Honey Super Smoothies

It's a new year again and what better way to start the year than with some delicious smoothie recipes? Both of these recipes contain superfoods bursting with vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants. They are a great way to counter some of that holiday over-indulgence on sweets, crisps and other slightly less healthy snacks! These recipes will make enough for 2 servings, so you can either share with a loved one or save half in the fridge for the next day!

We've included weights and measures for clarity but it's really not necessary. I for one don't get the scales out to make a morning smoothie and just use 'handfuls' and a regular tea mug to measure the liquids roughly. If you feel like adding a few extra blueberries or have a few extra cherries you need to finish off, then that's absolutely fine. Making smoothies should be fun, quick and easy - so I encourage you not to worry about scales and measuring jugs.

Just Bee Green Breakfast Super Smoothie

Start the day the right way with this breakfast smoothie! A refreshing fruity smoothie, rich in vitamins, potassium, manganese, calcium and iron. You can use our Just Bee Original Vitamin Honey or, if you prefer, one of our flavoured honeys to further enhance this smoothie - It's a great way to use our Turmeric+ Honey!

You will need:

• 2 Bananas (Peeled)
• 1 Apple (Cored)
• The juice of one lemon
• 30g of mild baby spinach leaves (a handful/around 20 leaves)
• 300ml of pineapple juice (a standard tea mug full)
• 2 tsps of Just Bee Honey

To make:

It really is as simple as popping everything in a blender (or a dedicated smoothie maker) and whizzing it until it's smooth and blended, but here's some tips to get the best results!

First, consider how powerful your blender is. If you have a very powerful high quality blender you can just add everything without worrying too much, we would recommend not peeling the apple to get all the goodness from the apple skin. You can also freeze the peeled bananas beforehand so when you blend them you have an instant super chilled smoothie.

If you are starting with an inexpensive blender from the supermarket (which is perfectly fine for making smoothies) then we would recommend peeling the apple and cutting it into smaller chunks, removing some of the larger spinach stems and using chilled in the fridge bananas. It will make getting a smooth 'smoothie' easier and it will cause less stress on the blender blades, motor and mechanisms.

Just Bee Berry Bakewell Super Smoothie

A lunchtime favourite this berry and almond smoothie has a banana and berry taste upfront with a lovely nutty aftertaste, it will give you a great boost so you are ready to start the afternoons work! The almond butter adds a nice touch of creaminess and a little healthy fat.

• 2 Bananas (peeled)
• 125g of Cherries (around 15 cherries)
• 40g of Blueberries (around 25 blueberries)
• 2 tsps of almond butter (smooth)
• 300ml of almond “milk” (a standard tea mug full)
• 2 tsps of Just Bee Honey

To make:

As above, it's as simple as adding everything to the blender and giving it a whizz until it's smooth. All you need to do is remove the cherry stems and de-stone them. There are special gadgets that can do this but I just use my fingers to pull the cherry apart and take them out.

Substituting the bananas:

Bananas are rich in Vitamin B6, potassium and manganese. They also provide us with a lot of dietary fibre. Bananas are also a really excellent fuel for the energy our body uses throughout the day and it's why we use them as one of the main ingredients in our smoothies. They also add a smooth creaminess that you can't really replicate with other fruit. However if you, or someone in your family, doesn't like the taste of bananas they probably won't enjoy these smoothies. For a replacement in this recipes I would suggest using a couple of peaches or nectarines instead which work well with the other flavours in both recipes and add some texture and sweetness.

These smoothies would be impossible to make without the hard work of bees, being essential pollinators for the fruits, berries, almonds and of course our honey! If you enjoy them please help us keep bee numbers healthy this year by planting some of our bee saving seeds this spring that we still send free of charge with every order of our honey!