Vegan Smoothies vs Harvest Bowls: What’s Better?

If you are following a vegan diet you are doing it for the sake of your health. Many people have chosen to take meat and other products out of their diet and concentrate on vegan meals, and it is a healthy way of living. There is also a lot more choice than many would have you believe, so much in fact that it can become difficult to choose what you want to eat.

In the article that follows we are talking about vegan smoothies and harvest bowls. These are two popular options in the plant-based diet regime. Is one better than the other? What can you put in either? And are they, in fact, healthy? We’ll also talk a little about vegan meal delivery services, which can save a lot of time and money. Let’s start by talking in more detail about vegan smoothies.

What Goes in a Vegan Smoothie?

The smoothie has become a favourite not just with vegans, but with people on a health kick who want to get their ‘five a day’ fruit and veg intake.

Easy to make, and also to experiment with, smoothies can include just about anything. However, some fruits and vegetables taste better in the pureed state than others, and some when mixed may not work together. Here’s a few of the vegan smoothie recipes that are among the most popular:

• Mango, bananas and spinach is a typically odd sounding selection of fruit and veg to mix together, but you’ll be amazed how great this tastes. Not only that, but all three ingredients include nutrients that you want and need, especially the bananas and spinach. A great pick me up, and great for a breakfast smoothie.
• Mix strawberries, bananas and oatmeal with almond milk and throw in some vanilla essence, and you have a quite delicious smoothie suitable for breakfast or any other time of day. This remarkably filling smoothie will provide you with plenty of potassium, a necessary element for your health, as well as many other nutrients. Easy to make and great for storing in the fridge for when you get hungry.
• A citrus smoothie is always a popular choice, so why not go all the way and include not only oranges and lemons, but also pineapple, mango and banana for the nutrients? If you want, add that useful veg – spinach – for green flavour and colour, and you have the ideal lunchtime smoothie.

That’s just a few of the smoothie recipes that should give you some inspiration, but what if you don’t have the time to stand around blending your smoothie ready for use? One solution is to make them in bulk and either keep them in fridge or freeze them for future use. Another is to have your smoothies and other vegan dishes delivered.

If you have a look at this website – https://www.glam-vegan.com/daily-harvest-vs-splendid-spoon/ – you’ll find reviews of delivery services that cater for vegans especially, so you can be sure your meals are entirely plant-based. It’s a great idea, and one that should give you some inspiration. Now let’s talk about harvest bowls, another vegan favourite.

What is in a Harvest Bowl? 

As with the smoothie, there are no strict rules as to what goes into a gravest bowl. As the name suggests, this is a dish that is usually made using the foods that are in harvest at the time of eating. It’s personal choice, but you’ll usually find a mix of vegetables and fruit as well as flavouring syrups and dressings, and frequently with added nuts.

A favourite of ours involves the following: brussels sprouts – important for minerals not found in many vegetables – mixed with lemon, tahini and olive oil. The sprouts and any other vegetables – parsnips go well with this recipe – are roast and dressed with the olive oil and lemon, creating a quite delectable and sharp dish that is rather tasty.

Another popular combination is that combining aubergine, spinach, cherry tomatoes and maple syrup with wild rice, the veg again being roasted for the best taste. Roasting also leaves a lot of the nutrients in the food for a healthier dish. There are other items you could add to this one for texture, perhaps squash, which appears in our next suggestion.

A true harvest bowl is one that is made from vegetables that are ready in the fall. This one features butternut squash, kale and green lentils – all roasted for effect – plus apple and maple syrup for a little sweetener. Potatoes – especially in baby new form – also go well with any harvest bowl, and broccoli is an important plant in a vegan diet.

As you can see, the scope for making delicious and sometimes unusual harvest bowls is ripe, and there are many more foods you can use than those we have mentioned. In fact, experimenting is what it’s all about, so try your hand with some of your favourite fruit and veg and see what you can come up with.

The title asks which is best, so did we arrive at a conclusion? Let’s see if we can wrap this up.

Delivering a Balanced Diet

We are fortunate to live in an age where affordable healthy foods are readily available and with plentiful choice. That makes it easy for you to pick and choose the plant foodstuff you want to use to make your smoothies and harvest bowls. Now to talk about which is better, and the answer is: neither!

The truth is that each serves its purpose, and having both as part of your balanced vegan diet makes a lot of sense. The smoothie – easy and quick to make and delicious in all forms – is a popular dish with non-vegans, as is the harvest bowl. The latter provides a different set of nutrients, and is worth looking at more for inspirational recipes.

With vegetables and fruit being cheap and plentiful, you have the impetus to start experimenting with different flavours, so try some out now and see what you come up with.