Weird Experiment

When you’re hungry and dreaming about food, do you ever have weird ideas of stuff you’ll try to make later?  This happens to me all the time.  And usually when I actually try to make the thing I envisioned, it turns into an inedible mess. 

Well, I had this idea to puree beets and freeze them in my ice cube tray to be used in smoothies.  This idea came about when I first got my food processor and realized that a whole new world of food preparation was opening up to me.  And it actually didn’t turn out too badly. 

First I boiled the beets until they were tender.  Then I peeled them and pureed them in my food processor. 

Then I transferred the cooked beet puree into an ice cube tray.  Once it was frozen solid, I moved the cubes into a plastic bag and kept them in the freezer for future use.  

The first smoothie I made was simple.  I didn’t have any juice on hand, so it was heavily dairy based.  I used milk, homemade yogurt (I’ll share this recipe with you some day), a frozen banana and some frozen yogurt.  And I added two of my beet cubes and some frozen mangoes.

 

The result was, um, kind of milky and beety.  I have to admit I didn’t love it, so I added a few drops of vanilla extract.  Once the vanilla was added, I rather enjoyed the purple beverage.  

The next day, I decided to try another version.  This time I used orange juice as a base, along with some milk and more of my homemade yogurt.  Frozen bananas, frozen mangoes, and frozen pineapple.

I must say, I really enjoyed this one.  The tart-but-sweetness of the orange juice and the pineapple really offset the power of the beet flavor and sweetness.  And the magenta color was pretty stunning.  I loved it.  The best part was that I got to warm my self-righteous insides on the fact that I'm consuming beets.