Persimmon Spinach Smoothie
Let's talk about my blender situation.
I'm hard on blenders. Really, terribly abusive. I've had the same bright orange KitchenAid blender since I was about 22, and the poor girl is in bad shape. We've done a lot of fixes and repairs, but the truth is, my eight-year-old blender just isn't made to go through the kale-blending, soup-pureeing, ice-chopping daily abuse I put it through. In fact, a few months ago, some part in the blade assembly broke again, and she's been sitting in basement purgatory waiting for me to decide if she's going to be fixed again or going to go to the landfill ever since. We've had a good run, but my blender was made for folks who want to make the occasional blended margarita, and as much as I love the occasional blended margarita, I use my blender for a lot more than just that.
I've seen the big ole fancy high-speed blenders demonstrated at Whole Foods, but as much as I love a good kitchen appliance that can blend a cell phone without losing step, I gotta draw the line at dropping $500+ on an appliance that isn't really necessary in my life. I'm just way too cheap frugal to spend that kind of money. It's the same way I feel about organic red bell peppers. Would I love to buy them? Yes. But I cannot justify $4 a pepper, regardless of how pesticide-free they are.
ANYWHO. This sordid tale of my blender-related life is all to inform you about my frame of mind with I walked up to the Ninja booth at the Healthy Living Summit a couple of weeks ago. They had this beautiful, incredible, high-speed blender (the Ninja Ultima) sitting out, and right next to it, a sign saying they were giving away five blenders to HLS attendees-just as long as you snapped a photo with the blender and posted it on Instagram. I was, quite shamelessly, all over that.
And I found out the next evening-I won! I never win raffles or giveaways or things like that, so I was SO pumped. I was at dinner with Lauren, Gretchen, and Amy, and I totally flipped out.
And immediately started thinking about all the amazing things I was going to whip up in my new, shiny blender. So many options! No longer would I have to pre-smash ice. Or only blend things a cup at a time. Or drink a gritty smoothie. Oh, the possibilities!
I really wanted to put my new blender to the test, so I decided to start off with a green persimmon spinach smoothie. Green smoothies can be tricky because if you aren't careful, you might find yourself chewing your smoothie a lot more than drinking it. No one wants to chew a smoothie.
I know a lot of folks use bananas as the base for smoothies, but we don't eat a lot of bananas in our house, so instead, I make sweet, tangy persimmons the base of this persimmon spinach smoothie. If you've never had a persimmon before, it's one of the sweetest fruits on the planet, it's soft, and has a slightly citrus-y flavor. It's incredible delicious. And we're very lucky that they grow wild right in our backyard. But if you don't have your own persimmon tree, many grocery stores carry them (albeit a totally different variety than what grow around here).
The Ultima totally rocked this persimmon spinach smoothie. The thing that impressed me the most was the speed. With my old blender, it took me a good 3-4 minutes worth of blending to make sure there aren't any spinach chunks, but with the Ultima, it was ready to go in just a few seconds. And the added ice? Absolutely no problem. It was smooth, creamy, and totally delicious. I'm a big fan.
I am so thankful to Ninja for being an HLS sponsor, and giving away their awesome blenders to attendees. And if that wasn't cool enough, Ninja also decided to giveaway more blenders to two friends of the winners. Which means not only did I win an awesome blender, but so did the amazing Coach Krissie (because it was the least I could do to pay her back for all the awesome she brings to my life).
📖 Recipe
Persimmon Spinach Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh spinach
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ½ cup persimmon puree
- Pinch of cinnamon
- 1 cup nut, soy, or cow's milk
- Handful of ice cubes
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients in the carafe of a high-speed blender. Blend on high until very smooth. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Want to save this recipe?
I'll email this recipe to you, so you can come back to it later!
Forgot to ask - this product works like Vitamix or Breville but costs much less? Tired of the leftover chunks. Thanx folks.
All your recipes sound great and would like to try all. I would make a fresh gazpacho and pumpkin soup. Best to y'all and thanks for the wonderful ideas. Go for the raw.
I would make a spinach, banana, blueberry, flax smoothie (which would be devoured by my family of 5 in about three minutes.) Or maybe garden chowder. Or possibly pesto with the last of this season's basil. Nope...the smoothie. This mama would definitely give in to the chanting for smoothie.
I would definitely be having green smoothies for breakfast again! My poor old gal of a blender is reaching the end of her life and any green smoothies I make right now are of the chewy variety 🙁
White bean hummus — cannellini beans, garlic, olive oil, rosemary, salt, pepper. Delicious, less hummus-y than traditional hummus.
I love almond butter, but it's so expensive. I would love a blender that I could make my own nut butters with. If this Ninja can, then that would be the first thing I try. Just almonds, blended to smooth creamy perfection.
I'd make a green smoothie that I didn't have to chew (unlike the ones I make now)!
What a great contest! My first would definitely be a strawberry-banana smoothie. YUM!
I would definitely make cauliflower alfredo sauce!
The first thing I would make would probably be pesto! Or maybe a healthy kale smoothie, but probably pesto.
The first think I'd make is a peanut butter, banana, date, and milk smoothie!!
I'm made pesto, with lots of garlic 🙂
Tomato soup! We are still collecting them from our garden.
OMG, I SO DESPERATELY need to win this.
My current blender is absolutely terrible and half the time it doesn't even seem to blend. That said, the first thing I would blend would be a pumpkin pie latte smoothie
Delicious!
I would make a chocolate-covered strawberry shake featuring coconut milk and homegrown kale fresh from my backyard. 🙂
I would definitely try the infamous green smoothie that is so popular in the blogosphere!
Hi, I'm new! 🙂 I would definitely make a green smoothie, because a) I need to eat more greens and b) my current blender CANNOT handle it. The first time I made one, I was so excited to drink it on my way work, but it was super gritty. I had little green pieces all throughout my teeth--complete disaster! And I didn't have floss in my car... FAIL.
The first recipe I would make is banana soft serve with raspberry swirl. <3
ahhhhh ohmygod! i would make almond or peanut butter...i never made home made and this would be awesome to do it with! 🙂
Date/pistachio energy balls! Those are absolutely one of my favorite snacks but my wimpy blender hates dates. They never blend and they just tend to get stuck around the bottom, not really blending. I'm also super frugal and can't see the point of purchasing a blender and a food processor, so I use an "all-in'one" method. Ha! I'm assuming a blender such as the ninja could easily handle the stickiness of dates.... right?!