A new smoothie

So I was weeding the vegetable patch yesterday, in the cool of the afternoon, and I pulled up some beetroot, which I thought had succumb to the heat of summer. They had wilted, tiny leaves. But to my surprise they had small bulbs, and I thought of what I could make with such a meagre offering from the garden.

A recent post from a friend, had me contemplating a beetroot smoothie the following morning. So that's what I did. I cleaned, boiled and then removed the skin of the beetroot.

Ready to go

Now I don't have a fancy piece of equipment to make smoothies with, so in the past, they've been kind of chunky, with my regular blender. My Bamix stick-blender, on the other hand, probably had more chop. So I decided to give it an extra helping hand, by cooking the beetroot first and making it easier to pulverise.

 Frozen, cooked and raw ingredients

I sliced the cooled beetroot, got some frozen strawberries from the freezer, and readied a small portion of cashews for protein and healthy fats. From experience, I knew I had to help the cashews break down easier too. So in came the handy grinder, which attaches to my stick blender.

First grind

This made a rough meal, to which I added a teaspoon of flax seeds. After a bit more whizzing, it broke it down into a smoother meal. Flax seeds are a good source of manganese, vitamin B1 and Omega 3 fatty acids.

 Finished meal

Then it was time to load up my tall jug with everything, and see what my stick blender could do. I changed attachments of course, and ditched the grinder. As it whizzed around in the jug, I added some water and apple juice, to make it less thick and a little bit sweeter too. But not too sweet. I found it did need the apple juice to connect all the flavours.

 A beautiful red smoothie for breakfast

The texture was the best I've managed with my limited equipment before. Not chunky, just not liquid smooth. My taste tester, was delightfully enthusiastic as well.

What is this delightful concoction?

Not that you can tell by the picture, because it looks more like an impersonation of Heath Ledger's, Joker, from "The Dark Knight" movie, don't you think? Peter really liked it and so did I. It gave me quite a buzz for the morning. I also used the leftover beetroot juice, for mixing into our chicken feed. What was left of the beetroot leaves, also went to the chickens.

So I reckon I got my value's worth, from two surprise morsels in the weed patch vegetable garden.