The perfect choc-mint smoothie...

Is there any better combination than mint and chocolate? If you can get hold of chocolate mint it makes THE best choc-mint smoothie. Mint is pretty easy to grow and it likes space to spread - once planted in the ground, you will have trouble getting rid of it! To contain it, give it its own garden bed or use a big pot, however the latter will see your mint become pot bound pretty quickly. in the picture here, regular mint is the bigger leaves and chocolate mint is the smaller leaves. Here are some ideas for flavouring your smoothie with chocolate and mint.

Base smoothie for 500ml / 2 cups

• 2 pieces of fruit - pear and /or banana works best
• 3/4 cup of milk, water or coconut water (If your fruit is not quite perfectly ripe, coconut water is the best choice, milk and lovely ripe fruit makes the yummiest)
  
• a sources of fat e.g. 1/4 of an avocado, 2 tbs hemp or sunflower seeds, or 10-12 cashews or 6-8 macadamias (chocolate smoothies taste best with fat in the smoothie and the fat helps to absorb minerals and fat soluble vitamins

• 1 tiny pinch of salt (helps bring out chocolate flavour)
  

• fresh mint leaves - use 2-3 sprigs at least, I use more than this, more like 10!

Chocolate options

• 1-2 tbs of cacao / cocoa powder
• if pregnant or breastfeeding drop this amount to 1-2 tsp to avoid stimulating the baby
• Omit the fat as above and add around 30g of real chocolate
  

---