Vegan MoFo 365 Vegan Smoothies cookbook review & recipe

Today, I'll be reviewing 365 Vegan Smoothies by Kathy Patalsky

I'm a big fan of Kathy's vegan recipe blog, and was very excited for her to release her first cookbook earlier this year! This is a cookbook devoted to smoothies, using a simple blender.  Many of the ingredients in these recipes are also simple, and accessible, which makes this a nice collection of recipes for any kitchen.

Kathy has the recipes in this book broken into 12 chapters, each devoted to a specific outcome, for instance, month 6 is Brain-boosting smoothies, whereas month 10 is Mood-boosting smoothies. When I first got the book, I envisioned myself working my way through every smoothie recipe, starting with the first, ending with the last, over the course of a year. But then reality set in, and I was jumping from chapter to chapter, deciding on a recipe to use based on a) what I wanted it to do, and b) what ingredients I had on hand.  I admit, most of my cooking decisions are based on B.

The first thing I had to do to review this book was to go track it down- I keep all of my vegan cookbooks on one of three shelves in my office, and this book was NOT THERE. But then I remembered that a few weeks ago, Rob and I were talking about smoothies and how easy they were to make, and I found it on his nightstand!

I decided to make recipe number 62, the Watermelon Frosty because, Hooray! (or Bali! Bali! as I learned to say in my Bhangra class) my farmer friend is back from his vacation, and had some lovely small watermelons this week.

The recipe called for 2 cups of frozen watermelon chunks.  Since I bought the melon this morning, it's not frozen, but that's okay, because my banana is. One half of my small watermelon looks about like 2 cups, right?

The recipe also called for lime juice (didn't have any, I used lemon instead), half a banana (I used a whole banana, because, hey, I'm an athlete, I need potassium, and what's going to happen to that other half?) and maple or agave syrup (I had both on hand, but used maple because that combination seemed odd to me).

The recipe also called for coconut water. Generally, I've found that when I'm blending watermelon, I don't need to add any liquids, but I bet this is handy when you have frozen banana chunks. Ok, now we've exposed the fact that I am TERRIBLE at following recipe directions. That's all right. I come out with deliciousness on the flip side, so it's cool.

I ended up blending the other half of the watermelon with some fresh basil to drink later, just so I would only have to cut up watermelon once. You know, I actually prefer drinking my watermelon to eating it! Weird, right?

Enjoy!

You can buy Kathy's book here