The beetroot smoothie

The breakfast smoothie has transformed my relationship to the beetroot (and other salad vegetables). It has gone from an eating chore to a drinking pleasure, and I get five-a-day before I leave the house in the morning. I would recommend getting a smoothie machine (blender) to everyone, and I should probably link to a commercial product at this stage but I'm not there yet. Here's the recipe:

Basic beetroot smoothie

1 precooked beetroot
1 unpeeled carrot
1 unpeeled chunk of cucumber
1 large orange, squeezed
some apple juice (optional)
5 cherry tomatoes

Whizz it up in the blender. It's very nice.

Some variations

Once you've enjoyed the delights of the basic recipe, then you can enhance even more with some of these variations:

A handful of blueberries (just add them to the above)
A peach - even the rock hard peaches add pleasantness (maybe omit the carrot)
Some melon - melons and peaches are divine in smoothies.