Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Healthy Horchata Green Smoothie

Here in southern California, we are blessed with a melting pot of foods and flavors at our fingertips. One of Mexico's most delicious drinks that we are lucky enough to see regularly on San Diego menus is called horchata. When prepared traditionally, horchata is an ice-cold refreshing drink infused with cinnamon and lots of sugar. While tasty, it's not the most healthy beverage. My friend Alyson (founder of wellness blog Simply Alyson) is an avid green smoothie maker and decided to re-mix the traditional horchata with some farm-fresh ingredients. Here's her take on a Healthy Horchata Green Smoothie, which is the ideal healthy elixir to indulge in this Winter, as it features pears and Swiss chard, which are perfectly in season right now!
Ingredients
  • 2 cups of unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 2 pears (remove cores)
  • 1 banana (frozen will make for a thicker creamier smoothie)
  • 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
  • 1 Tablespoon of chia seeds, optional
  • 2 to 3 big leafs of swiss or red chard without the stems (you can of course use two handfuls of spinach)
  • 1 handful of ice
Directions
  1. Add all ingredients in order listed above into high-speed blender and blend until liquid! If you don’t have a high-speed blender first add all liquid ingredients and greens then blend until liquid. Next add all other goodness and continue to blend (if you slice your banana before freezing it, it will work nicer with a regular blender).
  2. Pour into two cups, share and enjoy the tastes of Fall with a friend!
Note: If you are having trouble staying warm this winter, add a teaspoon of maca powder into the mix. Maca naturally warms your body from the inside out and has a nutty flavor, which compliments cinnamon. Also, it's just super fun to say MACA HORCHATA. Thanks Alyson for the kitchen inspiration. Visit her blog for more!

3 comments:

  1. This recipe combines two of my most favorite things- almond milk and cinnamon! I love cinnamon on everything. Can't wait to make this. How long will this last (either frozen or refridgerated) If I wanted to make a large batch and have some the next day? Thanks for sharing this! Gotta stay healthy during the holidays but still have fun with flavors!

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    1. I love cinnamon too! So glad to read you are going to give this a try, I know you'll love it :) This recipe makes 2 servings so you can refrigerate the other serving and enjoy the next day but that's about as long as it will last. Make sure to put a lid on it and give it a good shake before you enjoy again.
      www.simplyalyson.com

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