Yuck

[eddiefebuary]

Well I tried to make my first smoothie today and it was a disaster. I used water, handful of Kale, banana, and cup of frozen blueberries.

The consistency almost made me gag. The kale never completely liquified and bits and pieces got stuck in my throat. I'm assuming this is because I used a normal household blender?

Did I do something else wrong or do I just need to buy an expensive blender?

[siennagray]

Perhaps you didn't use enough water. Try starting with just the kale and the water, and after that is blended pretty good add your fruits. The bits and pieces getting stuck in your throat could have been blueberry skins as well, so you could try a different fruit and see if it helps.

[fastfreedom]

Also cut up the greens into small pieces. That will help a bit. And yup, just do the greens and water first till it's nice and smooth, then add your fruits.

Another idea is to use a food processor to cut up the greens into small pieces. Then put it in the blender and proceed with the smoothie making. But of course then you have to wash two appliances. I used to do it this way. But then I got tired of cleaning two appliances and I began to just cut the greens real small and then make a smoothie.

Another idea I'm just now thinking of is freezing the greens? I have some frozen greens that I'm using right now to make smoothies and it just crumbles. But of course you'll lose a little nutrition and enzymes by freezing.

But I'm no longer using the regular blender we had so I don't know how well the freezing of the greens would work. But the way it just crumbles makes me think it would work very nicely.

[eddiefebuary]

Thank you for the suggestions. I'll try that tomorrow.

[kaleboy]

try apple juice instead of water to start and more of it, maybe less kale until you get used to it. You shouldn't need to chop anything before hand. Your blender should be able to get it to liquid or close enough.

[levamssg]

All good suggestions ...
Perhaps using baby spinach for your greens ... it may blend better than kale.

I know how you feel tho ... a smoothie really needs to be Smooth ...
Using more fruit to start works well. I bought several pears -- they started to really soften up, and made a wonderful addition to my smoothie. As someone already mentioned, regular blueberries sometimes don't blend perfectly, especially if they've been frozen. The tiny wild blueberries work pretty good tho.

My fav smoothie is a cup of water, handful of baby spinach, apple, and banana. As I said, I've also added pears ... pretty darn good.

Experiment with different combinations ... enjoy!

[BeingK8]

I have only had a regular blender all this time, (as yet), and have made that combo.

Suggestions:

Try less green stuff. In the beginning, the greens are tough to take but our taste for them grows.

Add ice. This seems to be a BIG prob for new green smoothie drinkers. (And it was for me!)

Add more sweet fruits. If you're new to green smoothies, you want to make them palatable. Your tastes WILL change and you will grow to enjoy more "green" in your green smoothies, but you should start where you are. Be okay with that and love it.
If you can only handle 25% spinach because spinach is a mild, easily disguisable, (taste-wise), green, then do that.
You WILL acquire a taste for more greens and less fruit if you persist.
I PROMISE.
It's everywhere on the net about green smoothies that you start low percentage greens and increase amounts naturally and it has been my experience, too.
Love you and love your body. You are amazing and miraculous and beautiful in all ways!

[wannabehealthy]

my first smoothie was so good. he had kale in it too. it could have been blended a little longer, but it had still good. you have to add enough water to it, and blend well. i use a black & decker. :)

[BeingK8]

Oh! And while I now LOVE smoothies made of chard, kale, cilantro and banana, I didn't start that way a few years ago.

A good starter recipe for me was a SMALL amount of spinach with a very ripe banana and some other sweet fruit like banana. If it didn't feel sweet enough, I added some agave nectar.

I rarely EVER add a sweetener like agave anymore, even when I have some "crazy" green smoothie like a sweet pea shoot/swiss chard/kale/alfalfa sprout/buckwheat grass/sunflower green/banana/pineapple smoothie. That's one of my current faves and I DO admit that if it was my first green smoothie, I would NEVER have tried a second, but it was NOT my first. I had the "low-greens-high-fruit" smoothie for some time to get used to it all. I started with tiny bits of spinach and very ripe banana and pineapple and ripe apple or tiny bits of spinach and some other combo of many sweet fruits. I gradually increased the amount of greens, as seems to be the common experience of most green smoothie drinkers.

[Mrs. Papaya]

I've done the same thing with kale. I got overly excited because spinach and even swiss chard blended so well in my cheap blender that I added too many leaves of curly kale. The kale didn't blend entirely and there were all those nasty, pointy little bits. Not good. I had to choke it down.

I have found the flat-leaf kale works better in cheaper blender. And so far I only use up to 2 small leaves of flat kale because I'm afraid of overdoing it again. I mix in spinach and/or swiss chard. With swiss chard, obviously don't include any part of the tough stem. With kale and chard, and I always rip the leaves into smallish pieces before they go into the blender.

[dmb2002man]

I use kale and mustard greens in all my green drinks and they are strong tasting. I would think though that the blueberries and banana would override the kale taste. You could also try to add spinach to that. I also have a vitamix so i never have issues.

example:

1 large kale leaf
1 cup spinach
1 banana
1/2 cup blueberries
1 cup water

[modernmonkey]

I love chewy green smoothies. It is in fact a good idea to make them bitty and chew the bits because it activates enzymes which really help the digestion of the tough greens. Sip and chew, don't gulp!

[eddiefebuary]

I tried again today with less kale and strawberries instead of blueberries. It came out a lot better. Thanks for the suggestions!

[k8sl8]

I use kale and mustard greens in all my green drinks and they are strong tasting. I would think though that the blueberries and banana would override the kale taste. You could also try to add spinach to that. I also have a vitamix so i never have issues.



I don't find that kale is strong unless it is VERY large/old (I grow my own)' even then it is only mildly so. Mustard greens on the other hand are certainly an acquired taste... I find them almost 'hot'.

[appifanie]

I tried again today with less kale and strawberries instead of blueberries. It came out a lot better. Thanks for the suggestions!

awesome! with my old blender, the smoothies never got smooth enough so i got a vitamix. also, i realized that sometimes i want thicker smoothies, sometimes i want thinner.

and now i am hungry and want a smoothie :D

[BeingK8]

This may have been said and I just may have missed it, but those of you who are still having kale chunks/bits, do you use just the leaves or the stem/stalk bit, also? Just curious because I don't ever have enough chunk to be much of anything at all and I have an ordinary blender, but I'm always cutting that stem part away from the leaf. I fold it in half and cut that spine off.

(What is that part of the leaf called??? Anyone know??) LOL!

[Mrs. Papaya]

I never use the spine for kale and always rip the leaf part off in small pieces. I think the problem is that if you have cheap/regular blender and add too much curly kale, you might end up with sharp bits that don't blend entirely.

[MysticTree]

This may have been said and I just may have missed it, but those of you who are still having kale chunks/bits, do you use just the leaves or the stem/stalk bit, also? Just curious because I don't ever have enough chunk to be much of anything at all and I have an ordinary blender, but I'm always cutting that stem part away from the leaf. I fold it in half and cut that spine off.

(What is that part of the leaf called??? Anyone know??) LOL!

I think it is called the rib and actually there is a lot of juicy goodness in that bit so I would try to find a way to use it if only by saving the ribs for juicing.

[BeingK8]

I think it is called the rib and actually there is a lot of juicy goodness in that bit so I would try to find a way to use it if only by saving the ribs for juicing.
Duh. That's a good idea!

[Revvell]

Also, blueberries will turn you smoozie into "pudding" if you let it sit.