Whether it’s starting to feel like spring in your world or you’re feeling the winter storms drag on, this smoothie’s tropical notes will have you doing your happy dance.
One of the main things to dance about may just be that this week’s blend is completely and utterly whole.
Say wha?
There are no processed ingredients, nothing with additives and everything’s raw. You may think, “Well, that’s how all my smoothies are!” and you may be right if you’re someone who makes their own almond milk or simply doesn’t use any kind of milk as the liquid component in your smoothies. But if you do use store-bought milks, they’re far from “whole food”.
It’s all well and good if you’re from both camps, it’s just interesting to be aware of hidden processed ingredients.
Here’s what’s in the unsweetened almond milk I sometimes use:
almond base (filtered water, whole almonds), tricalcium phosphate, canola lecithin and/or sunflower lecithin, tapioca starch, salt, gelatin gum, natural flavour, carageenan, sodium bicarbonate, vitamin A palmitate, zinc gluconate, riboflavin, vitamin D2, Vitamin B12.
Now, many of these sub-ingredients are benign and even helpful, but some of them aren’t. So if you’re into simplifying, using almonds and water in your blender may just be the way to go. Never hurts to try.
Ditto for coconut milk. A Thai-inspired solution is below for that one!
Ingredients
Go organic! Makes one serving.
1 medium navel orange, peeled, no seeds
½ cup chopped pineapple
½ cup young Thai coconut meat
1 inch chunk of peeled ginger
2-3 basil leaves
1 Tbsp hemp hearts
1½ cup filtered water
Blend until smooth and add more water as needed.
Young Thai coconut meat is available in most health food and grocery stores and is usually kept in the freezer section. You can sometimes find young Thai coconuts in the produce section, too, if you want to get freaky hacking them open in the kitchen.
For more fabulous blender creations check the Smooth Operator archives.
