My go-to green smoothie
This is the smoothie I make most often. It’s all plant food and so has a low number of kilojoules, yet delivers some serious nutrition. It has B group vitamins for energy, folate for cell protection, vitamin C for immune function and healthy skin, antioxidants galore for antiageing and it even has almost 2mg of iron. All up it’s a fantastic addition to your daily Get Lean, Stay Lean menu plan.
SERVES 1 TIME 5 MINUTES DAIRY- AND GLUTEN-FREE, NUTFREE, SUITABLE FOR VEGETARIANS AND VEGANS
½ celery stalk
½ Lebanese (short) cucumber
20g baby English spinach leaves
1 thin slice of lemon
6 mint leaves small handful flat-leaf (Italian) parsley leaves
80g (½ cup) fresh or frozen pineapple pieces (see note) a few ice cubes Put all the ingredients into a Vitamix or high-speed blender with 250ml (9 fl oz/1 cup) of water and the ice on top. Blitz for about a minute or until completely smooth. Note You might not think of a pineapple automatically when we list superfoods, but there’s more to this tropical fruit than you might realise. A cup of pineapple chunks provides you with over 60 per cent of your RDI for vitamin C. Since we know vitamin C aids in the absorption of plant iron, adding some pineapple to smoothies like I have done here, or to a legume or quinoa salad will boost your uptake of iron from these foods. I always chop up my pineapples soon after purchase so they are ready to eat immediately. I keep one tub in the fridge for using fresh over the next few days and pop the rest, ready in ice cube-sized chunks, into zip-lock bags in my freezer. These are ideal for then using in your smoothie and frozen dessert recipes.