Green Smoothies
Help You Get Your Veggies

Green smoothies, ounce for ounce, are some of the most nutrient-dense meals on the planet. A green smoothie is loaded with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and enzymes that come in a whole-food form. The concentrated nutrients in green smoothies will improve your health and build up your body’s defenses against disease.

When fruits and vegetables get blended, the plant fibers are broken down just like you do when you chew them; the blender literally does most of the “chewing” for you. And chewing food more thoroughly means that you'll absorb more of the nutrients.

Healthy green smoothies retain the fiber from the fruits and the vegetables you use. The fiber works to improve digestion and helps your body naturally rid itself of toxins. Fiber also helps you feel satisfyingly full, and stay that way longer.

Overcoming Obstacles to Making a Green Smoothie. There are several things that can make creating green smoothies more difficult. For starters, leafy green vegetables that make green smoothies so healthy are harder to break down. If you like a smoother consistency, you might want a heavy duty blender like the VitaMix or Blendtec.

You will also need a good supply of fresh, organic greens to use as ingredients. Conventionally- grown leafy greens have one of the highest concentrations of pesticides of any vegetable, so you'll be consuming more toxins along with the nutrients unless you use organic produce.

Finally, let's not forget the fact that many people don't enjoy the taste of dark-green, leafy vegetables, at least not enough to eat them on a daily basis!

Green Superfoods Make for Easy Green Smoothies. The lazy man's way to make a health green smoothie is to substitute a green superfood powder for fresh greens. These are essentially concentrated reductions of the most nutrient-dense green foods known. They include field grasses like wheat or barley grass, organically-grown under the best conditions, or algae-based green foods such spirulina or chlorella.

To make things even better, you can find blends of green superfoods that taste nothing like green vegetables! Some of them come in chocolate and berry flavors that are a great way for your kids to get their vegetables for the day. And they're so easy to use that your kids can even make their own green smoothies!

Green superfood powders won't taste very good when just mixed with water, however — they need something to cut the bitterness inherent in dark green foods. Nut milks and bananas blend very well with these green superfoods.

Recommended Starter
for Your Green Smoothies

Most smoothie recipes call for some liquid to allow the solid ingredients to move around inside the blender and give your smoothie the right thickness. This base liquid can be plain water, milk, yogurt, soy milk, nut milks, or fruit juice. If you want your smoothie to provide optimum health benefits, you'll want to pick the right one. I share all the best tips at my page on How to Make a Smoothie the Healthy Way.

Chilling Your Green Smoothies

There are two ways of chilling your healthy smoothie recipes: using frozen fruit — or adding ice cubes.

• Ice Cubes — a good way of thinning down a smoothie that's too thick and chilling it at the same time.

• Frozen Fruit — has the advantage of not diluting the taste, and also giving your smoothie a creamier texture. It's very easy and convenient to create a stash of frozen cut-up fruit, so you always have some on hand.

Optional Ingredients
for Your Green Smoothie Recipe

Protein Additives

Adding a quality source of protein turns your smoothie into a complete meal. I recommend raw organic eggs or a protein powder made from hemp, rice, peas or whey.

Hemp protein powder is a great way to add healthy omega 3 fats and fiber to your smoothie as well.

Undenatured whey is another excellent source of protein for your smoothies. Both whey and hemp protein are very mild tasting; the hemp powder is not as concentrated and will thicken up your smoothie quite a bit more than the whey protein will.

I don't recommend using cheap protein powders, especially any with artificial ingredients. The whey protein should be cold-processed (undenatured) and derived from grass-fed cows, free of hormones and chemicals. Cold-processing whey protects the nutrients in their natural state.

Antioxidant Superfoods

Green superfood powders like chlorella and spirulina make any smoothie a super-nutritious green smoothie. They give you the equivalent of several full-size servings of dark green leafy vegetables in just one tablespoon.

Superfood supplements like maca root, raw cacao, hemp, flax, chia seeds and others increase the antioxidant content and nutritional benefits of your smoothie in their own unique ways.

Antioxidant superfruits like acai, goji, mangosteen and noni, available as concentrated juices or powders, add lots more antioxidants and a natural fruit sweetness to your smoothies.

Other Great Additions for Your Healthy Smoothie

Coconut Oil is the healthiest fat there is. It contains lauric acid, a rare medium-chain fatty acid (also found in mother's milk) that has many health-protecting properties. Coconut oil gives your healthy smoothie a richer, creamier texture. Because coconut oil is solid below a temperature of 76 degrees F, it doesn't work as well in cold smoothies.

Herbs and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves have higher concentrations of antioxidants than any fruit or vegetable, and add a warm flavor to your healthy smoothie recipe.

Green Smoothie Recipes

Green smoothies offer a great opportunity to experiment and try different combinations that will please your palate. Use the recipes below as an inspiration to concoct your own favorite, or try whatever you've got in the refrigerator at the moment.

