Green Tea Smoothie

The first time I made a green smoothie was nearly my last! The lid flew off my blender and covered both me and my kitchen in what looked like green paint. I have since grown to love them though and add veggies such as kale, spinach, watercress and rocket for the green element. As someone who has had problems with iron levels in the last few years as well as taking a multi vitamin I try to eat plenty of naturally iron rich foods which are said to be better absorbed when combined with something rich in vitamin C. I therefore find mango a great partner for the greens in my smoothies as it's super sweet and balances the bitterness you can get from the green leaves.

Matcha is a concentrated, powdered form of green tea, higher in anti-oxidants than a standard green tea bag. I usually whisk it up with my little battery operated whisk as a shot or add the shot to hot soya milk for a delicious green tea latte.

I have a confession to make- green tea can make me feel incredibly nauseous, even to the point when on a few occasions in the past I was actually sick! One day I Googled this and found that it's not an uncommon reaction and discovered that for those affected in this way, the way to take green tea is with food. I was relieved to discover this as I wanted to get some of the amazing health benefits from green tea, so these days I often have a cup of green tea with my lunch and this works just fine. Here's my first attempt at using green tea in a smoothie and delicious it was too. Even though there's fruit in the blend though still I found I needed a bit of muesli on the side to temper the powerful effect it has on me!

Ingredients

Serves 1

1 banana

1 mango

4 large handfuls of spinach

3/4 teaspoon of matcha green tea

1 teaspoon of Sweet Freedom or other honey substitute

1/2 teaspoon of pre/pro biotic powder

3/4 pint of water or to taste

Blend all the ingredients in a blender adjusting the amount of water to your preferred smoothie texture.