Healthy Smoothie Recipes
Need the the Right Ingredients

Healthy smoothie recipes can produce drinks that are the most nutrient-dense meals on the planet. They're also just about the quickest, too! The secret to a healthy smoothie recipe is knowing which ingredients to use — and which to avoid.

Healthy smoothies contain only natural, whole foods, in a form that's easily digested and assimilated. They're loaded with antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and enzymes. There's no better way to give yourself an abundant, long-lasting supply of energy!

The good news is that anyone can make perfect healthy smoothies — recipes for smoothies are very flexible. You can experiment and switch ingredients to suit your taste and substitute your favorite beverage, fruit or vegetable.


Healthy Smoothie Recipes Begin
with the Right Starter

The most common liquids people use to make smoothies are milk, yogurt, fruit juice, soy milk or some type of nut milk. Of all these choices, dairy-substitutes such as rice milk, hemp milk, coconut milk and almond milk are your healthiest ones, unless you use plain water. The only objection I can make about them is that they're factory-made, packaged beverages, essentially processed foods.

Make your own healthy smoothie starter! If you have one of the more powerful blenders such as the BlendTec or VitaMix, you can make the freshest and healthiest smoothie starters in the world. They're easier to make than you'd think — and it only takes a couple of minutes.

You can use either of these as a substitute for milk in any healthy smoothie recipe — or drink them as is. They only keep for a day or so in the refrigerator, but they're so quick to make, it hardly matters.

Almond Milk Smoothie Starter

Combine the following in your blender:

• 5 parts water
• 1 part raw almonds,
  soaked overnight
• 1 tbsp coconut oil (opt.)
• stevia — sweeten to taste

Blend until smooth and strain
through a nylon-mesh nut bag
to remove the almond meal. Sweeten with stevia, if desired.

Coconut Milk Smoothie Starter

• 4 parts water
• 1 part shredded coconut
• stevia — sweeten to taste

Pre-soak dried, shredded coconut in water to soften it up (optional). Blend until smooth and strain out the coconut meal with a nylon-mesh nut bag.

About Stevia. If you want to add some type of sweetener to your smoothie recipe, I recommend using stevia.

Stevia is an herbal extract that's many times as sweet as sugar, so you use much less. It comes in powder, liquid or tablet form and has no calories. Stevia also does not raise blood sugar levels and is safe for diabetics. It's probably the healthiest sweetener you can get.

If you need a great source for stevia products, iHerb.com has over 70 to choose from! And at iHerb, you'll get $5 off your first purchase, no matter what size!

Chilling Your Healthy Smoothies

Is there's anything more refreshing than a cold, creamy smoothie? There are two ways of chilling your healthy smoothie recipes:

• 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 also very convenient to store cut-up fruit in your freezer, so you always have them on hand.

Optional Ingredients
for Your Healthy 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 sweetness to your smoothies.

Other Options

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.

Healthy Smoothie Recipes

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Healthy Smoothie Recipes