I’ve been a vegetarian for over 20 years.

I started with juicing not long after I gave up meat and enjoyed many combinations: apple, carrot, and ginger; apple, celery and cucumber; carrot, cucumber, kale and banana; and cabbage and orange juice (courtesy of my Dad).

I segued to smoothies when I got a Magic Bullet, and then a Ninja, both powerful enough to chomp up all of the fiber that juicing machines used to separate out. But somehow I never thought of dropping a couple of chunks of sweet potato in my Ninja … until now, and boy am I glad I did!

I processed one peeled sweet potato (raw), half of a peeled cucumber, about five baby carrots, orange juice and a thumb-size chunk of ginger and voile! Dee-Licious!

I never thought that it would be so sweet!

Whenever I make kale or collard smoothies, I always add banana to cut the tartness, especially with the collard greens. I’d thought of adding a banana with the sweet potato but I’m so glad I opted to taste it first.

The carrot adds a bit of sweetness, and the sweet potato jumped right in with its own.

And I’m not talking table-sugar sweet. (I don’t add table sugar to my smoothies) To me, the whole point of do-it-yourself smoothies is to find the right veggie/fruit combo that tastes delicious, offers a variety of vitamins, and doesn’t dump a boatload of sugar into your body.

Which is why I always make VEGGIE/FRUIT smoothies; not just fruit.

Eating fruit is healthy yes. But fruit has fructose, and sugar in my book is sugar. This combo had enough sugar. Sweet potatoes are starchy, and starch breaks down into sugar; orange juice is sweet – more sugar. It’s all about balance.

If you haven’t tried sweet potatoes in your smoothies, please give it a try.

I guarantee you’ll love it!