RECIPE: Bill's Raw Vegetable Smoothie

[Guest guest]

I found this recipe on vegsource.com. I just went and bought a bunch of veggies and have most of what I need to make this for lunch. There are tips for making this lower in fat, if you're watching calories.

 

On a side note, WAAAAAHHH! I went to my favorite produce store in Las Vegas, Orchard Street Market over on Lake Mead west of Del Webb, this morning doing some shopping for fruits & veggies, and it said "temporarily closed" *sniff* Anyone on the Lasvegasraw list know what might've happened to it?

 

Megan

 

 

Bill's Raw Vegetable Smoothie

The trick to making a raw food diet work is to eat healthy foods in a combination that's not boring. You can see from the ingredients and the nutrient analysis below that this is very balanced, healthy, and nutritious food. But if you don't enjoy chewing all day on not very interesting flavors, try putting it all in a blender ( I use a Vita-Mix 5000) and making it into a smoothie. This is not a recipe in the usual sense since nothing gets cooked. You can start with the basic ingredients and experiment with combinations that bring out the best flavors to suit your own taste buds, but remember that the raw veggies are where most of the nutrients are coming from.

 

1-2 tbsp fresh lemon juice (or balsamic vinegar)4 tbsp Picante salsa1 cup raw broccoli1 raw tomato quartered1/2 raw carrot cut into 1" pieces1 cup raw kale (or any other leafy green)1-2 cloves raw garlic1/2 cup raw hulled sunflower seeds1/2 cup raw un-hulled sesame seeds*1/2 tsp Red Star T-6635+ nutritional yeast **1-2 slices onion

Start by pouring the liquid ingredients ( lemon juice, salsa) into the blender to give it a "draw." Then simply stuff in the remaining ingredients and blend until the texture is that of a creamy milkshake (2-5 minutes). If you're trying to lose weight, reduce the sunflower and sesame seeds. If weight is no concern, use a half cup of each to lend a smooth texture, but seeds are high in fat so that amount brings fat Calories up to 64%. A half cup of un-hulled (brown) sesame seeds contains ~ 500 mg calcium.

NUTRIENT ANALYSIS OF BILL'S RAW VEGETABLE SMOOTHIE #2

Calories in recipe: 797

 

 

 

 

% of Calories from:

Recommended Daily Allowance

Smoothie #2

 

Carbohydrate

60%-80%

22%

 

Fat

10%-30%

64%

 

Protein

10%-20%

14%

 

Satiety Index (Wt./Cal Ratio)

>1

..59

 

 

 

 

 

Nutrient

RDA

% of (RDA/Calorie)

 

Calcium (Mg)

800

306%

 

Cholesterol (mg)

<300

0%

 

Fiber (gm)

22

303%

 

Folate (ug)

400

451%

 

Iron (mg)

18

468%

 

Magnesium (mg)

350

401%

 

Potassium (mg)

2000

223%

 

Phosphorus (mg)

1200

347%

 

Riboflavin (mg)

1.6

359%

 

Thiamin (mg)

1.4

758%

 

Vitamin A (RE)

1000

392%

 

Vitamin B12 (ug)

3

145%

 

Vitamin B6 (mg)

2.2

372%

 

Vitamin E (mg)

10

829%

 

Vitamin C (mg)

60

732%

 

Zinc (mg)

15

178%

Optional ingredients that can be added to the recipe but are not included in the analysis:

2 tbsp Naturade Soy Free Protein Booster

1 Nature's Life Mega-Vita-Min tablet

1 Country Life Maxi-Cal Calcium tablet

1 tsp flaxseed oil or 2 tbsp whole flax seed (contains Alpha-linolenic acid [ALA], the essential omega-3 fatty acid).***

1 Country Life 500 mg Rutin tablet ****

1 Kal 50 mg zinc tablet

*Unhulled (brown) sesame seeds contain 1100 mg of calcium per 100 grams (1 cup). The calcium RDA is ~ 800 mg/day.

**Red Star T6635+ Nutritional Yeast is available in the bulk section of most health food stores. Yeast does not synthesize vitamin B12 (cobalamin) but B12 from bacterial culture has been added to this brand of yeast, so it is one of the few dependable non-animal sources of vitamin B12, aside from B12 injections, tablets, and multivitamin pills.

"***"Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) is one of two essential fatty acids in the human diet, the other being linoleic acid (LA). ALA is the first of the omega-3 fatty acids from which is made eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), the famous ingredient in fish oil believed to reduce coronary risk, and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) which is an important component in brain and nervous system cell membranes. Linoleic acid (LA) is the other essential fatty acid and it is plentiful in most grains. Both EPA and DHA can be formed in the human body from ALA, but since ALA is synthesized only in green plant cells, most humans, including traditional vegetarians, get marginal amounts of ALA, since they eat more grains than greens. Flaxseed oil is 100% fat, which is bad, but the ALA content of 1 tsp probably justifies its use. A better solution may be to include 2 tbsp of whole flax seed in the smoothie which after blenderizing will lend a creamy consistency.

Re: ALA and LA (1). No Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) has been officially been set for these fatty acids, however, "On the basis of the available evidence, 0.5 to 1 en% of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) in a diet with 5 to 10 en% linoleic acid seems to be an adequate level of essential fatty acid (EFA) intake for humans, which also covers increased EFA requirements during pregnancy, lactation, and infancy."(2). This means that in a 2200 Calorie day's food supply about .5%-1% of Calories should come from ALA which means 22 Calories or 22/93D2.4 gms of ALA/day. 1 tsp of flaxseed oil contains ~ 4 gms of ALA.

"****"Rutin is a plant flavonoid which strengthens skin capillaries. I recommend it to older patients whose skin is easily bruised and torn.