KALE NUSKE SMOOTHIE — Salad Grinds and Bean Plants #28
KALE NUSKE SMOOTHIE
WORDS: Johnny Lozano
Despite Instagram having a super-secret algorithm to determine which posts we see, there’s still no fool-proof algorithm for determining which skateboarders will have decades-long careers. Granted, some skaters are so prolific and so psychotic that their longevity is a AAA-rated bet. Others, despite having promising beginnings, never quite get their due. It’s not always a long-fought battle to stay in the limelight (check out Jeremy Wray’s account of getting edged out of the industry); sometimes someone simply vanishes from the scene before they reap the goodness they sowed. Why was Jesse Silvey never pro? Where did Gideon Choi go? While politics or injuries may lurk behind the scenes in every story, the fact remains that these guys ripped and never quite got the lucrative contracts they deserved.
Add Cale Nuske to that list. An Australian destroyer repping Cliché (RIP) in the early 2000s, Cale opened Bon Appétit with a resounding bang. With his onslaught of stair, rail, hubba, and ledge destruction set to the mellow tones of Grandaddy’s “Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake,” Cale may have given the world a strong dose of something it wasn’t ready for. Ditto his short—but powerful—part in éS’ éSpecial. But after blowing our minds with potentially the best kickflip crook in the game, Cale retreated from the scene, in large part due to knee troubles, and left us all pining for more footage. Come back, Cale!
If you’re casually destroying all terrains (like Cale did) and are looking to preserve your knees, then you need a post-sesh smoothie that checks off all your macronutrient needs. While gym rats will pound their chests and chant “protein, protein, protein” like some sort of cult ritual, a good post-session meal should supplement that protein with carbs and good fats, as well. And if you’ve checked all those macro boxes, it will ideally contain the beneficial micronutrients your body needs, too—nutrients like iron, magnesium, vitamin A, and vitamin C.
Exit Cale (sadly); enter kale.
It’s probably a sin to author a health-related blog and admit that I don’t particularly like kale. Is it healthy? Yes. Does it taste like thick spinach with peach fuzz? When eaten in most recipes, yes. I find Jim Gaffigan’s sentiments on Kale to be quite relatable: “Kale is a superfood… and its special power is tasting bad.” That said, it gets all the positive buzz for a reason (all the nutrients above are abundant in kale). Thankfully, this nutritional powerhouse can be seamlessly blended into a smoothie chock full of recovery carbs, healthy fats and protein. In honor of our M.I.A. Australian idol, I present the Kale Nuske smoothie.
In addition to kale, this smoothie contains soy milk, hemp seeds, and almond butter, which means you recover from your sesh with about 20 grams of protein and an enviable ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats (bye-bye, inflammation). Toss in a banana to thicken this up with some quick recovery carbs and you’ve got an all-in-one package, just like Cale.
Now, you may be wondering why anyone would blend kale and almond butter. Greens and nut butters together? Just trust me on this one. Nobody bats an eye when you put almonds on a salad; all this smoothie does is tilt that balance a little more toward the nuttiness. Once you taste the blend, you’ll be wondering why you were ever concerned in the first place.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 ½ cups fresh kale
- 1 cup soy milk
- 2 tbsp. creamy almond butter
- 1 banana
- 1 ½ tbsp. (15g) hemp seeds
DIRECTIONS:
- I could try to drag this out into multiple steps, but you already know the drill. Throw all of these nutritious ingredients into a blender and blend it all up. Make sure you blend it for about a minute to avoid having large chunks of kale in the middle of your smoothie. Guzzle it all down after a kale-ing spree on the board and rest those knees for the next session.
Happy shredding,
Johnny
For more recipes, check out_ www.saladgrindsandbeanplants.com _or find us on Instagram at @salad_grinds_and_bean_plants.
