Raw Vegan Blueberry Smoothie

I cannot live without raw vegan smoothies. They are my guilt-free indulgence of choice, and I am not giving them up for anything. I would surrender my teeth for a raw blueberry smoothie. After all, when you have a blender (I LOVE my Vitamix), who needs teeth? I know, I know, we couldn’t live on raw smoothies alone, and we wouldn’t want to live without choppers. But let me tell you -- I have given it a red hot go! As I have said many times -- I never go anywhere without my blender. It is like my trusty toothbrush -- a good buff and polish, and you make a fresh start. I used to enjoy a version of this raw vegan blueberry smoothie every single day of my life until I switched to green smoothies. Depending on the season, I can start with a vegan soup or quinoa porridge. The macrobiotic voice in me has to sing as well. This vegan blueberry smoothie is actually a macro nightmare. But hey, like I say, “Blend and Live”. Take what you like and blend with the rest. So let’s embrace this vegan blueberry smoothie – that blends in berry well.

I use blueberries most days as they are truly one the most magical, antioxidant rich foods on the planet – full of vitamins, minerals and fibre; and are relatively low GI. They taste delicious and don’t need to be sweetened. I read a fantastic book many years ago called Superfoods RX by Steven Pratt and Kathy Matthews, where they listed 14 Superfoods to incorporate into your diet every week. In it, they rated blueberries as the number one “eat every day” along with raw spinach. I started making this raw blueberry smoothie every day as my commitment to the Superfood challenge, and incorporated the raw walnuts and raw almonds that were also rated in the book. That was the beginning of the berry nutty path of no return.

It is not hard to get most people to chow down on some fresh blueberries with pleasure. But I know a lot of people who don’t like to eat nuts -- particularly raw nuts. As a result, they are missing out on all of the raw nutty magic. If you are one of those people, this raw blueberry smoothie is a fantastic solution. It is also a winner for everyone who wants to incorporate antioxidant, nutritionally dense raw foods into their diet, and wants a healthy smoothie that tastes fantastic.

The other fantastic thing about this vegan blueberry smoothie is that it is dairy free, gluten free and refined sugar free. If you are after nut free – just take the nuts out and it tastes great too! But if you eat it as is, in one blast of your blender you have taken care of the recommended berry, raw nut and milk intake for the day. Change the berries and vegan milk options around every day for some variety and added benefit. Either way -- this is berry good. You can halve this smoothie recipe if you want a smaller dose. I confess -- I am berry greedy!