With the abundance of fresh mint in the yard, I decided I had to find a smoothie to make that would really highlight the mint. And what goes best with fresh mint? OK, that isn’t really a serious question, we all know the answer… it’s chocolate.

I created a quick and very easy mint chocolate chip smoothie that you would swear cannot be good for you, until you hear there is a full 2 cups of baby spinach in there. If Mark hadn’t walked into the kitchen while I was making it, I know I could have totally convinced him it was some type of junk food. But when he tasted it and I asked him what he thought, his reply was “this is so amazing, but I saw you put something green in there, what was it?”. He couldn’t believe that is was baby spinach. There is no weird texture or taste, at all.

The spinach brings a beautiful shade of green to the drink, but besides a serving or two of your daily veggies, it also supplies you with many wonderful benefits like Vitamins K, A and C. Plus spinach is a great natural anti-inflammatory. Additionally, spinach is found to have a new category of health-supportive nutrients called glycoclycerolipids, studies are now showing glycoglycerolipids from spinach can help protect the lining of the digestive tract from damage — especially damage related to unwanted inflammation. Read more about the benefits of spinach here.

This smoothie is creamy with a really nice fresh mint flavor and the little flecks of chocolate are perfect. If you don’t want to blend the chocolate chips in or you don’t want the little bit of sugar from them, instead just blend in a tablespoon or two of good quality unsweetened baking cocoa or even shavings of a good quality unsweetened chocolate. I didn’t have any unsweetened chocolate on hand or I would have went with that.

This would be a great smoothie to serve the kids (or your hubby) to sneak in a ton of veggies.

[print_this]Mint Chocolate Chip Smoothie – Gluten-free + Vegan
serves 1

• 1 cup organic unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or other non-dairy milk of your choice)
• 1 frozen organic banana (if it isn’t frozen, just add a bit more ice in at the end)
• 2 cups tightly packed organic baby spinach
• 1/3 cup tightly packed fresh mint leaves
• 1 tablespoon ground chia seeds (optional)
• 2 Medjool dates (or any other sweetener of your choice like maple syrup or maple sugar, honey, liquid stevia, etc)
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup dairy-free, gluten-free mini chocolate chips
• small handful of ice cubes

Add all of the ingredients except the chocolate chips and the ice to your blender and blend until very smooth and creamy, blend for about 3 minutes. Then add in the ice and blend until there are no large chunks, then add the chocolate chips and give it a few pulses to break them up a bit. Serve immediately. Toss a few chocolate chips or some chocolate shavings on top with a sprig of fresh mint, if you wish.

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