Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

Smoothies

Super Smoothie: The Goji Beetroot Blast

Charlie Richards, John Lewis Smoothies

Recently, I was invited along to the Waitrose Test Kitchen to create my ultimate super smoothie recipe for the John Lewis website. Images courtesy of Charlie Richards. Smoothie styling by Cynthia Blackett. Recipe by Ren for John Lewis. 

Charlie Richards, John Lewis Smoothies

Move over clean eating, the new kid on the block is wellbeing. This is good news, because it means we can move away from ruling things out, and instead, focus on the good stuff that we can put in to keep ourselves nourished, well and happy.

I was very excited to be invited along to the Waitrose Test Kitchen by the John Lewis team – cue shelves packed with colour-coded cookbooks, and a workspace filled to the brim with fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and a selection of alternative milks plus an array of mixers and blenders for us to try out.

Here are some smoothie-making tips:

  • Add a small amount of liquid to your chosen blender first to help everything blend well and add more at the end to get the consistency you require.
  • Fruit smoothies can be sweetened with fresh or frozen berries and a squeeze of honey – keep small bags of pre-prepared fruit and veg in the freezer ready to whiz up into instantly in a high-powered blender.
  • Creamy smoothies, such as smoothies blended with banana, go well with dates, honey and almond, coconut or oat milk.
  • One of my favourite smoothie secret ingredients is half  an avocado, peeled and stoned which lends extra silkiness plus a boost of good fats. You’ll never know it’s in there.
  • Sprinkle in nuts, seeds and powders, such as spiriluna or stir in a little nut butter for an extra protein boost. If adding chia seeds, flax or spirulina – do so carefully and sparingly. A little goes a long way.
  • Experiment with adding organic, natural yoghurt or kefir for better digestion and gut health.
  • Add a variety of fruits/vegetables or greens and try and vary the textures. Dried fruit, such as goji berries, work too and add a great boost.
  • A cube or two of ice can help to keep your smoothie fresh and cool.
  • Experiment with nutritional extras such as a little bit of grated fresh ginger, mint, spinach, unsweetened cocoa powder, a pinch of cinnamon or ground turmeric powder – depending on your base ingredients. Check out our varied super charged smoothies here for more ideas.

So, our challenge was to get creative and to blend our own recipe inspired by the freshness in front of us – our signature smoothie perhaps – which was then be beautifully styled by Cynthia Blackett and professionally shot by by Charlie Richards.

And ta-dah – here is my recipe creation for John Lewis, full of goodness – beetroot, avocado, goji berries, raspberries, strawberries, a dash of almond milk and a squeeze of lime.

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Ren's Goji Beetroot Blast 

Yield 1 smoothie

A super-charged smoothie, featured by John Lewis.com 

Ingredients

20 raspberries (frozen, ideally)

10-12 Waitrose LOVE life dried goji berries

5 strawberries

1 small cooked beetroot (not in vinegar)

1/2 avocado, peeled, stone removed

A squeeze of fresh lime

125ml almond milk (or more depending on thickness)

1 ice cube

Instructions

Place all the ingredients into a high-powered blender. Blend until smooth, adding a dash more almond milk if required.

With thanks to John Lewis for the invitation to this smoothie and #MyWellBeing event. I received a fee for taking part.

Breville Blend-Active – Review & Giveaway

Our kitchen at home has seen a variety of full-sized blenders over the years, and as the number of blender attachments and features increases, so does the counter space required. I was keen to buy a smaller blender, ideally one that would be perfect for the children’s increased consumption of blended fruit smoothies over the school holidays!

After hearing good things from friends about the Breville Blend-Active blender (also known as the Breville Blend-Active Personal Blender) we purchased one at 10% off the £29.99 RRP (update: at the time of posting this review, they are available at 25% off here). It came with a one-year guarantee, and the bottles are certified BPA-free.

Breville Blend-Active Blender

Included by Breville in the Blend-Active box were the 300W blender motor base, the removable blade unit, and two 600ml bottles with sports-style lockable lids. Extra 600ml bottles for the Blend-Active are available from Breville direct and cost £10 each. As advised in the manual – and you would anyway! – I used soapy water to wash the parts of the Blend-Active where food would make contact, and I wiped down the base with a damp cloth to clean. Useful to know was that the Blend-Active bottles are made of a odour-, taste- and stain-resistant material and are suitable for the dishwasher.

The Blend-Active has a single push button to blend and is incredibly straightforward to use.

1) Add the ingredients to be blended into the bottle in one go – remember not to go above the 600ml mark (or the 300ml mark if you are using the smaller bottles).
2) Screw the blade unit tightly to the top of the bottle.
3) Turn the bottle upside down so that the blade unit is at the bottom, line up the marks on the bottle and the blender, and push the bottle down and clockwise to lock in place.
4) You can either push and hold the blend button for as long as required or use short pulses to blend with better control.
5) Twist the bottle anti-clockwise to unlock and lift, then turn the bottle so the blade unit is at the top before removing the blade unit and fitting the resealable lid.

Importantly, Breville included a safety feature to prevent the Blend-Active’s blade from spinning unless the bottle is locked safely into place.

In the UK, there are twelve drinks recipes included by Breville in the manual for the Blend-Active.

