The ultimate chocolate green smoothie made with kale and cacao powder. Healthy with a hit of chocolate from cacao powder.
Morning smoothie
It's amazing!
It's rich, but has the tang of berries. It tastes luxurious, but is super healthy and chocolaty.
I'll be making it again, ahhhhhh maybe tomorrow. Yes, definitely tomorrow.
The Ultimate Chocolate Green Smoothie
So what's in it I hear you ask and why is it so healthy?
Let's start with ripe juicy pears, then add a creamy avocado and then some kale.
The chocolate flavour is organic cacao powder and the extra nutrients come from baobab powder and wheatgrass powder although these are optional.
It's topped up with water and ice, then whizzed until smooth and sipped through a paper straw with a smile.
WARNING: If you don't have a power blender DO NOT ADD ICE! You will burn out the motor. Add it afterwards to your glass instead.
Funnily enough my son quite liked the slightly bitter flavour of the chocolate and finished a large glass of smoothie before heading to school.
My husband Graham, the wuss that he is, found it too bitter, so to stop him pouting, I added some agave nectar to sweeten it a little.
Love juices in the morning? Check out my Beginners Guide to Juicing
Froothie Optimum 9200 Blender
Of course I made my smoothie in my favourite gadget, my power blender.
I actually have a new beast in my kitchen. He's the Optimum 9200 Next Generation. He's even more powerful than the Optimum 9400. If you can believe that?
Have a look at this comparison with the Vitamix Pro 500. It's quite something. I always thought the Vitamix was a powerful beast, but I had to think again.
The 9200 Next Gen is also much cheaper than the Vitamix and on sale just now with a price tag of £329 (that's £100 off).
It may seem like a big price ticket, but it's worth every penny. I use mine every day. My dishwasher is the only kitchen gadget I use more and my beast (blender) doesn't even need to go in the dishwasher as he's self-cleaning.
A difference between the 9200 next gen and the 9400 (which I've been using up until now) is the 9200 has a programmable timer and it's really easy to use too.
All it has is 3 speeds, 3 times and a pulse button. You can choose a speed and blend for as long as need to, select one of the time buttons or use the pulse button for short bursts.
SLOW Speed: To chop or juice. Always switch to slow speed when adding food or liquid during blending.
MEDIUM Speed: Good for harder to blend mixtures and to avoid the contents heating.
FAST Speed: Use this to grind grains, chop ice and blend frozen fruit as well as whole fruit and vegetables.
What can you make in a power blender?
This is what you can make in a power blender
- Smoothies
- Shakes
- Soup
- Sauces
- Purees
- Dips
- Spreads
- Cocktails
- Frozen cocktails
- Ice cream
- Slushies
- Nut milk
- Peanut butter
- Nut butters
- Homemade nutella
- Cake batter
- Bread dough
- Pizza dough
- Falafel
- Burgers
You can also chop fruit and veg.
Have I missed anything?
Oh yes, it makes amazing jam and curd. No standing over a pot stirring, just pop the ingredients in, turn it on, walk away and let it do the business.
The Ultimate Chocolate Green Smoothie
A fruity green smoothie made chocolaty with the addition of organic cacao powder. Sinfully healthy!
Ingredients
- 4 ripe pears
- 1 ripe avocado
- 150g blueberries
- 1 generous handful kale
- 2 tbsp organic cacao powder
- 2 tbsp flaxseeds (linseeds)
- 2 tsp baobab powder
- 2 tsp wheatgrass powder
- top up to 3/4 full with water
- a tray of ice
Instructions
1. Core the pears, leave the skin on, pop in the blender. 2. Remove the flesh from the avocado and add to the blender. 3. Add the kale, blueberries and powders. 4. Top the blender jug with water until it's 3/4 full. 5. Add the ice and blend until smooth. I used the 30 second timer on my 9200, Don't add ice if you don't have a power blender like mine, it could burn out the motor. 6. Pour and enjoy!
Details
Total time: Yield: 6 large glasses
Green Smoothie Recipes
- Green Smoothie - Hungry Healthy Happy
- The Post Workout Green Smoothie Quencher - Fuss Free Flavours
- Key Lime Pie Smoothie with Barleygrass - Little Miss Meat Free
- Pear, Almond & Coconut Green Smoothie - Simplify Your Health
- Green Mango and Spinach Smoothie - Tinned Tomatoes
- Green Ginger Peach Smoothie - Recipes from a Pantry
- Green Valley Elvis Smoothie - Allotment 2 Kitchen
- Spring Tonic Nettle Smoothie - Tin and Thyme
Disclosure: I was sent the 9200 to review. If one is bought through my affiliate link I will gain a commission. I was not expected to write a positive review and any opinions expressed are my own. I truly do love these blenders. Move over Vitamix, the big boys are in town!
