Anti Inflammatory Smoothie with Foraged Superfood Ingredients

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This anti inflammatory smoothie recipe features an underappreciated “superfood” that’s commonly mistaken for a weed.

Green smoothie pros, put down your avocados and spinach. Here’s something a little different from your everyday smoothie, featuring one of my favorite foraged greens, purslane.

Free superfood? YES! Purslane may be growing in your yard at this very moment — go check and then blend yourself a refreshing, healthy anti inflammatory smoothie!

You can totally use spinach if that’s all you have on hand, because you’re going to want to go try this winning combination as soon as you finish the post!

Until a couple of years ago, my smoothies were pretty much always just yogurt blended with whatever frozen fruit had accumulated in the freezer. But when I started whirring up fruit + veggie combinations for baby purees, I discovered that vegetables were actually a pretty tasty addition to grown-up smoothies and twigged onto the whole green smoothie thing that’s now caught on in a big way.

After I finished putting up the little one’s blueberry-broccoli combo, I’d leave some in the blender for myself. I found that the little bits of frozen broccoli actually add a surprisingly nice texture and no detectable flavor if you’re not too heavy-handed.

Why to Try This Anti Inflammatory Smoothie Recipe

When there were some extra beets lying around, a smoothie veteran suggested adding them to my next concoction.  The only fruit on hand was canned pineapple,* so that went in as well, with some frozen broccoli for texture.  A little flax for omega-3s and fiber, and then some ginger and turmeric for an anti-inflammatory boost. This combo worked surprisingly well; the ginger wasn’t overpowering, and the normally bitter turmeric wasn’t even noticeable.

Plus a sprinkle of chia — I felt like I’d started the day supercharged by all these healthy ingredients, just like all the proponents of green smoothies promised. Real or imagined? You’ll have to decide for yourself after your own anti inflammatory smoothie!

To make your smoothie-making as easy as possible, I recommend investing in a high quality blender. I recently acquired a Vitamix, and its powerful motor has made blending up delicious smoothies an absolute breeze.

Best of all it’s SO easy to clean compared to other blenders I’ve used! Full disclosure: knowing I’d have to clean the blender always made me less likely to make smoothies. Taking everything apart and washing each piece by hand was just too much nuisance. Now I just add a little soap and water, and the blender cleans itself, no disassembly required! Woo-hoo!

Find out more about Vitamix and how they can make healthy smoothies and meals a snap here.

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Did You Know You Can Forage Superfoods in Your Yard?

I challenged myself to add other super-ingredients and got to thinking about purslane, a truly amazing little weed I’ve mostly ignored as it flourished on my boulevard. After double-checking a couple weed identification sites, I went out and picked some, as I was running low on other smoothie ingredients and didn’t think anything could beat purslane nutritionally.

I’m pleased to report that purslane-pineapple-ginger anti inflammatory smoothie is really tasty, and you can find purslane just about anywhere for free during the growing season.  One of your neighbors might even offer you money to take it away!

According to John Kallas, author of Edible Wild Plants, the whole plant is edible. Don’t worry about taking the last little bits from your yard, as it seems this little wonder plant is indestructible.

Packed with vitamins and one of the best plant sources of omega-3s, this green is versatile and works well as a salad ingredient, in stir-fries, and of course as the green in your green smoothie. There are a bunch of other purslane recipes to try if you have any left over after your smoothie.

I like it so much, I’ve tried harvesting and spreading the seeds in other unused areas of the yard. I even bought some of the golden variety to plant as a groundcover in an area that needed one.

Yup, I planted weeds, purslane’s that cool. 

Here’s a purslane recipe to try next time you want a not-too-sweet anti inflammatory smoothie with some serious nutritional punch. (And here are loads more purslane recipes to explore if you have an abundance of this wild superfood.)

No purslane growing near you? You can sub in spinach, or forage some other green goodness, like wild violets, lambsquarters (aka wild spinach), wood sorrel, or dandelions. The very mild tasting Virginia waterleaf is an exceptionally early green that’s available pretty much all season, and it would work well in this smoothie.

Anti Inflammatory Smoothie Recipe with Purslane, Pineapple & Ginger 

1 loose-packed cup of purslane (fine if you include some thinner stems and seeds) or spinach
1 cup fresh or frozen pineapple*
1/2 c. yogurt, or non-dairy milk/kefir if preferred
1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
1/2 tsp. fresh ginger, diced

Optional: 1 tsp ground flax and/or chia seeds for additional fiber and nutrients. (Follow this link for a great price on chia!)

If you like a sweeter anti inflammatory smoothie, you could add a half a banana, a little all-fruit jam, or some honey. You can sub in other greens foraged from your yard as well. Try violets earlier in the season, as well as lambsquarters or chickweed.

There are quite a number of other edible and medicinal weeds worth knowing about. I highlight several of them in my post on weeds you can eat.

Bottoms up! If you try this anti-inflammatory smoothie recipe, leave a note in the comments and tell me what you thought.

**Be sure to read instructions on weed identification carefully before foraging for wild edibles.** Steve Brill warns when looking for purslane:

Beware of spurge, a different-looking poisonous creeping wild plant that sometimes grows near purslane. The stem is wiry, not thick, and it gives off a white, milky sap when you break it. If you’re very careless, you may put some in your bag along with purslane, because they sometimes grow together on lawns, gardens, and meadows.

Learn more about how to identify purslane and how to distinguish spurge vs purslane.

Up here in the northern part of the country, purslane doesn’t seem to get going till it’s quite warm, late June through the fall frost. If you live in a more temperate climate, you can find it sooner.

I’ve started gathering up all I can find and popping it in the freezer for anti inflammatory smoothies after everything’s blanketed in snow.

>>>> If you need more smoothie inspiration, check out more than 50 of the best easy healthy smoothie recipes I’ve rounded up for you!

*Pineapple is on a lot of lists of anti-inflammatory foods, but according to the Nutrition Diva, the canning process destroys the key enzyme, bromelain, which is what all the excitement is about.

-> Check out this post on anti-inflammatory food for more on why these are great ingredients to sneak in anywhere you can for pain relief, long-term health, and anti-aging. Here are 20+ top superfoods to consider eating more often.

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Photo credits: Stacy, Harry Rose, judywitts

Susannah

Susannah is a health and environmental writer focusing on gardening, foraging, medicinal plants, and sustainability. Her work has appeared in Mother Earth Living, Ensia, Northern Gardener, Sierra, and on numerous websites. Her first book, Everything Elderberry, released in September 2020 and was a #1 new release in holistic medicine, naturopathy, herb gardening, and other categories. Find out more and grab your copy here.