– Protein Rich Shake
– Berry Blitz Protein Shake
– Good Morning Protein Shake
– Chocolate and Banana Protein Shake
– Super Thick Berry Smoothie
– Raspberry Crush Smoothie
– Tropical Fruit Smoothie
– Kiwi and Berry Bliss Smoothie
– Berry Blitz Dairy-Free Smoothie
– Soya Dairy-Free Smoothie
– Vanilla Milkshake
– Carrot, Orange and Ginger Juice

We’ve been using the Blend-Active regularly with fruits (including frozen berries), ice, nuts and vegetables, and I can pass on these tips:

1) Remember you have to add all the ingredients in one go, before blending starts.
2) If you are using the Blend-Active to blend ice or hard vegetables, ensure that you include liquid in the bottle as well to help protect the blades and motor.
3) The cap of the resealable lid that Breville provides is a good size, and copes with thicker drinks very well. But beware – a loose cap will mean a large leakage!
4) The dimensions of the Blend-Active bottles mean they fit well in the bottle-holders on most bikes.
5) This is not a full-size, jet-powered kitchen blender.  Friends who attempted to use the Blend-Active as such learnt this the hard way.

For our family, the Breville Blend-Active was an excellent alternative to using – and cleaning! – a full-size blender to make drinks that were going to be taken out in the garden, on a picnic or out with us on the bike. The blender is well made and has done everything we’ve asked of it – the two bottles supplied were perfect for two young children, and additional (or replacement) bottles are easy enough to get hold of from Breville, if required. The Blend-Active is light enough and has been easy enough to take with us on self-catering weekends away in the UK.

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For your chance to win a brand new Breville Blend-Active blender (£29.99 RRP) complete with a one-year Breville guarantee, please enter telling me whether you will most use your blender for vegetable or fruit smoothies with bonus entries via the Rafflecopter widget above.

Disclosure: Own purchase, I was not asked to write a review, nor offered any incentive. Giveaway sponsored by Ren Behan. Affiliate links included. Giveaway featured on sites including loquax.co.uk and ThePrizeFinder.com

Healthy Hot Chocolate Breakfast Smoothies

My children love chocolate and they’d ask for a sprinkle of cocoa every day if they could. Luckily, we manage to avoid most sugary breakfast cereals and instead we go for a bowl of milky porridge or Weetabix, so they are usually allowed a little pinch of cocoa. Breakfast smoothies are a good option, too, if time is tight. I’ve even found a way of making hot chocolate breakfast smoothies, which are always a hit, by blending the ingredients with warm milk. I also add oats and chia seeds for an extra health kick.

Hot Chocolate Smoothies

When I saw that Helen’s Breakfast Club this month was being hosted by Choclette with a theme of chocolate, I knew that it would be really easy for me to rustle up one of our favourite chocolate-themed morning treats. We’re not talking bars of Dairy Milk here, just a square or two of Fairtrade, organic dark chocolate. We like chocolate orange flavour and we buy ours from The Co-operative Food as their own-brand range is Fairtrade.

Chia Seeds and Chocolate

Earlier this year I was also incredibly lucky to win a Vitamix machine, by entering my card into a draw at Food Blogger Connect. I’ve learnt that the trick, with any kitchen gadget, it to keep it out on the counter. As soon as it goes into a cupboard, whether its a juicer, blender or food processor, it never gets used again. So my Vitamix has taken pride of place on my counter and we use it most days. It has encouraged me to experiment with extra ingredients in our smoothies, such as adding a handful of spinach, or a ripe avocado, or some super-healthy chia seeds. It would be incredibly difficult to get the children to eat any of these ingredients in large amounts, so blending them with milk and dark chocolate is a great way to sneak in some extras. I’ve also been whizzing up super-fast and healthy soups, sauces (cheesy bechamel in an instant) and you can even make sorbets, frozen cocktails and ice-cream. We no longer have a fridge full of leftover vegetables, they all get whizzed up in some form or another in our Vitamix.

Vitamix

The main advantage to the Vitamix machine over a standard blender is the power of the commercial motor and the blades – the Vitamix will even blitz down peel, pulp and seeds and you can use raw ingredients, too. Unlike a juicer, you don’t lose any of the fibre because it all gets whizzed up. It can also make steaming hot soup in under five minutes and if you use ice-cubs and frozen fruit, you can make instant ice-cream. They are pricey…but if Santa is feeling generous this year…

Back to the smoothies, I think you could make these in a standard blender, too. Just keep whizzing, grate your chocolate and use a very ripe avocado. You could add spinach, a banana and more milk if it is a little thick. If you haven’t heard of Chia Seeds yet, pop down to your local health food shop. They are being described as the new super-food (there’s always a new one, isn’t there?) containing stacks of Omega 3 fatty acids, antioxidants and fibre. They are gluten free and sugar free and were the ancient discovery of  the Aztecs.

Healthy Smoothies

Healthy Hot Chocolate Breakfast Smoothies

Ingredients:

  • 50g/a couple of squares Fairtrade dark chocolate (grated if not using a Vitamix)
  • 1 avocado – super-ripe, stone removed, scooped out
  • 1 tablespoon Chia Seeds – or you can use flax seeds
  • 1 teaspoon honey, we used local honey
  • 2 tablespoons raw oats or up to one Weetabix biscuit
  • 500ml/2 cups warm milk – we used whole milk
NB You could also use a banana in place of the avocado.

Method:

Vitamix Instructions –

  1. Place all the ingredients together into the Vitamix container and secure the lid. Select Variable 1. Turn the machine on and increase the speed to variable 10. Blend for 30 seconds or until you get the right consistency. Add extra milk and blend again if the smoothie is too thick. Pour into small cups or milk botttles and drink immediately.

Jug Blender/Hand Blender Instructions –

  1. Put all of the ingredients into your jug blender or into a tall container if you are using a hand blender stick blender. Add all the ingredients together (apart from the milk) blend together and then slowly add the warm milk. Blend for another two minutes until the mixture is smooth. Pour into small cups or milk bottles and drink immediately.

Healthy Smoothies

Note: I won a Vitamix blender through a random prize draw at Food Blogger Connect – I was not required to write a post about it, but since I use it so often, it was bound to feature! Many thanks to Vitamix UK.

Hope you enjoy these smoothies for breakfast soon!