The perfect beet smoothie is cold, refreshing, and blended with just the right amount of other fruits and vegetables to either enhance or mask the flavor of the beets…depending on whether or not you like beets in the first place.
And obviously, in order to make a beet smoothie, you will need some beets, right?!
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The Beets
You don’t want to mess up your perfect beet smoothie by using imperfect beets…
When shopping for beets, choose early-crop beets that are about 2-3″ in diameter….that are heavy for their size…and still have fresh green leafy tops.
You will need about half of a small beet per smoothie, adding more depending on whether or not you like the flavor.
You could also use canned beets or beet powder, depending on how strong your aversion against processed foods may be.
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Additional Ingredients
In addition to beets, you will also need other fruits and veggies in order to neutralize the beet flavor…but as far as which fruits and veggies to use, feel free to experiment.
Fruits and veggies that you might consider include…
- apples
- bananas
- blackberries
- blueberries
- carrots or carrot juice
- celery
- leafy greens—such as kale or spinach)
- microgreens—such as sunflower sprouts…(more on this later)
- pineapples
- raspberries
- strawberries
In addition, you might want to consider using Greek Yogurt, honey, or spices—such as ginger or cinnamon
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Prepating the Beets
You could use either cooked or raw beets, but using raw beets is probably a better bet because cooking them takes away some of their nutritional value.
Regardless as to whether or not you cook your beets, first remove the leaves from the beet and peel it with a vegetable peeler….ccut into small-medium chunks….and add to the blender.
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The Ingredients
- 1C peeled and chopped raw beets…about one small beet
- 1C frozen strawberries, blueberries, or mixed berries
- 1 peeled and frozen banana
- 1 tbsp hulled hemp seeds
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1 tbsp chia seeds, hempseed, or ground flax seeds
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1-2tsp honey to make smoothie taste sweeter
- 1/2C milk or unsweetened dairy free milk
- 1/4 C Greek yogurt
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The Method
Remove the leaves from the beet. Peel it with a vegetable peeler. Cut into small chunks. Add to the blender.
Add the rest of the ingredients.
It may take a bit more blending than usual to get all the beet bits finely blended, especially if you don;t have a high-powered blender such as Vitamix or Blend-tec…or like me, don’t want to spend the money on one and don’t want it to take up that much valuable counter space…
If you’re not using a blender that you seriously had to think hard about buying, first grate your beets instead of cutting them into chunks. This will make blending your smoothie together much easier.
Another option would be to use cooked beets, which you can find in the produce section of most grocery stores these days…
It may take a bit more blending than usual to get all the beet bits finely blended.
Add the other “stuff.”
Cover the blender. Blend until smooth.
Taste the smoothie and see if is sweet enough. If not, add more fruit, sugar or sugar substitute, or honey.
