share with you my favourite recipe ideas (and hopefully some not too frightening photography, but we’ll have to see about that!).

Leafy Greens:

• Spinach
• Silverbeet
• Savoy Cabbage
• Celery leaves
• Green Oak Lettuce
• Mint

Fruit:

• Banana
• Apple
• Pear
• Orange
• Kiwi fruit
• Peach
• Mango

Photo Credit

________________

Become a fan of Vegan Chickie on Facebook