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.

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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.

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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.

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Pumpkin, Sage & Walnut Ravioli

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”] Long time readers of Vegan Chickie will remember bare-chested-chef, my lovely husband, who cooked for us on a regular basis during the early days of the Vegan Chickie Blog. Recently, he has been busy being an actual chef out in the real world and hasn’t had much spare time for tinkering in the kitchen at home, but this weekend, due to popular demand, he has come out of retirement and agreed to cook something delicious for us to showcase on the Vegan Chickie blog.

I am going to put the recipe into two posts, the Pumpkin and Sage Ravioli here and the Creamy Capsicum Pasta Sauce in another post to avoid things getting too confusing. Alternatively you could use any pasta sauce with this ravioli recipe. I especially like them with a spicy tomato sauce.

Pumpkin Sage & Walnut Ravioli

Ingredients:

For the pasta:
500g flour
300g water
1tsp salt
2 tbs chia seeds, finely ground (optional)
1tbs olive oil

For the ravioli filling:
1 medium butternut chopped
1 tbs chopped sage
1 tbs nutritional yeast
1/4 cup stock
1/4 cup oil
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 tbs olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
Salt and Pepper

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees, in a large mixing bowl, combine the pumpkin in the 1tbs of oil, garlic, salt and pepper, toss until the pumpkin is evenly coated. Place the pumpkin on a baking tray and bake for 45 mins – 1 hr.

2. Meanwhile, make the dough for the pasta. Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, add the wet ingredients and mix well until the mixture forms a dough. cover the dough and set aside for half an hour.

3. Once your pumpkin is roasted, remove it from the oven and mash it, add the sage, walnuts, oil, vegetable stock, and nutritional yeast, mix well to combine. Set aside until your pasta is ready to fill.

6. Once the pasta dough has ‘rested’ roll it out with a rolling pin and then run it through your pasta machine as directed with the machine instructions. Once the pasta is rolled thinly enough place it in rows along a floured surface. Place 1/2 tbs sized portions of the pumpkin mixture about 4cm apart along one edge of the pasta as shown in the pictures below. Fold the sheet of pasta over to cover. You may need to use a small amount of water to seal the pasta around the pumpkin. Cut with a ravioli spindle (or just a knife if you don’t have a cutter).

8. Add your ravioli to a large pot of salted boiling water and cook for 4-5 minutes. Strain well.

9. Put the ravioli on a plate, top with your sauce, garnish with parsley and eat!

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The Aztec Superseed

[tweetmeme source="VeganChickie"]Today I’d like to welcome my dear friend, and first time Vegan Chickie guest blogger, Nathan from blog – of – nathan. Be sure to head over to her blog to check out the adventures of Nathan and Frankie, as well as all sorts of other wonderful things like vegan recipes, product reviews and lots more.

CHIA POWER

There is a new super food being talked about but it’s not really new. Chia was cultivated by the Aztecs, Mayas and other tribes, and the Chia plant has been used by humans for centuries and is making a comeback around the world for a good reason: Chia is the highest known plant source of Omega-3 (8 times more than salmon!) and unlike other sources of this important essential fatty acid (eg. flaxseed and fish), it is highly stable due to its powerful naturally occurring antioxidants.

Chia is also a good source of potassium, phosphorous, folate, zinc, fibre, Vitamins A, B12 & C, and a great source of 18 amino acids. Chia seeds are packed with complete protein and 5 times more calcium than milk, 6 times more fibre than oatbran, 3 times more iron than spinach, 15 times more magnesium than broccoli and an ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) value 4 times higher than blueberries!

Chia is a more sustainable environmentally friendly agricultural choice for farmers being a bug-resistant arid crop producing seed even with limited water, and was so revered by the Aztecs as a source of supernatural energy and power that it was used as money!

How to Use Chia Seeds

There are unlimited ways to incorporate Chia seeds into your diet. You can substitute Chia seeds in any recipe that calls for flax seeds. You can sprinkle ground Chia seeds or whole Chia seeds on cereal or on salads or eat a handful of whole seeds as a snack.

One of the easiest ways to incorporate Chia seed into your diet is to use it as a garnish. Simply sprinkle 1 teaspoon of whole seeds into foods. You can also add one tablespoon Chia seed into a 250ml glass of water or juice, stir, let sit about five minutes, stir again, and then drink.

Chia Gel

You can use Chia seeds to make a gel, which can then be added to spreads, smoothies, cereals, etc. You can mix the Chia gel with all kinds of foods, thereby increasing flavour, fibre and nutrition, while reducing calories and fat. Always keep Chia gel on hand to mix in a variety of things. Chia gel can be used to replace oils in most baking recipes that call for oil or butter. It can also replace eggs in many recipes.

Mix 1 part Chia seeds to 9 parts water.
Whisk to break up any clumping and let stand 15 minutes.
Whisk again then place in an airtight container and refrigerate.
Will keep up to 3 weeks.

Chia Spread

100g chia gel
100g softened margarine or vegan replacement
Place Chia gel in a blender and blend until smooth.
Add softened butter or vegan replacement and blend until smooth.
Place in airtight container and use as you would normal butter from toast to melting for popcorn!

Chia Chiller Recipe

2 Cups Chia Gel
1 Cup fresh fruit, juiced
Pulp from juiced fruit
Mix the gel, fruit juice and pulp together and place in freezer for 1 hour and serve.
Use more than one fruit for this desert and enjoy!

Nathan bought her bag of Chia (pictured above) for just $8 for 250g.

For more information including distribution visit http://www.powersuperfoods.com.au/chia-seeds.html