By Ria Cox, keen family cook and food enthusiast.
It’s February, a time to continue embracing the healthy eating, resolutions and the best intentions. We’ve all been there and it’s easy to find healthy eating a faff – it’s then that temptation kicks in and we reach for the biscuits or crisps. Here then, is a smoothie recipe that’s big on taste, super-healthy AND is so simple to make, in just a couple of minutes.
Serves: 1
Preparation time: 2 minutes
Blending time: 30-60 seconds
Difficulty: 1 out of 5
Ingredients
- big handful of spinach
- 1 banana, chopped (you can use the brownest one, it’ll add sweetness)
- ½ cup of coconut water
- 1 tsp of fat free Greek yoghurt
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
Method
- Tear up the spinach leaves and place in your blender/smoothie maker
- Add in banana, coconut water, a generous scoop of Greek yoghurt and chia seeds
- Put the lid on and blend until the leaves have broken down
Presentation
- Serve in your favourite glass with a straw
Top Tip: As with all smoothie recipes, you can tweak the flavours and consistency. The addition of chia seeds has become very popular recently. Adding chia seeds can give you a boost; chia seeds are among the most nutritious foods on the planet, although I’ve yet to see any proven studies of some of the more miraculous claims. What I can be sure of is that chia seeds are loaded with fibre, protein, Omega-3 fatty acids and a number of other micronutrients.
Adding up to two tablespoons for a healthy dose of omega-3’s, protein, calcium, phosphorus and manganese is a great addition. Adding too much chia, however, can make your smoothie somewhat gelatinous, whilst adding too much fat to your smoothie, making digestion difficult. If you want to use chia seeds in your smoothies, I’d recommend soaking the whole seeds for about 5 minutes in 1 part seeds to 3 parts water just prior to blending. This keeps the chia seeds as a whole food up until you consume it (this reduces oxidation) and soaking improves digestibility, as well as enhancing the moisture content.
