I've had a lot of vegan smoothies in the past few years. Most good and a few certainly not so good. One thing I've always wanted to try was a smoothie that tasted like a mint shake. Something nice, cold, creamy and sweet with a great mint taste. Yum!
Chocolate and strawberry shake-like smoothies were aplenty but the same couldn't be said much for mint. I was usually the odd one out who opted for mint ice cream while most others got the usual safe bets, chocolate, vanilla, maybe a cookies & cream or rocky road here and there. But I know I'm not the only one!
What's great about this smoothie is that what makes it sweet are whole raw fruits and what makes it green are nutrient packed vegetables.
Frozen bananas are used as a main ingredient and, if you're a bit experienced in the realm of raw vegan treats, are a main recipe for vegan ice cream. Just freeze some bananas, blend them up, and you have easy ice cream right there. But you can add so many other ingredients for different flavors and levels of sweetness and texture. It is no surprise that a nice sweet smoothie can be made simply by adding some liquid while blending this banana "nice" cream.
I always try to add at least a handful of greens to my smoothies though sometimes more as long as I add more fruit. This is really no problem on a raw vegan, low fat, high carb diet. Other times known as an 80/10/10 diet most of your calories are derived from fresh raw fruits which are really the ideal food of choice for humans. I recommend you look into it. Since this is the case, as long as you keep healthy fats minimal, and make sure to get some greens, you can have as much fruit as your mouth, heart, and tummy desires! You should be enjoying yourself and you will when you follow your sweet tooth.
Anyway, what particularly gives this smoothie a great green color is a mix of dark green spirulina powder and lighter green moringa powder. Spirulina is a sea algea and is a great source of raw vegan B-12 (though your system produces all the B12 you need, but might be compromised in absorbing it). Moringa Oleifera is a plant that comes from Africa sometimes called "The Miracle Tree", and for good reason. Not only is it a complete protein but it also contains nearly every necessary nutrient for the human body. Every single part of this plant is edible and it is highly prolific growing in all kinds of conditions. No wonder it's being used to help with starvation in less fortunate areas. I also throw in some extra fresh whole greens if available or a few kale stalks that I always make sure to save and put to use.
Lastly to make it sort of like a mint chocolate chip smoothie I added some chia seeds! A great source of healthy fats and good texture as well. You can have them crunchy by blending them in at the end and sprinkling on top. Or, for another fun texture you can soak them in water before blending (or, less recommended, leave to soak in the smoothie if you can stand the wait) to have them swell up and become soft, and delightfully gooey. Feel free to throw in healthy raw and/or vegan chocolate chips or cacao nibs too. Aside from the mint and green color (and even then) smoothie recipes are pretty variable. Now on to the recipe below.
- 2 frozen bananas
- 1/2 tsp moringa powder
- 1/2 tsp spirulina powder
- 8-10 g fresh mint leaves (or about 10+ leaves and stalks or more to taste)
- If you don't have fresh mint (ideal) you can use about 1/4-1/2 capful of mint extract. No more than 1/4 tsp I would say. Be careful, it's strong.
- 1/2-3/4 cup purified water* Adjust to the consistency you like which will be affected by the size of bananas
- You can use a vegan milk alternative instead of water + hemp seeds**
- 2-4 tbsp hemp seeds (helps with creaminess)
- You can also use other nuts like cashews, almonds, walnuts. Though soaking them for 4 hours or overnight helps with blending (and you can use the soak water if you want)***
- 3-6 dates (deglett noor size) Soak in water a few hours or overnight to ease blending. Use the soak water for the recipe as well.
- You can use other sweeteners as well like raw agave nectar, maple syrup, raw honey, green stevia, etc.****
- 1 tsp chia seeds (soaked or plain) blended in at the end plus more to top if you desire
- (Optional) Small handful of greens or leftover kale stalks*****
- (Optional) 1/2 tsp maca powder
- (Optional) 1/2 tsp flax seed
**All that vegan milk consists of is a ratio of about 3/4 water and 1/4 nuts/seeds. I don't buy or make much vegan milk anymore but you can always blend up it's consistency during many recipes which is simple, more raw/healthy, and cheap.
*** Soaking nuts and seeds (and grains and legumes) helps them become more digestible, more nutritionally absorb-able, and easier to blend. Partly because this process removes phytochemicals from the food which inhibit nutrient absorption. Of course these phytochemicals stay in the soak water so if you want to take it a step further, per what works best for you, discard the soak water.
****You can use any sweetener on the health spectrum for you but dates are a whole, raw way to sweeten and so are the ideal choice in my opinion
*****Always use organic ingredients as much as you are able. With greens in particular as they are generally more pesticide-laden and don't have a protective peel that you discard.
So there you have it. Try it out, enjoy, and let me know how you like it or if you have any questions or comments about this smoothie, smoothies in general, or anything else! I'm new to the blogging realm so any general, preferably less objective, feedback if you feel it would help is welcome as well.
So there you have it. Try it out, enjoy, and let me know how you like it or if you have any questions or comments about this smoothie, smoothies in general, or anything else! I'm new to the blogging realm so any general, preferably less objective, feedback if you feel it would help is welcome as well.
