A breakfast packed full of leafy greens, quality carbs and healthy fats? Here it is!
INGREDIENTS
1 cup water
1 banana
1/2 cup kale
1/2 cup baby spinach
1/2 cup cucumber, chopped
1/2 green apple
1 banana, chopped
1/4 cup rolled oats
1 Tbsp chia seeds
1 cup ice cubes
DIRECTIONS
Roughly chop all the fruit and vegetables.
Place the water, kale, spinach, cucumber and chia into a blender and blend until smooth.
Add the remaining ingredients continue blending until very smooth.
TAMARAS' TIP:
For a slightly thicker, colder version, freeze the banana.
This recipe is featured in our Books.
A word from Tamara Lee
This smoothie is one of my faves, I just love the beetroot / frozen banana / cacao combo. Fresh beetroot is a powerful food for cleansing and supporting liver function, so it’s great to start the day off with it. Add it with frozen banana and cacao and you’ve got a powerful cherry ripe tasting smoothie. Ooh yeah, so delish. Dammit. Now I’m distracted thinking about Raw Cherry Ripe Slice. But I don’t have any on hand at the moment so I’d better snap out of it because I want to talk about Hemp Seeds, since there’s quite alot of controversy surrounding them at the moment. Hemp seeds contain one of the highest sources of plant based protein, but are not recommended for human consumption in Australia. Actually, the government requires all hemp products for sale to be labelled with this warning, and the consequences for retailers failing to comply are massive (up to $250,000 fine!). However, Australia and New Zealand are the only countries in the world that require retailers to carry this warning. Hemp has been used as a food source for thousands of years, and that’s not likely to change any time soon. Because at 37% protein, the amino acid profile of hemp seeds is comparable to other sources of protein such as meat, milk, eggs and soy. Which, when living on a mostly vegan diet, finding quality sources of plant protein is pretty important. FSANZ (Food Standards Australia and New Zealand) prohibits all species of Cannabis from being added to food or sold as food in Australia and New Zealand. So most unfortunately, this includes hemp seeds too. In 2012, FSANZ recommended that Hemp be approved as a food source. The FSANZ report stated that: 1) Foods derived from Hemp seeds may provide a useful dietary source of many nutrients and polyunsaturated fatty acids, particularly omega-3 fatty acids. 2) Hemp seed food was different to marijuana and did not contain enough of the psychoactive ingredient known as THC to make consumers high. 3) Hemp Foods have no psychoactive properties and could not be detectable in drug tests. 4) Hemp grows distinctively different to Marijuana and would easily be detectable by drug enforcement agencies. The Forum has rejected the FSANZ’s recommendation to approve hemp as a food source, but I hear whispers through the grapevine that hemp products may become legalised as a food source soon. I’ll keep my fingers crossed. But as of today’s post, they’re not. It’s up to you if you’d like to consider hemp as a food source or not. If you decide not to, then use chia seeds in place of hemp for this recipe and save the hemp seeds for me!
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