Mixed berry smoothie with Matcha and Greek yogurt

When I got my stimulus money I squirreled some away but I marched over, immediately, and bought myself a personal smoothie blender. It had always seemed like an awesome luxury, the kind of purchase I would have in my “rich person life” where I own my well, everything, and cook in a kitchen with an appliance the size of my current kitchen, but I let myself splurge and the world has been my smoothie oyster. As my kitchen Buddha looks on, I cook many things which my tiny apartment has not probably seen cooked within its walls, and now, to misquote the magnificent Robin Williams from Aladdin ..”She slices, she dices, she even makes julienne fries…” and now she (I) make smoothies too.

I recently waxed poetic on the kitchen witch which used to hang in my mama’s kitchen when we lived as a young family, also in Beacon, when I was still very little. So much about cooking seemed like magic when I was little, and I marveled at the bubbling pots, the tiny cans of spices and the miraculous rise of cakes. We are quick to scoff at magic or the unexplained because something in our culture tells us if we cannot explain something it is either not worth knowing or so scary, it is not wise to investigate and while we now know the chemistry behind what makes bread rise we have so much to learn about the healing power of food and herbs. What I didn’t say when I was talking about the kitchen witch during Masha’s study group posting was how sad thinking about this symbol, perched high on a shelf looking every bit like Strega Nona, makes me today as a grown woman, because it reminds me of how the special women wisdom we have as people who identify as ladies has been so trivialized and demonized. In this culture today the kitchen witch seems only acceptable as kitsch and nonsense. In my kitchen, surrounded by art, driftwood and precariously balanced pots, pans and a disobedient meat tenderizer (which I have admittedly used as a hammer when mine went missing), I call on the spirit of this old kitchen witch and hope for food which feeds my soul and my spirit, flavored with a sprinkling of fairy dust and a pinch of the miraculous. When I looked up kitchen witch mythology, I got a bunch of information, none of which made sense with what I had been told about the story of how my mamma’s witch came to look over our tiny Beacon kitchen but in my heart I know summoning up the spirit of this kindly crone with origins and religions of some of my ancestors, grounds my food in tradition and hopefully, fingers crossed, helps me gather many kinds of wisdom. Often, I think about how people of old, the ancients and the people who lived even in this past century, would think of things like packaged frozen berries, freezers or personal blenders, and I know, I don’t think I know, they would think of all those things as magic. Who are we today then to scoff at what we need to better understand about the food and kitchens of our ancestors or the food and offerings of the herbs in our gardens and gardens of those from across the world? I recently looked at my infant niece talking to the wind rustling the leaves in her infantanese, and I said “Who are we to know? Maybe the leaves are telling her their secrets and she is the only person here who understands what they’re saying.” It takes humility to move in the world with a spirit of receptive wonder and to listen, no matter who is speaking. I have been fortunate to hear the murmured whispering of the kitchen witches in my life, young and old, and I hope to have the humility to listen…This smoothie was not made over a steaming pot or a rising loaf, but it celebrates the season, body wisdom and act of nourishing yourself with what you need, in the same spirits of the ancients. The kitchen witch in my soul seems to approve.

I make this smoothie pretty frequently, and if I have them, I use a combination of frozen and fresh berries …often I use just frozen because it’s what’s in my house. This time of year, berries are in abundance, sweet, local and BONUS often on sale! Adding seasonal berries of course makes it sweeter, as I don’t use frozen berries with sugar added.

Sometimes I add a tablespoon of vanilla Greek yogurt (or so) to the personal blender, and sometimes I don’t add it at all. Today I was craving some sweetness so I put it at the top as a play on a parfait or smoothie sundae. Using frozen fruit makes it more of something to be eaten with a spoon and if you use unfrozen fruit
it will be more of a drink unless you add ice. Unfortunately I am pretty concerned about the density of my bones, so I am always looking to add calcium into my life, but I know people have sensitivity and/or objections to dairy so you could easily make this with sweetened almond or oat milk, with very good resuts and skip the yogurt on top.

Ingredients (per serving)

0.5 cup of frozen fruit mixed berries (you could use other fruit, but I like berries and their vitamins)

2-3 tbls skim milk

0.5 tsp of culinary grade matcha powder

2 tbls of vanilla Greek yogurt, lightly sweetened

berries for garnishing (optional)

Plan of Attack

Add all the ingredients into your personal blender and purée. Add the Greek yogurt on top and garnish with strawberries.

If making for 2 or more, use the same ratio, but use your traditional blender.