Many smoothie recipes call for the use of milk or yogurt. I personally don't recommend the use of dairy products, but I will leave this up to you. I suggest using water or a nut milk instead, and that's what you'll find in the recipes below. Substitute regular milk or yogurt if you prefer.

Which Greens to Use? Where each recipe calls for "greens," use whatever ones you have a preference for. Spinach is great — it has the least flavor of its own of all the raw greens and lends an awesome "freshness" quality to your healthy smoothies. Another one that's good for beginners is parsley. It's a great detoxifier, and also has a nice "fresh" flavor without being too strong.

Kale is good, but has a stronger, cabbage-like flavor. Arugula and watercress are nice if you like spicier flavors. Then there's romaine lettuce, collards, beet greens, dill... anything green in the produce section — the darker the better.

What If You Don't Like Greens? Fresh greens don't work for everyone; some of us just don't like them. In addition, you'll need to shop more often to have a steady supply on hand, and if you don't have access to organic produce, you're going to be consuming more pesticides and other chemicals in your green smoothies.

Another option would be to try green superfood powders. They're even more nutritious than fresh greens, are grown organically, and have a very long shelf life. You can find out more about them at my page on Green Superfood Powders

I also encourage you to experiment with the optional ingredients listed above. They're an easy and nutritious way to add protein and healthy fats to make your green smoothies into complete meals.

Easy Directions for All Green Smoothie Recipes

If you're using fresh greens for any of the green smoothie recipes below, pour in the liquid ingredients and the greens first. Blend these until the greens are well-broken down.

Then toss the other ingredients into your blender, add any of the optional ingredients if you like, and blend until it's liquified!

Chocolate Goji Banana Green Smoothie
2 tablespoons of raw cocoa powder
2 tablespoons of pre-soaked goji berries
1 cup of almond milk or water
1 frozen banana
2 cups of spinach

Tropical Green Smoothie
1 cup of frozen pineapple
1 cup of papaya or 1 banana
1 cup of coconut water
1 tablespoon of coconut oil
2 cups of kale or spinach

Spinach Berry Banana Green Smoothie
1 cup of mixed berries
1 banana
2 handfuls of spinach
1 handful of parsley
1 tsp spirulina
water

Spinach Apple Carrot Orange Smoothie
2 apples
1 carrot
2 oranges, peeled
1/2 lemon
cinnamon to taste
1 banana
handful of spinach

Pineapple Pear Banana Parsley
Green Smoothie
2 ripe pears
1/3 of a fresh pineapple
1/2 frozen banana
1/3 of a large bunch of parsley
1/2-inch slice of fresh ginger
1 cup of filtered water
1 cup of ice cubes (optional)

Spinach Celery Orange Apple
Green Smoothie
1 stem of celery (including the leaves)
1 orange
1 granny smith apple, peeled
1 handful spinach

Spinach Romaine Ginger
Green Smoothie
handful romaine lettuce
handful of spinach
small piece of ginger
1-2 teaspoon honey
1-2 cups water

Apple Carrot Green Smoothie
8 oz apple juice
4 oz nut milk
3-5 carrots, chopped
greens or green superfood powder

Apple Banana Green Smoothie
8 oz apple juice
4 oz nut milk
1 frozen, ripe banana (sliced)
greens or green superfood powder

Apple Orange Banana Green Smoothie
6 oz apple juice
2 oz orange juice
4 oz nut milk
1 frozen, ripe banana (sliced)
greens or green superfood powder

Banana Cantaloupe Green Smoothie
1/2 sliced cantaloupe melon
1 frozen, ripe banana (sliced)
1 cup nut milk
greens or green superfood powder

Banana Mango Orange
Green Smoothie
1 large mango, cut in chunks
1 frozen, ripe banana (sliced)
1/2 cup yogurt
1 cup orange juice
greens or green superfood powder

Banana Coconut Milk
Green Smoothie
2 frozen, ripe bananas (sliced)
1-1/2 cup coconut milk
greens or green superfood powder

Breakfast Green Smoothie
1/4 cup uncooked, rolled oats
1 cup nut milk
1/4 cup yogurt
1/4 cup frozen berries
1 frozen, ripe banana (sliced)
greens or green superfood powder

Berry Green Smoothie
1 cup nut milk
1 cup yogurt
1/2 cup blueberries, raspberries or strawberries
greens or green superfood powder

Cucumber Parsley Apple Banana
Green Smoothie
1 bunch fresh parsley
1 cucumber, peeled
1 Fuji apple
1 frozen, ripe banana (sliced)
1-2 cups water
greens or green superfood powder

Grapefruit Grape Banana
Green Smoothie
10 oz grapefruit juice
a handful of frozen grapes
1 frozen, ripe banana (sliced)
greens or green superfood powder

Tropical Fruit Green Smoothie
3/4 cup pineapple
1 cup mango
1 frozen, ripe banana (sliced)
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup water
greens or green superfood powder

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