Oh my goodness, I discovered something wonderful this week! My family loves cilantro and we make it a point to eat it regularly, not only because we like it, but because of it’s amazing health benefits. I first read that cilantro could remove heavy metals from the body in the book Nourishing Traditions. Ever since then, I looked at cilantro in a new way and we’ve made a point to seek it out for many years. In today’s world, our bodies are bombarded with more toxins and heavy metals than ever before, so I feel it’s wise to be adding foods to the diet that help remove those things.

All that being said, I heard about adding cilantro to smoothies. We add it to our meals and we also juice it regularly, but I was unsure about adding it to smoothies, wondering how it would alter the taste. This week I finally decided to give it a try. I made the smoothie with blueberries, peaches, and bananas (along with coconut milk, coconut oil, bee pollen, spirulina, chorella, and lots of other healthy add ons.) The first time Bracken and I picked all the cilantro leaves off the stems and added a whole bundle of cilantro to the smoothie. I tentatively tried it after blending it up and I loved it! Jeff and Bracken agreed. I couldn’t really taste the cilantro, but it gave the smoothie a light and refreshing something to it.

I decided to make a second smoothie this week. I wanted to see if the first time was just a fluke, or if I made a cilantro smoothie a second time that we would still like it. The second time Bracken asked if we could please try not removing the stems, and see what happened. I cut off the bulk of the stems off the ends of each bundle (I added two bundles of cilantro the second time, but they were small bundles, equivalent to one large) and then left the rest of the stems. When we blended it up, you couldn’t tell there were any stems at all, so I was glad he wanted to try that because I’ll be using that faster and easier method in the future. And the second time? We loved the smoothie again, so I’m happy to say this new discovery, of adding cilantro to smoothies, is here to stay.

I can’t tell you how delighted I am to be able to add cilantro to our smoothies, knowing what great benefits it adds. Also, I love cilantro in our smoothies so much that I actually like the way our smoothies taste better with cilantro than without it! I never imagined that would be the case. We were without a working blender for years, so smoothies were a rare treat when we were out and about, and we missed them. (We had a cheap blender and then an old Vitamix from a garage sale and I knew how terrible the cheap blender was and didn’t want to get a new blender until we could afford a good quality one.)  At the Mother Earth News Fair this year, Vitamix had a booth and they were offering an incredible deal on their blenders. We were able to send in our old Vitamix and get $100 off our purchase of a new blender, and they had such a good deal going that we simply couldn’t pass it up. (I’m not getting any compensation for writing this, and I’ve heard many people who love both their Vitamix blenders and their Blentec blenders, I’m merely saying we’ve been enjoying our new blender.)

We were all so happy to have a blender again! I’ve been making smoothies usually once a week. I’ve also used our new blender to make batches of pesto. It grinds everything up so well and I can add big chunks of ginger root to our smoothies and it will blend it into the smoothie entirely, without any little chunks remaining.  Same with the cilantro stems. It’s nice to have a good tool. We had an inexpensive juicer and then a high-quality one and the difference in ease of use and everything was such a contrast to see. So, yes, we are enjoying having a good working blender and I’ve been working on a smoothie recipe to share with you all. In the meantime, I wanted to share about adding cilantro to smoothies because now that I’ve discovered how good it is, I want to tell everyone about it. I know green smoothies are pretty popular right now, and you might already be doing this, but in case you are like me and were a bit late jumping on the green smoothie bandwagon, I thought I’d invite you to join!

P.S. I’m on a green kick lately. Cilantro. Spirulina. Chorella. And I just bought barley juice powder from Mountain Rose Herbs. This week I made popsicles with bananas, coconut milk, and spirulina. (There are bubbles on the top right after pouring, when I’ve just blended it all up in the blender.) I’ve made popsicles with bananas and coconut milk before, and sometimes with berries added, but adding the spirulina was a really good addition. More refreshing. Once again, I liked the popsicles better with the spirulina than without it. It’s easy to add healthy things to the mix when you enjoy eating them so much. Now I’m thinking that making my favorite smoothie recipe and pouring it in popsicle molds is the next thing to try!