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!
I will definitely be making a kale & pineapple smoothie! I have been trying to eat more kale but my current blender cannot blend it well enough- and I never want to chew a smoothie again.
I will make ice cream out of bananas. I recently broke my (cheap) old blender attempting to make it, and I would LOVE to have a good blender that blends smoothly and easily!
With the onset of fall and the cooler temps, my first spin with this blender would have to be to puree some roasted root veggies for some cozy warm soup!
I never win anything either... but keep trying!
I would probably make cashew milk - I've been wanting to make it, but I don't have a blender, which causes a problem. So that would likely be item #1, item #2 would be a smoothie made with the cashew milk.
I'd make Scott Jurek's Anti-Inflammatory Smoothie (tropical fruit, coconut, ginger, edamame--tastes like a healthy Starburst!). I made it all the time when I was training for a half-marathon and it's super good but also can be thick and grainy. My cheap-o WalMart blender can NOT handle it.
This probably sounds bad being that you won this awesomeness at a healthy living summit but the first thing I would make in that amazing blender would be a peanut butter chocolate milkshake. YUM!
I think my first recipe would be a banana chai oatmeal smoothie! I've been really craving smoothies and our very expensive (even refurbished it was $$$) Blendtec took cues from our beloved government and shut down indefinitely.
The first smoothie I would try is the Apple and Spinach smoothie my daughter found in her American Girl Doll magazine. We tried it the other day. It was delicious, but the spinach wasn't all the way chopped in places.
I would make this recipe! Looks yum!!
The first recipe I would make with the new blender would be 2-3 cups organic spinach, 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1-2 cups frozen strawberries, 1 cup frozen blueberries, 1/2 frozen banana, 2 tablespoons flaxseeds .What a fantastic giveaway!!!I would love to win.
i would make date balls!
I would also make a green smoothie, probably a pumpkin pie one and use kale since my old blender does not blend kale good enough!
Aw man! Perfect timing for this giveaway!! My ancient blender is in sad, sad shape. We keep limping it along because I'd rather spend money on great food & home renovations & fun trips. 🙂 If I was lucky enough to win, I'd make a smoothie (following No Meat Athlete's perfect smoothie formula).
Gazpacho. Definitely Gazpacho!
I'd probably make my typical green monster with greek yogurt, banana, spinach and some frozen berries.
Oh my gosh! What a fantastic and generous giveaway! I have similar thoughts about my KitchenAid blender lately - it's just not cutting the cake anymore.
With the cooler weather rolling in around here, I'm all about pureeing some soup-y goodness. I love making gigantic batches of 2-potato soup and freezing it in Mason jars to cart to work during the really cold months. Mmm, thinking about it is making me drool! 🙂
I'd run straight to the fridge and whip out everything I need for a green smoothie! Right now with my sad little blender I have to blend for 20 seconds, then take the lid off and stir to redistribute things, blend, stir, and so forth for like 5 minutes to get things just right. Would love to have one of these blenders to make things faster and smoother (literally!)
I think I would do one of my favorites which is strawberry, kiwi, kale smoothies!!!! It is so yummy!
My best friend is going through a terrible time in her life so honestly, I'd like to give this to her as a pick me up. I'm hoping shed use it to kick start her weight loss journey!
Right now my fiance and I make do with his old blender that I'm pretty sure he got while in college. We eat a lot of salsa in our house being that we live in San Antonio and all so I think the first thing we'd make is some spicy homemade salsa!