The Russell Hobbs Illumina & the power of The Green Smoothie

After having hamperings to get myself a new blender for longer than I can remember, I was mightily chuffed a few weeks ago to receive an Illumina Jug Blender from Russell Hobbs to try out. I usually make my fruit smoothies with a hand held stick blender in a jug, okay but admittedly not ideal. But I wanted something a little more substantial to aid my plight of finally getting on the Green Smoothie bandwagon. Just incase you haven’t come across the phenomenon they’re literally smoothies made with lots of raw green stuff, usually kale, spinach, spring greens or parsley and blended with fruit to make them more palatable. Sometimes nuts and seeds too for added healthy credential.

Green Smoothies are one of the best and purest ways to get a huge raw vitamin and energy hit as well as naturally being super-high in fiber. They go a significant way towards your five or seven a day and are a barrow load better than any bought juice, and can be cheap too. Excellent diet fodder being low in calories but very filling. If you can get your kids to enjoy them (I can’t but they are still very little!) then all the more fantastic, you could try reducing the greenery and upping the fruit to get them started.

There’s no escaping the fact there’s been quite a few late nights at Chez Foti lately, and possibly a little overkill on the alcohol front too. With the kids away (a notable coincidence) it was time to embrace The Green Smoothie and give my body the TLC it deserved. Using ingredients I had to hand I went for a mix of spring greens, oranges, kiwi and some ground flaxseed (that I was kindly sent to trial from Linwoods), though you could change the greenery to spinach or kale. Whizzed in seconds with a little added water and gulped down in a few more it was an immediately invigorating hit and not half as bad to drink as I’d anticipated. And of course left me feeling smugly healthful!.

As for my thoughts on the Illumina, it made light work of the task in hand, whizzing the fruit and veggies to a fine blend literally in seconds, and quietly too. I’ve been road testing the jug for normal smoothies over the last few weeks as well as whizzing up pesto, soup and cake mixes and have been equally impressed each and every time, particularly with it’s speed. It’s a great bit of kit, sturdy and robust with useful suction pads on the base to hold it down. The glass jug has a 1.5 liter capacity and the titanium coated two-tip blades are four times harder than uncoated stainless steel which will apparently make them stronger and sharper for longer. At £69.99 I’d say this was a great price for it’s capabilities. It looks cool too, and with different funky lighting to indicate the different speeds of blend it’s fun to look at. Surprisingly easy and quick to clean too, which round here is pretty important.

Do watch out for more Illumina recipes coming shortly.

I received a Illumina blender to review. All opinions expressed are my own and I was under no obligation to write a positive review.