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Food for Thought Friday: savory green smoothies?? 🥬🥒🥑
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Hi friend!
Today I want to tell you about a weird new thing I made this week. It's a quick story about my own intuitive cooking that will hopefully show you (a) how I take inspiration from foods I buy, and (b) that cleaning out the fridge can be just as creative and inspiring as any other kitchen endeavor!
There’s a fancy/hippie grocery store that I love in Mill Valley, CA, called Good Earth Natural Foods. I stop by sometimes on my way home from hiking and treat myself to something tasty.
One of my favorite healthy foods there is a cold green soup I discovered in their refrigerated prepared food section. I’ve been buying it almost every time I go for years since. It’s called Green River Soup, and it’s a cold blended green soup with a subtle cumin flavor, topped with chunks of cucumber and avocado. It’s SO refreshing and light and delicious, I just love it and have never had anything like it.
The ingredients in Green River Soup are listed as follows: celery juice, cucumber juice, lime juice, kale, parsley, cilantro, cucumber, zucchini, green onion, green peas, avocado, spinach, cumin, salt.
Some of the worst photos ever to make it into this newsletter but I wanted to show you the REAL Green River Soup!
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Since it’s kind of a long ingredient list, and because I’m not really into juicing - I haven’t attempted to make this soup myself yet, even though I’ve been buying and loving it for years.
But this week I was leaving for a trip and needed to use up everything in my fridge. And it just so happened that much of what I had was GREEN. So I decided to attempt a “savory” green smoothie… inspired by my favorite Green River Soup!
I should confess that I’m not much of a smoothie person. I generally prefer to eat my fruits and veggies versus drink them. But sometimes I do crave smoothies, especially in the summer. When I make them I aim for less sweet but always have a good amount of fruit in there. I’ve never gone for a full on “savory” smoothie until this week, but based on the results, I’m intrigued to keep making/improving on these as a new way to use up greens and herbs!
Here’s what I had in the fridge that I decided to put in my green-river-savory-smoothie attempt…
- 2 bunches of spinach
- an avocado
- a whole bunch of parsley
- 1/2 bunch of dill
- 1/2 bunch of cilantro
- lemons and limes
Eek I was a little nervous… this sounds more like green sauce than a smoothie - but I decided to go for it! When I blended it all up (with some water and a pinch of salt) it was ok… but it needed something else, more flavor.
Luckily I had plentiful lemons and limes so I added more juice from those, and decided to throw in some cantaloupe (weird! it was the only fruit I had and needed to get used up!) and also some cumin and Aleppo pepper for some kick. And a little more salt.
After that it was what I’d call “HHmmm(wow)!” Surprisingly good… not perfected but tasty enough to happily eat and with high potential for future improvements. And also satisfying because it’s new and definitely not a fail. Different but I was into it!
My Vitamix was FULL of smoothie - I guess that's what happens when you clean out the fridge! Luckily I was sharing some with my fiancé, who later gave this smoothie a 7/10. We drank a good amount but there was still some leftover, so I saved for the next morning. I have done this before and generally find day-old smoothie to be "edible because I don't want to waste this" but not exactly my favorite thing to drink.
I can't believe it but I gotta tell you that I actually enjoyed this savory smoothie EVEN MORE the next day! It might be just because it was such a new/different food that I was excited to evaluate it again, but the next-morning-smoothie enjoyment stood out enough to inspire me to write this email!
My analysis is that the avocado and the spices were key. Next time I think I'd thin it out with a bit of water and/or
eat it with a spoon - it was pretty thick with all those greens. And if I had them, the chunks of cucumber and avocado would be nice on top!
The point of this story today isn’t to tell you to make this smoothie - I don’t have a recipe yet, and it’s not up to the deliciousness standards required for me to give that directive! But I hope you'll be inspired to either...
- a) get inspiration from your favorite foods you buy/eat out (the cumin in the Green River Soup is what inspired me to add some to my smoothie and that really made it!) and...
- b) make cleaning out the fridge an excuse to experiment and improvise with whatever you have!
If you make savory smoothies (or cold green soups!) - I want to hear about it!!! Reply back and tell me about your favorite creations.
Happy weekend,
Jess
PS. On Tuesday July 20th, I'm teaching a third round of my zoom class - Intuitive Cooking Tonight! In it you'll learn my 20-minute-dinner formula for using up what I have to make a delicious meal, and I'll coach you through making a real dinner this way during the class! There are two time slots for East Coast or West Coast dinner. Learn more/sign up here, and use the discount code READER for $10 off. (Also - if you'd be interested in doing a private version of this class for your company or non-profit, reach out to me and I'd love to discuss!)
And here's a pic of the Vitamix FULL of savory smoothie from this week:
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All photos are taken by me and recipes written by me, unless otherwise noted.
If you like this email, it would mean so much to me if you'd forward it along to your favorite food-loving friends. Wannabe subscribers can sign up here. Thanks for reading!
In case you missed out, here are a few past issues to check out:
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Hi, I'm Jess! I help health-conscious, busy people transform their cooking from chore to lifestyle through intuitive cooking, which I teach through online classes, free content, coaching and more. This is my newsletter, Food for Thought Fridays, where I share highly actionable tips and inspiration to help you cook more intuitively (which makes cooking feel easier and SO much more fun!). Once a month, I share a recipe that's really worth making, and I only share those with my email subscribers. Sometimes the text above may include affiliate links, meaning (at no additional cost to you) I get a commission if you click through and make a purchase. This helps me to continue to share free content, so I would love it if you buy through my link! Thank you for supporting Garlic Press Jess!
I currently work + live on land that is the unceded territory of the Ramaytush Ohlone. And I can't wait to eat at Cafe Ohlone! Check out this article about them.
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