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Cooking with Amelia – Smoothies

Pack a little more plant power into your day….

HealthWISE Dietitian Amelia explores simple ways to make it easier to achieve and enjoy our recommended vegetables serves.

With so many plant-based superfoods flooding recipe books, media and the online space, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by all the perfect Insta food pictures and the strange new plant-based foods on the supermarket shelves. But does it have to be such a mine field?

The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating recommends we eat a wide variety of nutritious foods from the five food groups.

For most of us we should aim for 5 or more serves daily of vegetables, ideally including different types and colours, plus legumes and beans. A serve of vegetables is  approximately ½ a cup of cooked vegetables, beans or legumes and 1 cup of fresh or salad vegetables.

Sounds simple enough, but making it an everyday habit is the part that really packs the punch when it comes to the vitamins, minerals, fibre and health benefits that vegetables contain.

Below are some simple everyday hacks you can incorporate into your diet to up your vegetable intake:

Hack #1 Blend your beans

Blend canned white beans into smoothies.

Add beans to Mexican and mince dishes.

Hommus! Buy it or make it, the possibilities of adding
it to meals or as a snack are endless.

Hack #2  Make a sauce with vegetables

As the weather cools we welcome comfort foods. Time to supersize the vegetables added to anything from bolognaise sauce, stews, soups and casseroles.

Blend and slow cook to help release and disperse the
flavours.

Add extra herbs to enhance the flavour and the nutrition.

Hack #3  Add vegetables before midday

Instead of plain eggs add grilled mushrooms, tomatoes, wilted spinach.

Add zucchini, spinach or avocado to smoothies.

Cut up vegetables to snack on to beat mid-morning snack attacks.

Hack #4  Substitute vegetables for rice or pasta

Include riced cauliflower or broccoli instead of a rice side
or into fried rice or pizza base.

Use spriralised zucchini or sweet potato instead of pasta.

Try a dried pasta made of chickpeas, beans or lentils.

Get started today and try the smoothie recipe included. Nutritious and delicious….

Eat well, stay well, stay safe….

Recipies from Video

Mango smoothie with white beans

1 cup frozen mango pieces

1/2 cup canned cannellini beans (drained and washed)

1/3 cup plain or vanilla yoghurt

1/4 cup milk or milk alternative

1/2 medium banana

Add all ingredients to blender and blend well.
Serve immediately. Serves 2.

Blackberry smoothie with zucchini

1 cup frozen blackberries

1/3 cup milk or milk alternative

1/2 cup yoghurt

1/2 medium banana

1 medium zucchini

Add all ingredients to blender and blend well. Serve immediately. Serves 2.

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