Strawberry, Oregano & Wild Greens Smoothie
There are some tasty foods that just don't look that appetizing, and certainly are not photogenic. This is one of them. We stopped by our local orchard yesterday and were lucky enough to score some strawberries “for jam” at half price. So this morning's smoothie featured… you guessed it, strawberries!
I'm also getting a bit more daring on the wild edibles front, and this was the biggest handful of weeds I've put in yet. I managed to find really young dandelions and plantain. I was also especially lucky to find young dock leaves. I took a nibble from one just to see and was surprised to find they have quite a pleasant taste. No bitterness at all, they have an almost nutty taste. I'd like to try them in a salad too. All the wild edibles are highly nutritious, and so is oregano I have recently discovered. It's definitely a superherb, so I snipped a bit of that from the garden to put in too. I've been using oregano in my green smoothies since I first started having them, it doesn't impart the strong flavor that's so nice in Italian foods. It adds a really nice, fresh taste to the smoothies. And now that I know just how awesome it is, I'm making it a point to add some oregano as much as possible.
Ingredients:
4 cups water
1 cups strawberries (fresh or frozen)
3 bananas (fresh or frozen)
1 cup frozen plums
handful of young wild edible greens (dandelion, dock, plantain) and fresh oregano
handful of spinach
Instructions:
Rinse and drain the leafy greens. Strip the leaves off the oregano stems and throw the stems away. Remove any thick stems on the spinach. I used wild New Zealand spinach, which have small, tender stems so they can be blended right in.
Add 4 cups of water to blender jug. Add in the greens. Blend until there are no bits of greens left. If you have a high-powered blender at least 1,000 watts you should be fine. Otherwise, try adding only 2 cups of water at first, then the greens and blend. Then add the rest of the water and blend again.
Once the greens have liquefied, add the fruit and blend until smooth. Serve and drink as soon as possible.