Chocolate Chaga Smoothie
Since chaga is essentially void of flavour, why do you hear so much about it? What’s the appeal?
Let’s put it to a taste test and marry it with some chocolate in the blender.
Prep time: 5 minutes
Equipment: A fantastic blender (I recommend the Ninja)
Ingredients
1 & ½ frozen bananas
½ cup plant milk (for an extra creamy treat try Earth’s Own Oat Barista Edition)
1-2 tbsp of chaga powder
2 tbsp of dark vegan chocolate chips
Cacao nibs for garnish
Directions
Add all ingredients to your blender and blend until smooth. Add more banana to thicken it up or more plant milk for a smoother drink.
NOURISHED FACTS
I am lucky enough to have chaga in my cupboard. A few months ago, my sister-in-law and brother hand-picked some chaga on one of their many forested walks in Muskoka. They kindly dried and powdered it for me.
Since chaga is essentially void of flavour, why do you hear so much about it? What’s the appeal?
Chaga is a gnarly black mushroom that you may have seen growing on the side of a paper birch. Jutting out into the forest, reminding the passerby to take notice of its monstrous and obtuse form.
Chaga may not have much to say for itself in the ‘form’ department, but it sure does when it comes to function. Chaga is a nutrient-dense superfood historically used in traditional European medicine to help with an upset stomach, increasing energy and even regulating hunger. It’s usually ground into a fine powder and used in tea. Now you can find it available at many online retailers in powder or capsule and sold as a supplement. Aside from sneaking it into a chocolatey smoothie, consider it in a hot cocoa or tea in the cooler months.
The research is still on-going, but this fungus has been shown to help with more than a few health benefits:
Rich in antioxidants (the verdict is still out on this one - but science is weighing in, could chaga help with anti-aging properties and slow down oxidative stress from free radicals?)
Cancer preventative (a study conducted in 2010 concluded that chaga may be responsible for slowing the growth of cancer cells in cervical, lung and breast cancers)
Immune-boosting (medicalnewstoday)
Lowers blood sugar, cholesterol and high blood pressure (medicalnewstoday)
May help prevent side effects from medical treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation and some medications (medicalnewstoday)
Fungi and mushrooms tend to be a good source of Vitamin D2, different from how our bodies process and produce vitamin D from the sunshine in our skin - that’s D3 or cholecaciferol. Vitamin D2 isn’t the same as D3 and our bodies need to have it converted to D3 before we can utilize this vitamin. There are trace amounts of other vitamins and minerals in chaga such as the B vitamins, calcium. (Doug Cook, RDN)
