On The Greenest Day of The Year, Eat Some Greens
March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day, also known as the greenest day of the year, and so what better time to pack in some healthy green food? If you are looking for some healthy green food ideas for your St. Patty’s Day celebration, look no further! Here I share seven healthy green dishes to delight the senses and nourish the body.
1. Peppermint Smoothie
Why not start the greenest day of the year with a green smoothie with fresh mint?
Frozen bananas, your favorite plant milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk here), and a bunch of peppermint blend into a fresh nutritious smoothie. To get the recipe for this smoothie, plus 32 more healthy drink recipes (including the Green Monster Smoothie, another green drink option), check out my ebook Drink To Your Health, it’s my gift to you – aren’t you lucky!
2. Seven Greens Salad
The key to this salad is simple: combine your seven favorite green veggies into a bountiful nourishing salad. For a list of possible green foods to include in your salad, check out the recipe for Seven Greens Salad.
3. Green Soda Bread
No dish says St. Patty’s day like Irish soda bread, but this soda bread is extra special because it’s green! The key to this bread’s brilliant green hue is to blend a healthy dose of spinach into the dough. Soda bread suddenly becomes a lot more nutritious with the extra green. Find the easy illustrated recipe for Green Soda Bread here.
4. Green Grape Kabobs
This dish is so simple it’s one ingredient! Simply green grapes and wooden kabob sticks is all you need. For some reason stringing green grapes on a wooden stick makes eating them even more fun and easy, especially for parties or when hosting guests.
5. Irish Garden Stew
Serve up a taste of Ireland with this all plants version of the national dish, Irish Stew. This stew features a selection of tasty roots and herbs and would make an excellent centerpiece to your St. Patrick’s day feast. Find the easy recipe for Irish Garden Stew here.
6. Kiwi Plate
Here’s another one-ingredient healthy green food—simply kiwis platter. Fresh fruit is a nutrient packed food and kiwis pack more vitamin C than oranges, making them a great choice for keeping your immune system strong during the current flu/virus season.
7. Frosty Mint Lemonade
Another healthy green drink that features mint is this frosty mint lemonade. Simply combine the juice of 4-5 lemons, 1 quart of water, 3 tablespoons of agave, 1 cup of fresh mint leaves, and 1 cup of ice in a blender and blend until well combined. Add more ice for a more frosty beverage. This one was a big hit and was the first dish to vanish during our St. Patricks’s day feast.
Add Some Extra Green Into Your Life
Of course there are countless other ways to bring a little extra green into your life, or into your St. Patrick’s Day celebration. For ours I also made pesto pasta with green peas, green onions, avocados, arugula and green olives as optional pasta toppings. I served fresh key limes to accompany the green lemonade. I also made simple kabobs featuring cucumbers and tempeh. The healthy green foods you can make are up to your creativity and what you have available, but hopefully you have some more ideas now to get you started.
Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona duit, Happy St. Patrick’s Day! May these green foods nourish your body, may love nourish your heart, and may your life be blessed with health and good fortune.
