Properly yummy chocolate green smoothie

My son has informed me that he doesn’t like to eat ‘green things’. I shouldn’t be surprised, my mum has been telling every boyfriend I’ve ever had that I refused all green baby food she made for me.

Of course, Elliot will eat peas by the bowlful, but I haven’t brought up this contradiction for fear he’ll stop eating peas entirely. He’s not totally vegetable averse thankfully, if I let him he would bankrupt us with his love for organic red bell peppers.

Lately, I’ve been getting into making smoothies. I know, I’m approximately 20 years late on this trend. They always seemed like such a faff, so much mess for something I would rather have had in its constituent solid forms anyway. However, now I’m dealing with a 3-year-old, and a spinach salad for lunch means making a separate meal, so into the blender it goes.

Here’s the trick – a spinach smoothie is not chocolate coloured by simply adding cocoa powder. That makes an attractive grey sludge that no sane person would drink. The secret ingredient is a handful of healthful frozen blueberries. Suddenly, the smoothie turns a gorgeous dark chocolate brown. Magic, with added antioxidants.

As a smoothie newbie, I’ve learned: blend the spinach and water on their own first for a smoother result, and freeze bananas in chunks for easier blending. Of course, if you’re the lucky owner of a Vitamix, you can throw this all in there, plus your phone, and it will come up smooth as you like. I don’t recommend the phone, by the way, expensive, and, er… mercury is not an antioxidant, I’ve heard.

For my husband, I add a scoop of vanilla protein powder to this mix. As with all smoothie recipes, use whatever you’ve got. An apple, half a pear – all good stuff. I try and cram in more spinach if I can, but it all depends on your equipment, you really can’t taste it over the cocoa. Also, I apologise for the photo – but taking a picture of a brown drink is really beyond my artistic skills.

Chocolate green smoothie
makes one big one, one small one

• 1 cup spinach
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 banana, frozen in chunks or fresh
• 3 tbsp plain greek yoghurt
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder (unsweetened)
• 2 tbsp (or more) frozen blueberries
• 2 tbsp honey

• Chia seeds, ground flax seeds as you see fit

1. Blend spinach and water until smooth.
2. Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.