Orange & Beet Smoothie with Cranberries and Maple Syrup

This is a vegan smoothie that combines seasonal citrus, beets, and cranberries with a generous splash of maple syrup to make it go down smooth nice and easy. Overwhelmed with cookies? Haven't started the wrapping yet? Whip up one of these babies and power through your to do list without plowing through the cookie tray.

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To be honest I really wasn't feeling a post for today. I'm still a bit worn out from doubling my workload and sharing 6 recipes in a row for #ChristmasWeek. [As an aside, the Amazon Gift Card Giveaway is happening for another week or so, have you entered? I'd sure like to have a connection to the winner. Go to this post for all the details.] However, seeing that it is citrus season (we got our Band Fundraiser Citrus a week ago) and as this recipe kept me going all through last week's craziness, I'm going to share it as is--I ran out of light last night so I'll update the photos as soon as I've made today's smoothie. I promised myself I'd take time off closer to Christmas, so you'll get one more week of recipes before my break.


Did you think, after Spiked Hot Cocoa Gift Mix, Maple Doodles, My Scottish Grandma's Shortbread, Cranberry Chai Tea Cookies, No Bake Magic Cookie Truffles, and Fresh Cranberry Mini Scones that this blog is all about sweets? Ha! Fooled ya. It's all about beets.


If the only things I got in my farm share were a steady supply of potatoes, onions, carrots and lettuce I probably would not have started a blog about how to feed my family from the farm share. I mean, everyone knows what to do with potatoes, onions, carrots and lettuce. [If you don't, feel free to consult my Potato Recipes Collection, my Recipes Using Onions, my Carrot Recipes Collection, and my Greens (Lettuce/Salad) Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, the thing I am most proud of on this blog--a way to help my readers figure out what the heck to do with those veggies in the share that are new and unusual to them. And to me!]

A small farm can't make it on just a few crops--diversification is where it's at these days. [You may notice a change to my ads--I've switched from a few Adsense ads on the sidebars to a plethora of ads managed by MediaVine. Not a clue what, if anything, I am earning as I haven't made time to go check out my dashboard, but the experience has been very positive for me so far. Let me know how it is for you. Back to farms.] Farmers need to grow crops that will be ripening throughout the season so that us hungry folks have something to eat. And often, that means new-to-us foods.

You may say that beets are not new.  That's true.  But how many people eat them? Other than pickled beets, that is? Sure, a bowl of borscht. But I don't want to eat weekly bowls of borscht or even Alanna's amazing Greens 'n All Beet Soup, delicious as it is. But we get a lot of beets as they grow really well here. I stick them in a variety of recipes, but it wasn't until I hit upon this smoothie that I was deliberately thawing beets to use because I wanted to, not because I had no choice.

I owe all inspiration for this smoothie to Meghan over at Clean Eats Fast Feets. She can tell you why drinking a beet smoothie is good for you, I'll just tell you how to make one. When she combined beets, oranges, other stuff and champagne for a Beet Mimosa it resonated with me. No, my smoothie does not have champagne, and there's no day drinking going on here. I'm the Adult in Charge for 6 months. I drastically decrease my drinking while my spouse is deployed just in case something happens and I need to be firing on all cylinders. Doesn't mean I don't enjoy the occasional splash of Bailey's in a cup of hot cocoa, but one splash and one cup is my limit and not until we're all in for the night.

Note: I've made this smoothie with raw beets, roasted beets, and steamed beets from Melissa's produce. I usually buy a case of juice oranges during the Band Fruit Fundraiser, but have also used navels and tangelos and no-name oranges.  I used leftover cranberry sauce right after Thanksgiving--holy yum--but have never tried dried cranberries. Frozen cranberries would work swimmingly I am sure.

Orange & Beet Smoothie

Ingredients

• 4 small beets (about 1 cup, or 8 ounces by weight) these can be raw, roasted, or steamed
• 2 juice oranges, peeled (or about 1+½ cups orange juice)
• ¼ cup fresh (or frozen) cranberries
• 1-3 Tablespoons pure maple syrup (to taste, I pour in a generous glug)
• ½ cup water, or more if you need to get your blender going
• 1 cup ice

Instructions

1. Throw everything in a blender that is capable. Mine goes in my ~14 year old Vitamix.
2. Starting slowly until the produce is chopped, then increase the speed gradually until you're at full power. Blend until everything is smooth. That's why they call it a smoothie, I guess.
3. Serve and enjoy immediately. I drink the whole thing, but you could share too I guess. I have no one to share it with as the kids are not really into the beets these days, so I polish it all off.

For more recipes using beets, please see my Beet Recipes Collection. For more recipes using oranges, please see my Orange Recipes Collection. For more recipes using Cranberries, please see my Cranberry Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the aforementioned Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me who are eating seasonally from the farm share, the farmer's market, and that cute kid who knocked on the door selling fruit as a fundraiser. Want more ideas? Follow me on Pinterest. Want to see what I see each day? Follow me on Instagram. Want to see my failures or other folks successes? Follow me on Facebook. Just don't follow me down the street as you'll freak Simon out.

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