It’s officially the Fall season and winter is coming. We recently put on a smoothie booth for Kaiser Permanente‘s employee health and wellness fair in Tracy, California at the Eagal Lakes Resort. We were prepared to serve 400 smoothies from 10 AM to 3:00 PM. We set out from the San Francisco Bay Area at 8:00 AM, headed east into the Central California Valley, prepared for a warm October day and lots of curious healthcare workers (and their families!).
The day was beautiful and sunny, just as we had predicted and the crowds were curious, also as predicted. But what we didn’t predict was how quickly we would serve all 400 smoothies–in just three and a half hours! We started serving at 10:00 AM, on the dot, and didn’t stop until we ran out at about 1:30 PM.
For this particular event we chose one recipe and called it our Anti-Flu Super Smoothie, to fit the theme Kaiser had chosen for their event,”Camp Flu-be-gone“. We calculated our quantities for serving 400, 9 oz. cups of tasty, tasty smoothie and were pleasantly surprised that our numbers were pretty spot on. Having found a tasty, easy to replicate recipe, we thought we’d share our success with you, dear reader.
If you are setting up a smoothie booth and want to serve one recipe for 400 smoothies (again, 9 oz. cups), give this recipe a try!
The Anti-Flu Super Smoothie
Qty 400 Smoothies ( 9 oz cups)
What we bought:
- 50 lbs of blueberries (4 cases at 10 lbs and 4 bags at 2.5 lbs)
- 3 lbs of flax seed* (weighed out in the bulk section of our local natural foods grocer)
- 18 jugs of pomegranate juice @ 64 oz each
- 1 case of curly kale (about 24 bunches)
- 400 9 oz cups
- Back up bags of mixed berries (8 oz bags, or whatever was available)
Ingredients for One smoothie jug:
- 16 ounces of pomegranate juice
- 1 Tbsp of flax seed*
- 1 cup of blueberries (frozen)
- 1 stalk of curly kale
How to make it:
In your blender jug, first add 16 ounces of pomegranate juice. Then add a tablespoon of flax seed. Next dump in the frozen berries. And finally, the kale. Imagine that you are layering your smoothie ingredients when you put them in the jug. You want to add the liquids first, then the softest ingredients followed by the progressively harder, denser or more fibrous ingredients. If you are blending kale, carrots or ice, those items should always be added last.
Once everything is in the jug, attach is to blender base, strap it down, and start pedaling. Pedal for at least 60 seconds at a high cadence. Everyone can blend this smoothie but if kids start them, adults should finish them, in order to properly process the kale.
This smoothie is really tasty. The pomegranate juice adds nice “zing” to the flavor profile and the flax seed* contributes exciting texture. There’s no need to add ice to this recipe if your berries are frozen. To keep frozen things frozen, we use a large insulated cooler box.
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*A word on flax seed. Flax seed eaten whole is tasty. However, flax seed is most beneficial for you when it is ground or pulverized. For a more healthful and nutritious smoothie, try pulverizing your flax seeds and then sprinkling some whole seeds on top of a poured smoothie.