Green Caribbean Smoothie

You will remember the other day I posted my Caribbean smoothie, this is a slight take on that recipe by just adding spinach! Yes, spinach! The news is riddled with articles about green vegetables and how they are so good for you. I was reading an article in Natural Health magazine about the top 5 nutritionally-dense varieties, which are broccoli, cabbage, spinach, leeks and kale. 

Kale can be an acquired taste, I've used it in stir fries, bubble and squeak and curry's but it also makes a wonderful crisp! Yep you read that right, a crisp, Kale Chips are very expensive to buy but so easy to make. I'll post a recipe here soon. Kale is very easy to grow too so not only is it good for you but cheap too!

Leeks are wonderful, I've used them in everything from stir fries to pies and even on their own as a side dish, I don't know anyone that doesn't like leeks apart from hubby of course who is adverse to vegetables unless he doesn't know there an ingredient in what he's eating! Sshhhh

Spinach is great! Even cartoon characters love it, remember Popeye? What more evidence do you need to know its good for you. I use this vegetable a lot and once again its very easy to grow. Its a win win!

Cabbage isn't my favourite vegetable in the world but it makes a great coleslaw and again I've thrown it into stir fries. In fact I haven't cooked with it much at all, until I bought one in the knock down section of the supermarket and made it the main ingredient. Check out my cabbage rolls, I posted some time back, they were delicious. I must experiment with this bad boy and see what else I can cook.

Broccoli has so many health rewards, its perfect for boosting your immune system, just don't over cook this veg, which is easily done. The best way to cook it is to lightly steam it, or use it in a stir fry. Boiling it will only make it go mushy and it will lose most of its health benefits.

It has been reported that some of the health benefits for these veg include:

Cholestrol-lowering (Cabbage)
Preventing heart disease (Spinach)
Energy production (Leeks)
Some evidence of preventing certain cancers (Kale, Spinach)
Fight of sniffles (Broccoli)

I'm not a nutritionalist or doctor so it's not research I have undertaken myself but there is lots for you to read out there and I think there has to be something in all this fuss - right? You are what you eat after all!


Over the next coming weeks I will blog some recipes that showcase these power vegetables, but for a starter for ten why don't you try my Caribbean Green Smoothie?

To make this green smoothie use the recipe for my Caribbean Pineapple Smoothie and add a handful of spinach and 2 tablespoons of vanilla soya yoghurt. You won't taste the spinach.