Name: Green Apple Pie Smoothie
Total time: PLACEHOLDER
Ingredients: 2½ cups baby spinach; 1¼ cups dairy or plant-based milk; ⅓ cup walnuts , toasted and chopped; ½ cup ice; 1 apple , peeled, cored, halved, and cut into 1-inch pieces; ½ teaspoon grated lemon zest; ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract; ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Why This Recipe Works

For our apple element, we decided to stick with a fresh apple for its more suitable tart flavor, but peeling it first helped cut down on the mealy texture. Toasting the walnuts before adding them to the blender gave the smoothie a thickened texture and a nutty flavor that reminded us of a well-baked crust. During testing, we found that blending the spinach, walnuts, and milk first on high gave us a smooth paste to work with and created room in the blender jar for more ingredients after breaking down the 2½ cups of spinach. Finally, we enhanced that familiar apple-pie flavor by adding some zippy lemon zest, toasty-tasting vanilla extract, and a touch of warm cinnamon.

Before You Begin

We had the best success using McIntosh and Golden Delicious apples, as they blend well, but any variety will work.

Instructions

Add spinach, milk, and walnuts to blender and process on high speed until smooth, about 1 minute.

Add ice, apple, lemon zest, vanilla, and cinnamon (in that order) and blend on low speed until mixture is combined but still coarse in texture, about 10 seconds. Gradually increase speed to high and process until completely smooth, about 90 seconds. Adjust consistency with extra milk as needed. Serve.