Last week at the grocery store, there were figs. They looked so good that I bought them and brought them home before I remembered that I don’t really like figs.
They sat in the fridge for days while I hoped that someone else in the family would open the door, say, “Ooo! Figs!” and scarf them down.
After nearly a week, I finally looked up figs online to get some serving suggestions. All of the articles about eating figs were predicated on the idea that figs are really awesome and yummy, which really didn’t help me out. I needed something in which to hide my figs and make them palatable to me, if not to the rest of my family. All of the articles also made it clear that figs last only a few days in the fridge, so I needed to act fast.
I remembered a yummy chocolate smoothie recipe I’d made years ago. I looked up the recipe in I Am Grateful by Terces Englehart and Orchid. It called for dates and nut milk, too, neither of which I had right then, so I decided to wing it, buoyed by the assurance that adding figs to a smoothie was not, in fact, unprecedented.
I threw a bunch of stuff in the blender, and when I tasted it, I was pleasantly surprised. It tasted quite yummy. And between the caffeine in the cocoa and the laxative properties of the figs, this smoothie really got me going. So to speak.
I put figs in my smoothie this morning, too, without chocolate and with greens. It was fine, but not awesome. If you really want it, I’ll share that one, too. For now, here’s the chocolatey one.
Chocolatey Figgy Smoothie
yields about 4 cups
Ingredients:
3 black mission figs, washed
3 strawberries, washed
1 banana, peeled
soy milk or other non-dairy milk (about one cup)
2 T raw cacao powder (or regular cocoa, for a stronger flavor)
1 t vanilla
1 rounded scoop lecithin granules (optional. I like using lecithin for the silky-smooth texture it gives my smoothies)
5 ice cubes
Place the figs and strawberries in the blender. Pour soy milk over them until it reaches the “1 cup” line on the blender pitcher. Add the remaining ingredients and blend for 30-60 seconds until smooth.
Imperfect Happiness 