I’ve introduced something new into my life this week- thanks to my dear friend in Montana who is also a brilliant holistic nutritionist. I’d seen her mention these concoctions on her Facebook page and wondered…what is this delicious sounding smoothie she speaks of? So I asked…and boy am I glad I did!!
Apparently Green Smoothies are pretty popular- and there are many different ways to make them but I adhere to the guidelines my friend sent me since I trust her nutritional knowledge far more than random articles found through a Google search. I’ve followed her guidelines all week (4 days so far) and each time the result has been a delicious, nutritious, filling, and fun creation!
So the point of doing these smoothies for me personally was to pack in some nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and energy that I am not getting enough of through my current diet and that my body is depleting more now that I run. I imagine most people would cite a similar reason. I see them also as a tasty way for picky eaters (or children) to get certain foods. I also think a smoothie form is much easier for digesting and absorbing all the goodness found in these foods.
Okay- on to the guidelines and a recipe to try!! All you need is a simple blender to make these smoothies- nothing fancy. You will want to cut pieces up and introduce them slowly so you don’t overwhelm your blender though. And as my friend pointed out, you will want to blend, blend, and blend some more and then blend more on top of that!
To start: Begin with a cup of filtered water in your blender. Add to it some kind of water-based food such as cucumber, melon, or celery and blend it up. This is like your base that the rest is built on top of and provides you with a nice liquid start.
1st Round of Ingredients- The Greens: Choose 2 1/2 –3 cups from the following: Kale, Collards, Beet Greens, Dandelion Greens, Parsley, Mint, Fennel, Avocado, Cucumber, Zucchini, Spinach, Romaine Lettuce, Green Cabbage, Turnip Greens, Celery, Sprouts (Pea Shoot and/or Sunflower sprouts recommended). Any green in season or growing in your garden will do!
2nd Round of Ingredients- Fruits/Sweet Veggies: 1 fruit/sweet veg or about 1-1/2 – 2 cups from the following: Apples, Bananas, Pear, Blueberries, Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Pineapple, Papaya, Mango, Pomegranate, Cranberries, Kiwifruit, Figs, Watermelon, Lemon, Carrots, Sweet Potato, Beets, etc…
3rd Round of Ingredients- Superfoods: 1 tsp – 1 Tbs of 3-4 of these:
Raw Cacao, Flax Oil, Hempseed Oil, Walnut Oil, Almonds, Goji Berries, Dates, Coconut oil, Bee Pollen, Coconut (fresh or dry), Hempseeds, Chia Seeds, Spirulina, Ginger, Cayenne, Raw honey, Sesame Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, Nut/Seed Butters are good options if you have a weaker blender.
Optional Additional Liquids: Ice (if you like it cold), Vegetable Juice (100% veggie), Coconut water (not to be confused with coconut milk), Nut or Seed Milk, or Herbal Tea (such as peppermint or ginger tea). You can also add water to create a consistency you prefer- I have never had to add to mine but it’s a personal preference of course!
Day 1 Easy Green Smoothie Recipe:
1 cup of filtered water Cucumber (mine was a small one, 3 inches in size) BLEND BLEND BLEND Handful of Spinach Leaf of Kale Couple leaves of ChardBLEND BLEND BLEND 1/2 cup of frozen Raspberries BLEND 1 banana BLEND a few slices of carrot a few chunks of diced beet BLEND BLEND BLEND 1 T coconut oil 1 T hempseeds 1 capsule Bee Pollen (*allergy precaution!) 1 T honey (raw, local honey) 1 T almond butter BLEND BLEND BLEND crushed ice BLEND BLEND BLEND ENJOY!!!
That first smoothie I had was absolutely delicious! I hope you try it and become as hooked as I am! I’ve since made a different one each day this week and I’ve loved every single one. That one was pink/red in color due to the beets and raspberries. Today I had one with blueberries and pomegranate so it was purple in color. Others I’ve had and used Apple and Lime which turned out a perfect green like the photo at the top of this post. You can really get creative- and as my friend pointed out, if you concoct something that isn’t so yummy, just feed it to your garden! It has a less discriminating palate! 😛
I encourage you to try the sample recipe and then have fun experimenting to create your own favorites…and most of all, share the smoothie joy with others!! In the short time I’ve been doing these I’ve already had about 4 or 5 people contact me asking me how to do it! Look for natural food stores in your area as well- it’s important to use organics if at all possible. And, I would suggest keeping your ingredients to RAW foods…no canned fruit (eek!), no milk products, no sugary juices, etc. Trust me, the recipe above is DELICIOUS without any of those products.
Good luck- HAVE FUN and feel free to come back here and share some of your favorite ingredients or mixtures you discover!
Hints of Green Blog 
Looking forward to trying this. I hope it is as good as it looks! 🙂
I saw your note on Twitter… have you thought about blending your seeds first so they’ll be broken down? Many of the green-smoothie junkies at my work do that. We all have tough blenders (my favorite job perk!) that could handle it all in one cycle, but our nutritionist recommends breaking apart the harder seeds (like flax) with a quick pulse just prior to adding the other ingredients so they’ll be ground even finer and thus easier to absorb.
Also: did it take you a while to get used to the Kale? My kids LOVE spinach -based green smoothies, but as many times as we’ve tried other greens, they just aren’t loving it yet. I can’t say I’ve enjoyed them much either, for that matter. Granted, I usually only use a banana or some pineapple for sweetener.
Sorry for the late reply, your comment didn’t show up 😦 I actually buy ground flax and ground hemp seeds. But, if I didn’t I would grind them in my coffee grinder. Good point on that. A few people have asked me about the kale…it’s my favorite green actually! I haven’t had any issues with it grinding up or being bitter etc. but it is kale season right now and the colder weather keeps the bitterness down apparently. However, I do not over do the kale in the smoothies. I generally use a good handful of spinach or dandelion greens (wanting to try wheatgrass soon too) and then just 1 or 2 leaves of kale. This might be a better ratio. I would add a good tablespoon of honey for a sweeter taste too. Banana is always a plus I’ve noticed. Also- an easy way to sweeten it up and make it more palatable is using a scoop of frozen berries of some sort. Raspberries are especially yummy I think. 🙂 Good luck with them!