Wow! This smoothie is great! What a wonderful combination of ingredients. I would never have been brave enough to put all of these individually delicious ingredients into one smoothie but I am so glad you did because now I know I HAVE to try this!!
ReplyDeleteYou do have to try it Nicole, it is so good. It just works. I seem to have a knack with smoothies. Only one bad one in the last year.
DeleteI absolutely love your smoothie recipe, and definitely will try it! the oOtimum sounds great too; can't beat 6 blades- so much quicker and easier. We are still delighted with our bargain Omniblend and use it 3-4 times a day. My husband saw a row of them in Costa the other day, so they must be quite hard wearing. sorry I didn't do a fridge pic- I've been ill. Is it too late to take one, blog it and link to your post?
ReplyDeleteYes, they are both excellent. And yes still time to add your fridge. I am running it until the end of the month. Looking forward to having a nosey :)
DeleteBetter get snapping then- not much in it today though; may wait til I've shopped!
DeleteOoh another blender Jac, you are being spoilt ;-) Your smoothie sounds tremendous. I haven't tried chocolate and greens as I thought it would end up a rather sludgy colour, but yours looks brilliant.
ReplyDeleteYes I am lucky Choclette. Oh you have to try. It was extremely good.
DeleteLooks gorgeous and bet it tastes great too :)
ReplyDeleteOh it does :)
DeleteOooh this smoothie sounds divine! The addition of sprinkles are a nice touch too :D
ReplyDeleteThanks for noticing the sprinkles, I wondered if anyone would mention them. Sprinkles are always good in my opinion :)
DeleteThis is BETTER than a Vitamix?!? o_0
ReplyDeleteWe're gearing up to get serious with the 5:2; I've lost almost two stone on my own, but Somebody needs the extra support of a partner, so we're thinking smoothies for breakfast on the fast days, and we're looking for a really good machine and doing the boring research bits before we splash out on it. Got to see if I can find and price out one of these...
Yes it's way better and cheaper Tanita. You only need one jug to wet or dry blend. It's more powerful, blends really smooth and you hardly ever need the tamper. It's an amazing piece of kit.
DeleteGreat review of this new beast! It is pretty fab. And between you and Choclette I have some interesting smoothies to be getting on with. :-)
ReplyDeleteOh good, glad I have inspired you :)
DeleteNow this is what I call a green smoothie! Love all the added superfoods :D x
ReplyDeleteThanks Nadia :)
DeleteYour smoothie sounds delicious! My kids would be so happy to have that with sprinkles on in the morning. You also have me yearning for a 'beast' of my own now...
ReplyDeleteYou should go for it Lucy! You'd never look back and it's a great way of getting extra greens into little ones.
DeleteThis looks like my kind of smoothie. I don't have any baobab powder or wheatgrass but I do have maca and spirulina which I could sub for them.
ReplyDeleteYes, you could definitely do that Nikki :)
DeleteI've just been sent some wheatgrass & cacao powder to try and here I was wondering what to do with them! I'm definitely going to try your delicious smoothie!
ReplyDeletehaha, great timing April!
DeleteI like how you camouflaged all greens in this chocolate smoothie. I could probably even trick my girls with this recipe! And sprinkles on top make it soooo pretty. I have similar blender from different brand but is not powerful at all, I really need to look into buying one of those Froothies ;)
ReplyDeleteThe froothie blenders are definitely the most powerful. If you have a look on the website, you can see them blending rocks into dust in seconds. I love mine. And yes sprinkles are always good.
DeleteI'm such a smoothie person and this looks so fun and delicious! On my list now.
ReplyDeleteOh Good Petro, hope you enjoy it!
DeleteLush smoothie and photos Jacs.I really do like the sound of the Froothie and like you I'm sure I'd use it every day if I had one. I've a round birthday at the end of the year so maybe I should put this on my wish list:-) I have some of that baobab powder and keep meaning to make a smoothie with it, thanks for the inspiration:-)
ReplyDeleteGlad to have inspired you and yes start making your birthday list and put that blender at the top :)
DeleteSounds delicious and the sprinkles are a cute touch :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Emily :)
DeleteOoh this sounds great, love how many healthy ingredients are in there but it still looks luxurious :)
ReplyDeleteOh it tasted luxurious too Becca. The greens are just a bonus!
DeleteI have just woken up to this Jac and really do want to bury my face in it.
ReplyDeleteHaha, go ahead Bintu!
DeleteExcited to meet 9200's big brother! He looks very handsome :-)))
ReplyDelete9400's big brother, but doesn't he just!
DeleteHi there how does the noise level compare with the vitamix? Is the 2nd gen 9200 noisier?
ReplyDeleteThanks
Sue
Hmmmmm now you are asking Sue. It's a long time since I used a Vitamix. They are all pretty noisy, but the Optimum range are much more powerful, so you don't thave them running for as long, which I suppose cuts down on the length of time they are being noisy for. I'm not really bothered by it. Hope that helps.
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