Our new favourite smoothie
Whenever I’m feeling tired (well, more tired than usual, considering I have a toddler who sleeps in my bed and wakes to breastfeed during the night) or perhaps a little poorly, I find myself craving big, energising drinks. Things like vegetable juices, made with carrot + celery + beetroot + ginger + lemon, and smoothies. I have no doubt my desire for fluids is because I often struggle to drink enough during the day, particularly since Walt has been wanting more and more breastmilk lately. Drinking an enormous, vatful quantity of liquid just feels so darn good in my body.
Last week, when I found myself yet again throwing the same ingredients into our blender to make the same tremendously energising and satisfying smoothie, I thought it was time to write it up. Our new favourite smoothie uses frozen banana (I rarely make a smoothie without one), dates (ditto) and almond butter and is, overall, very similar to one of the smoothie recipes in my book; however, this recipe contains frozen cauliflower. Have you heard about adding frozen cauliflower to smoothies? It’s a thing. Why on earth is it a thing, you might ask? Well, if you’re a fan of thick + cool smoothies (like I am), a little frozen cauliflower helps your smoothie to become thicker + cooler. Neat, hey? Be sure to linger on that word “little”, though. You see, if you add too much cauliflower it will indeed feel as though you’re drinking cauliflower, which isn’t a particularly pleasant experience. I follow Weelicious’s advice and add around 1/4 cup or 1 large frozen floret per smoothie. This amount allows the cauliflower to slip in and do its thing without leaving an after taste. I still add frozen banana to my smoothies because I believe it is the ultimate thickener + chiller (and I also love love love the flavour) but I am now firmly on board with adding frozen cauliflower to smoothies. It also ups the nutrient quality of your drink, which I appreciate.
Oh and here is a link to the smoothie cup Walt is using in the picture above. I bought two of these tumblers a little while ago so we would have something reusable to take when purchasing veggie juice. They’re quite big, but the kiddos manage to use them just fine.
Banana, Cauliflower + Almond Butter Smoothie
This portion makes enough for me and my two kiddos. If you want a smaller serve for one person, halve the recipe.
INGREDIENTS
2 medium-sized ripe frozen bananas
2 medium-sized florets of frozen raw cauliflower
1 medjool date, pitted
2 tablespoons hemp seeds
2 tablespoons natural (i.e. 100% nuts) almond butter*
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 & 1/3 cup milk** unsweetened oat, almond or cashew milk
Optional (highly recommended): 1 tablespoon raw cacao powder***
* I totally get why people use peanut butter in place of almond butter in recipes (almond butter is much pricier, for one,) however, the almond flavour really works wonderfully here, so I encourage you to not make that substitution.
** I tend to use unsweetened almond or oat milk in smoothies these days. If you like your smoothie on the sweet side and are using cows milk (which tends to be less sweet than non-dairy milks) you may wish to add another date.
*** I usually serve Walt and Joan’s portion before adding a hefty tablespoon of raw cacao powder to my portion (blitzing it once more to incorporate). Raw cacao powder contains some caffeine and while I appreciate it (like, so much), I don’t think that is something they need.
METHOD: add the ingredients to a high-powered blender and blitz until smooth. Pour into cups and serve.