Berry Upbeet Smoothie
It’s Springtime here in the Pacific Northwest and we’ve been having great weather! The sunshine and a backyard to enjoy it in has certainly made this season easier on us. With the warmer weather and limited grocery store trips, we’ve been drinking a lot of smoothies lately! Favorite flavor according to my three-year-old these days is “pink”, haha. While we do drink smoothies of over colors (and flavors), she happy to drink up pretty much any smoothie that is perfectly pink.
This request makes it a little challenging to boost nutrient density because adding greens like spinach or kale or green powders like spirulina or cholera will produce a muddy brown color when mixed with berries that would not satisfy my toddler. In this smoothie, I’ve added a few other veggies and nutrient dense options that boost the nutrient without compromising the color or taste. Both of my kids will gladly guzzle this smoothie down!
The lovely pink color comes from the berries, as well as another surprising smoothie ingredient - beets! This root vegetable is packed with essential nutrients and is a great source of fiber, folate, manganese, potassium, iron, and vitamin C. Eating beets is a great way to boost your digestion (steaming or roasting them makes them easier to digest) and immune system as well (which we could all use right now). I would recommend you start of with a smaller amount of beets in this smoothie and work up as desired - beets can have a strong “dirt-like” flavor that can easily overwhelm a smoothie. Another vegetable I put in many of our smoothies is frozen cauliflower, it has a subtle taste and no color, but plenty of fiber and nutrients. Cauliflower is a good source of fiber, vitamin C, vitamin K, choline, and B vitamins that help keep you and your family healthy and thriving.
Ingredients:
2 -3 slices of steamed and frozen beets (round 1/4 inch slices)
1 cup of frozen mixed berries
1/4 cup of riced cauliflower
1 banana (frozen optional)
1.5 - 2 of milk based on thickness preference (I used homemade cashew milk)
3 tablespoons of hemp hearts
1 tablespoon of collagen peptides (optional for added protein)
Instructions:
Combine all ingredients in a high powered smoothie.
Blend until smooth.
Enjoy!
