spruced by marlene

It’s nothing personal. Really, I don’t have anything against spinach. No traumatic memories of a childhood spent pushing away the greens on my dinner plate. No particular dislike of the taste. No aversion against the consistency of cooked spinach. It’s just that I can think of roughly 12 other vegetables I’d rather eat.

And 40 things I’d rather put in a smoothie. Like blueberries. Or bananas. Strawberrys. Ice cream. Chocolate sprinkles. Maybe it’s the colour of a spinach smoothie that I find off-putting. That green doesn’t just look healthy to me, but as though it tastes healthy. And by healthy I mean like an obligation. So, no thanks.

But then I discovered Ella Woodward’s blog.

Her long, and interesting, story in short: after being diagnosed with a rare nerve disease, and conventional medicine didn’t help her get better, she switched to a plant-based whole food diet. You can read about the effect that had and still has on her health here.

I wasn’t looking to make that drasting a change to the way I eat, I just wanted to try some new, simple and, yes, healthy recipes, because: I rarely have time to cook elaborate meals, I have a nine month old baby who is very interested in eating everything that’s on our plates and I still carry around an extra ten kilos as a lovely reminder of my pregnancy.

Everything I’ve tried from Ella’s cookbook so far has been easy and good. Even the spinach smoothie. What convinced me to try it was that she adds avocado. If I could, I’d eat avocado for breakfast, lunch and dinner, pureed, cut or mushed. So why not as a drink? Ella also blends in apples and pears, so the taste isn’t at all bitter, but rather sweet. And in fact delicious. Come to think of it, not very much like spinach at all.

What about you? Green smothies – yes or no? What recipes do you like?