I’d never given much thought to blenders. My past few have come from Buy Nothing; I think my husband once found one on the bike path. Nope, never gave them much thought until this summer, when I was cooking a vegetarian feast that I auctioned off as part of a fundraiser.
I had just blitzed together a gazpacho whose pieces – ripe red tomatoes, crisp cucumber and crunchy green pepper – had been marinating in the fridge for hours with some sherry as per José Andrés’ directions. I lifted the pitcher off its base…and several quarts of gazpacho came spilling out the bottom. That was it. It was time for me to purchase a real blender. It was time for a Vitamix.
I did my due diligence and purchased mine on sale online. But to justify its cost I started doing something I’d never done before: I started making smoothies for breakfast. Our favorite so far has been this cranberry smoothie. Cranberries are in season in late Autumn, and we have taken to freezing entire bags so that we can use them in our morning smoothies.
The original recipe calls for rice milk, but we’ve started to really enjoy oat milk as a dairy alternative. The sugar here is from dates, and I’ll admit there are a lot of them. Be sure to add each ingredient in the order it is in the recipe – liquids on the bottom and frozen things on the top. I must admit I have had to keep this blended for longer than the 45 seconds the recipe calls for. Sometimes it takes a couple of minutes for everything to blend together smoothly. The results are a perfect blend of tart and sweet; a refreshing way to start the morning.
And you don’t need to have a Vitamix to make this recipe. Just make sure your blender isn’t off the bike path.
Preparation: 5 minutes
Processing: at least 45 seconds
Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients
2 cups oat or rice milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ lemon, peeled
15 dates, pitted
2 cups frozen cranberries
Directions
Add all ingredients to the blender container in the order listed and secure the lid. Blend on high for 45 seconds or until desired consistency.
Molly Parr lives in Florence with her husband and two young daughters. She’s been writing her food blog, Cheap Beets, since 2010. Send questions or comments to molly.parr@gmail.com.