Perfect Green Smoothies and Smoothie Tips – Healthier Smoothies
“Oh man, my Green Smoothie recipes come out horrible, why do I keep making these horrible tasting green smoothies.”
Are you having Green Smoothie anixety? Do your Green Smoothies keep tasting like Green Smoothies? Well than keep reading!
Drinking a green smoothie is the best way to add additional fiber to your diet and a great way to add needed antioxidants, nutrients, vitamins and minerals to your body. All you need is a blender, a sharp knife, and a cutting board. Now in order to really adapt yourself into the Green Smoothie lifestyle you’ll have to start making Green Smoothies that actually taste good. If it doesn’t taste good, you probably won’t drink it, and neither will your kids. So if you want to find out how to make amazingly delicious green smoothies everytime, than keep reading.
What is are Green Smoothies?
You can turn any Smoothie recipe into a green smoothie recipe just by adding in a green leafy vegetable like Rainbow Chard, Collards, Dandillions, Kale, or Spinach. This will turn the smoothie green and give it nutrients that fruits alone wouldn’t provide. Green Vegetables are nutrient rich and contain protein, antioxidants, healthy fiber, vitamins, and minerals. The Best part about making good green smoothies is that you don’t taste the greens and your body can absorb around 95% of the nutrients because all the ingredients are liquified. When you eat foods raw your body only absorbs around 40% of the nutrition.
Alright are you ready to make a perfect Green Smoothie, here we go…
Step 1: Add a healthy liquid or a lot of Red or Black Grapes
So to start your Perfect Green Smoothie recipe you’ll want to add 1 Cup of liquid or if you prefer you can add 1 Cup to 1 1/2 cups of Red or Black Grapes. If you start with grapes you won’t need liquid because grapes contain a lot of liquid already along with resvertoral which has many health benefits.
My favorite choices of liquids for green smoothies are:
- Organic Apple Juice
- ACAI Juice
- POM Juice
- Coconut Water
- Organic fruit juice blends
- Nut Milks (Almond Milk, Hemp Milk, Coconut Milk, or Cashew Milk)
You’ll want 8 ounces of liquid, which is 1 Cup, for a normal Green Smoothie recipe. The more liquid you add the thinner the consistency will be so I would recommend no more than 1 Cup.
Step 2: Add a Good Base Fruit
To get a nice creamy texture pick some solid base fruits to add into the smoothie recipe, ingredients do matter and will affect the taste of your smoothies.
My favorite base fruits are:
- Apples
- Bananas
- Peachs
- Pears
- Mangos
- Durian
- Papayas
- Avocado
All of these Base fruits will give your green smoothies a rich and creamy texture. Choose 1 or 2 of these selections per recipe.
Step 3: Add a flavorful Fruit
Here is where you give your green smoothie a good taste, What you want to do is pair your Base Fruit up with a nice flavorful fruit for the ultimate mouth watering satisfaction.
Fruits for a good flavor include:
- Pineapples
- Strawberries
- Blueberries
- Raspberries
- Blackberries
- Oranges
- Dates
Add 1/2 cup of flavorful fruit.
Note: You can also add in protein powders, Cacao, and other sweeteners such as Cinnamon(good for diabetics), Stevia and honey to help hide the taste of the green vegetables in your green smoothies.
Step 4: Blend your Ingredients
So unless you own a High powered Vitamix or Blendtec or BL 630 Omega blender, than what you’ll want to do right now is blend up the ingredients in the jar. You can do this by using the pulse feature on your blender and pulsing the ingredients until they are blended throughly. Or if your blender doesn’t have a pulse feature just simply run the blender for 10 to 15 seconds.
Skip this step if you own a Vitamix, Blendtec, or BL630 Omega blender or any high powered blender. High powered blenders are able to liquify your ingredients much easier and produce better tasting green smoothies.
Step 5: Add your Leafy Greens
The Best ratio to use for your Green Smoothies is a 60/40 fruit to Leafy greens ratio. You want to have a little more fruits in the smoothie in order to hide the bad taste of the green vegetables you are about to put in there. This way you won’t taste any of the greens.
The best leafy green to start with is organic baby spinach. Get used to making your green smoothies taste good and then work your way into adding other healthy leafy greens like
- Kale
- Spinach
- Chard
- Romaine
- Parsley
- Dandillions
Step 6: Add Ice
Your almost there, your so close to having a mouth watering perfect green smoothie. The last step is to add ice.
Ice will determine your consistency, the more ice you add the thicker the smoothie will become. I would recommend adding in 2 cups of ice for a nice creamy smoothie texture. Each blender breaks down ice differently so it’s up to you if you want a more juicy consistency or a thicker smoothie consistency.
Step 7: Optional Step for High Powered Blender Owners
(Add an extra boost to your smoothie)
You can give youself an extra kick of health benefits by adding freeze dried powders into your smoothies, or by adding any type of Nuts(Almonds or Cashews) or Seeds(Flax Seeds or Chia Seeds). If you own a high powered blender such as a Vitamix or Blendtec you are able to do this, if you own a regular blender your blender will not be able to liquify the nuts and seeds for easy digestion. A few great add ons to your green smoothies for an extra kick of nutrition are:
Step 8: Blend it
Finally, you have your perfect Green Smoothie ready to go, all you have to do now is push the blend button.
Don’t over blend the smoothie because you can lose nutrients by blending it to long. The optimal blending time is 30 to 60 seconds.
If you have a high powered Vitamix or Blendtec blender and you run the blender on it’s highest speed for more than a minute, the blades will cause friction and heat up the ingredients inside the jar which will kill the live enzymes in the fruits and vegetables. Make sure to add 2 cups of ice if using a high powered blender to keep the smoothie cold.
Hope you enjoyed reading this, thanks a lot for tuning into The Daily Vitamin. If you have any comments or questions please leave them below
Happy blending.
