Your own green smoothie recipes, how do you make them?

[Erika]

I don't know how to make a green smoothie. I looked online but I wanted to ask you guys first. Everyone here seems so helpful.

Maybe a few people can tell me how you personally make them and I can try a few different ways and find one that I like. I've also seen some places say to use a juicer and some places say to use a blender. Which is better?

Thanks soooo much
Erika

[rawererin]

Try OJ as a base instead of water if you have finniky taste buds...
Frozen banana chunks make it smooth, creamy and frosty...
The darker the berry the more greens you can disguise...
Nut milk makes it extra creamy...
Agave is a great sweetner...

[rawererin]

Oh and definitely use a blender!

[livin]

I'm just getting back to green smoothies this week after going astray for several weeks. I thought it was so good this morning that a made another for dinner this evening.
So far this week I've always started my smoothie with water and baby spinach, then added a small amount of fruit, such as strawberries & honeydew, or pineapple, mango, and/or a banana with a little agave and hemp or flaxseed oil. I have used raw honey in the past, as well as cinnamon. My greens have generally varied by the week (kale, mixed sping greens) depending on what appeals to me at Whole Foods when I shop. I have found that adding 1/3 cucumber is refreshing and I've added parsley in the past when I needed a diuretic.
Most of my co workers who have curiously sampled one of my green smoothies say they are surprised at the good taste, although many don't like the way it looks. (I always drink from a pretty glass or travel cup!)

[Erika]

Thanks so much. I've got a new question now. You guys mention agave... how do I buy this? I'm kind of new to the whole raw foods thing so I'm learning. I saw a photo of the plant but do they sell it any other way, like powder, liquid or such as a sweetener? If so, where can I get it, a health food store, whole foods. If it's only sold as a plant, what part of the plant am I looking for and how much do I add in? I feel like a raw foodist should adopt me for a week so I can see how they make food at their homes lol.

[Pilgrim]

I have found agave in the health food section of my local supermarket. It's getting more exposure now so you should be able to find it (good luck--it's a great sweetener).

I put a cup of water or almond milk in my vitamix blender. Then I add a banana and some greens (I vary it -- spinach, parsley, romaine lettuce, carrot tops). Then I add the sweetener and either an apple or some frozen fruit. I like the frozen fruit (especially cherries) b/c it makes the smoothie nice and cold.

[Erika]

I went online and looked at vitamin shoppe and it says that they sell it there. It says Raw agave nectar and it's about 4.00 so that's not bad and I'll give it a try for sure. I'll try to remember what everyone has said and give it a try on Friday.

I like some of the organic orange juices that I've tried and I really like some of bolthouse farms products. I think I might give the organic carrot juice mixed with the organic orange juice a try as a base and go from there. I'll be sure to let you guys know how it turns out.

Any more ideas are always welcomed.

Thanks so much for the help,
Erika

[Pilgrim]

You can also use dates to sweeten your green smoothies. In fact, a lot of times I skip the agave and use the dates instead.

[ghostlykisses]

There are quite a few videos on youtube.com that show you how to make some interesting green smoothie combinations.

[Erika]

Thanks guys. I'll go check out youtube now, should be interesting.

[skybarr]

Here's one I LOVE . . . and it's not even a fruity green smoothie!

I like to mix baby spinach, several cherry tomatoes, onion, cilantro, minced garlic, a bit of sea salt and spring water. SO delicious! And I love the fresh taste of it. Sometimes when I make a batch it's so good, I immediately make another one 'cause I just have to have more!

[JennaBoBenna]

green smoothie:

fruit smoothie consisting of whatever fruit tastes good together (bananas and strawberries w/almond milk; bananas and pineapple and mango with oj; etc....)

then

add greens. (baby spinach, mixed greens etc)

ps. use a juicer for making juice
use a blender for making smoothies

[KitaKazoo]

I haven't tried this yet... But it sounds so good that I might try it for lunch.

My husband likes garlic, tomatoes and avocados blended together, I am supposing adding greens would make it just that much tastier. This would probably need tamari sauce.

[SuBu]

I've been using watermelon as my base this week and it's great with spinach, (frozen) strawberries, lime juice, and some agave. FYI: bananas and watermelon don't go so well together!

[RawSinger]

This is my basic green smoothie recipe, tried and true:

2 bananas (frozen bananas make the smoothie particularly creamy and delicious)

some water or orange juice (I don't really measure)

a handful of frozen strawberries

maybe 1/8 to a 1/4 of a pound of baby spinach (maybe some kale mixed in there)

1 more banana

a lot of ice (I need my smoothies to be ice cold so I add two large cupfulls)

more water or orange juice (to get the consistency right)


I have a VitaMix and might be able to blend all these things at once, but I choose not too. I'm weird about that. What I do is this:

I blend 2 bananas with maybe 1/2 cup of water or orange juice. I add the frozen berries and blend those. Then I add a few handfuls of the spinach and blend that. I continue with the rest of the spinach, adding a few big handfuls at a time. If the consistency isn't quite creamy enough (which it usually isn't), I add another banana and blend that up with 1 large cup of the ice. Then I add the last large cup of ice. The consistency is usually too thick for me at this point so I add a little more liquid. Enjoy!

Adding the ingredients and blending them separately will work for any blender. Even though I have a high-powered blender, I still don't want to stress it. I started out with a much cheaper blender so I guess I'm still in that zone :rolleyes:

To Blend or to Juice?:confused: :confused:

In my opinion, blending your fruits and veggies is better because you're retaining all the fiber. When you juice, the juicer is squeezing out all of the other nutrients and water and making it into juice, and leaving behind the fiber in the pulp bin. Although this allows you to get more of the other nutrients because most of the bulk of the produce comes from the fiber. But as a rule, you're getting more out of your fruits and veggies when you make smoothies in your blender. You're eating the whole fruit or vegetable.

Happy blending :)

[Veganforlife]

If you do a search, you will find a ton of GS recipes...

[Eva]

I detailed this with a couple pictures on my blog here:

http://readysethealthy.blogspot.com/2008/06/basic-green-smoothie.html