Juice Boost: Post #1 - Blueberry Smoothie with a Difference

 

 

Much has been said and written about the health benefits of juicing.  Our family started a regular juicing routine when we bought a Ladyship super blender last year.

Now let me tell you, this thing blends EVERYTHING into a pulp.  No joke. I could load it up to the max, sometimes even more than that, press auto, count to 20, and the whole stuff is liquidized. I LOVE it!



This photo shows a different recipe for juicing.  I just wanted to post it to show the
 blender and the "horsepower".  I loaded the quantity of ingredients to the max.
See the flow of the juice that comes out - fast and furious! 

 

The bad news is it costs a bomb. But if you are into regular and heavy duty juicing, I would highly recommend this. The best thing is the clean up. If you hate waste and love fiber, use the blender without the filter and that means you only need to wash the jug. If you want pure juice, add in the filter mesh, and you only have TWO things to wash - the jug and the filter mesh.  Simple.  No multiple parts to rinse, scrub, soak etc, unlike the conventional juicer.

 

The twist to this smoothie is the addition of ginger juice.  Did I hear someone just say "ewwww!"?  LOL, don't worry, you won't be able to taste it at all (make sure you use young ginger).  The sweetness of the other ingredients will mask any gingery aftertaste. 

 

 

I like to add ginger juice as it removes any "wind" factor (some people are susceptible to having "wind" from freshly blended juice), and it perks up the drink nicely (ie minimises the "heaviness" of the smoothie).  Healthwise, well, there's plenty of writeup already about the health benefits of consuming ginger.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blueberry Smoothie with a difference 
Serves 3-4

 

• 150g of fresh blueberries
• 1 tsp of young ginger juice
• 1 ripened large banana
• A few sprigs of fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
• 1/2 tbspn brown sugar
• 2 small tubs of blueberry yogurt (I use Marigold, and the standard size tub of 135g each)
• 1 cup low fat milk
• 1/2 cup of boiled, room temperature water

1.  Rinse the blueberries and add into the blender.

2.  Grate some young ginger and squeeze to make 1 tsp.  Pour into the blender.

3.  Add the rest of the ingredients into the blender and blitz until smooth.  Serve immediately or chilled. 

I made the ginger juice using this nifty little gadget.  My mum bought it for me 
from Hong Kong and it's superb for churning out small quantities of mush. 
For this recipe, i just rub a small piece of ginger on the sharp, tiny razor-like teeth,
and it turns the whole thing into liquidised mush in seconds. 
 Something like a mini microplane grater.  Not sure if it's available locally.

Note 1: If you like your smoothie thick, just omit the water. I didn't add ice cubes as I am also serving this to my son.