What Is A Green Smoothie?
A green smoothie is a smoothie using dark, leafy greens such as spinach, kale, chard, collards, fresh fruits and a liquid base. These smoothies are naturally dairy-free and using creamy fruits like bananas, mangoes or papayas will give them a smooth texture.
Health Benefits
Green smoothies contain high-quality amino acids, important minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and beneficial plant-based chemicals that boost your immune system, improve your health, and may help reduce life-threatening diseases.
Reasons Why We Love Green Smoothies:
- If you struggle with eating fruits and greens, this is the easiest way to get sufficient servings of fruits and vegetables in your diet daily.
- Assist in natural weight loss.
- Green smoothies will boost your immune system which means you’ll get sick a lot less often.
- Natural Energy Booster – no need of caffeine to help you get through the day.
- Easy and fast to make – less than 5 minutes to make and if you prepare them ahead of time, you can make enough for several days or take them with you on the go.
Basic Green Smoothie Recipe
Ingredients:
2 cups water
2 cups fresh spinach
1 cup pineapple
1 cup mango
2 bananas
Instructions:
- Tightly pack 2 cups of leafy greens in a measuring cup and toss into the blender.
- Add 2 cups of water and blend until the leafy chunks are gone.
- Add fruit and blend again until smooth (30 seconds to 3 minutes).
- Pour into your cup and enjoy!
Tips For Making the Perfect Smoothie:
- Don’t toss everything in at once – blend in stages starting with the leafy greens and liquid or you might end up chewing your smoothie! Keep blending until you get the texture you want.
- Like your smoothie to be extra chilly? You can freeze your favorite fruits like grapes, berries, pineapple or ripe bananas (peel first). You can also freeze leafy greens in a freezer safe bag. Don’t thaw out the greens – put them directly into the blender from the freezer.
- Taste too green? Add more naturally sweet fruits to sweeten up the bitter taste. Use the 60/40 rule – 60% fruit to 40% greens. Don’t forget about mint, parsley and cilantro.
- Store your green smoothie in an airtight container (up to 2 days) to keep it as fresh as possible.
- Have allergies to certain fruits or don’t like certain fruits? You can use any of the following base fruits in your green smoothy: Banana, mango, peach, pear, apple or papaya.
- Try different flavor combinations in addition to your base fruits: berries, oranges, Kiwi, avocado and pineapple.
- Liquid substitutes: coconut water, almond milk or organic soy milk.
- Spice it up with cinnamon, vanilla bean, ginger, turmeric, cardamom or a dash of ground cloves.
- Add any health boosting ingredient like oats (soak first), unsweetened protein powder, chia seeds and flax seeds.
Give it a whirl! Use the base recipe and start blending. Adjust the seasoning and flavoring as needed. If it’s not sweet enough, add a little more fruit. If it’s too thick, add more liquid. If it’s too thin, add more base fruits and greens. Enjoy!