Low Calorie Shabbat Treat

To achieve optimal weight, a diet should be based around vegetables. Unfortunately, most of us don’t eat nearly enough vegetables.  A great way to rectify this imbalance is to begin with a celery smoothie.  There are two steps in correcting a diet: increasing consumption of healthy foods while also decreasing consumption of un-healthy foods.  

 

The celery  smoothie is ideal for this two pronged task. Celery is the ideal diet food.  It helps to dry up dampness (phlegm/fat) caused by excess sugar consumption and also helps curb our sugar cravings. This  makes it easier to begin on our path towards healthier eating.

 

When I make a smoothie, I add a variety of other vegetables using a few different principles.  The  first thing that I am looking for is watery vegetables that will give it a more liquid texture.  Examples of these are cucumbers and sprouts.   The next thing I am looking for is a bit of sweetness, here I use a carrot.  After that I will add a bitter vegetable (like a radish) to help the celery clean out the dampness and toxins in the system.  On occasion, I will add a member of the onion family, I prefer scallions for their more gentle flavor.

 

The fact that it’s pureed helps for two reasons. The smoothie is condensed and so a large amount of vegetables looks a lot smaller.  The second reason is because unfortunately, many of us have forgotten how to chew our food. (Each bite of food should be chewed between thirty to fifty times).   Starting a diet with a smoothie will help us to digest better, until we once again, relearn how to chew whole grains and firm vegetables.

 

I recommend making a batch of this in the morning, serve it on a bed of quinoa or brown rice and don’t eat anything else until it’s finished.  There should usually be enough for more than one meal.   Chances are, after finishing it all up,  you won’t be hungry for anything else.

 

Ingredients:

Puree all the ingredients in a food processor and serve on a bed of quinoa or brown rice.

 

Enjoy!