Recipe: Frozen Fruit Smoothie #2

 

Fruits are thought to be one of the healthy components of the traditional Mediterranean diet. Try this smoothie for dessert instead of calorie-laden items like pie, cake, cookies, and ice cream. Unlike this smoothie, those aren’t very nutrient-dense, either. Since I provide the nutritional analysis below, you can easily incorporate this into the Low-Carb Mediterranean Diet.

At the Parker Compound, we mix this in a Vitamix. Other devices may work, but I’m not familiar with them.

Ingredients

1 cup (240 ml) frozen raspberries

1/2 cup (120 ml) frozen blueberries

1 cup (240 ml) frozen strawberries

1 frozen banana (7 inches or 18 cm), cut into 3–4 pieces

1 tbsp (13 g) chia seeds

1 handful (1/2 ounce?) raw kale

2.5 cups (590 ml) water

1 cup (240 ml) ice cubes

Instructions

First item into the Vitamix is the water, then banana, all berries, chia seeds, then top off with the ice. Start mixing on variable speed 1 then slowly increase spin rate to 10, for a total mix of 45–60 seconds. Soon after you get started you’ll probably have to use the “plunger” a few times to un-clump the top items.

Depending on your batch of fruits, this drink may not be as sweet as you like. You could easily sweeten it up with your favorite artificial non-caloric sweetener. I used 1.5 tsp (7.5 ml) of Truvia to good effect, just thrown in with every thing else before or after the primary mix. Or you could use table sugar, about 4 tsp (20 ml), instead of the Truvia. Most of us eat too much sugar. If you go the sugar route, you’ll increase the calories per serving by 7, and increase carbohydrate grams by 2 per serving.

Number of Servings: 7 servings of 6 fl oz (175 ml) each

Nutritional Analysis per Serving:

7% fat

90% carbohydrate

3% protein

100 calories

23 g carbohydrate

3 g fiber

20 g digestible carbohydrate

3 mg sodium

150 mg potassium

Prominent features: Fair dose of vitamin C, homeopathic amounts of sodium

Steve Parker, M.D.

PS: I credit my wife with this recipe.