This green smoothie journey is so amazing! My body is leading the way. A couple of weeks ago I was having a lot of aching joints and realised something wasn’t right. I figured out I was having too much fruit sugar from the fruits I was putting in my smoothies. I did get carried away and put three bananas in a smoothie along with other fruit, which was too much for me but I’ve learnt from the experience. This prompted me to invent a smoothie that has less fruit sugar but is very refreshing and very tasty. Here is the recipe:
Juice of 1 grapefruit or 3 not so sweet mandarins
A big handful of weeds e.g. plantain, nettle, chickweed, speedwell, red dead nettle, radish tops, violet leaves, cleavers or any edible weeds you have in your garden.
Blend the juice, weeds and 2 cups water
I then added 3 ice cubes of pureed elderberries (you could use 1/2 cup frozen raspberries)
1 cup frozen blueberries (other low sugar fruit – kiwifruit, boysenberries)
1/2 large avocado
Blend it all together and you’ll find it becomes a lovely chocolate colour and beautiful smooth texture!
Yum!!
Should elderberries be cooked or are they safe taken raw? I sometimes put a handful of raw frozen elderberries into my smoothies with no ill effects, but most of the sites I read about elderberries say they should be cooked
Hello Barbara, thank you for your comment. Elderberries can be eaten raw. I’ve not had any problems myself and you mention you’ve had no problems. On the ‘Plants for a Future’ website they caution that they can cause an upset stomach, but that cooking reduces the likelihood of a reaction as it reduces the probably already low toxicity. Here is the link to read further http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Sambucus+nigra
We are all individuals so there could be some people who can’t eat the berries raw. It is best to try small amounts first to see how one’s body reacts before eating a larger amount. Glad to hear you are making smoothies and foraging and preserving wild berries!