Can't find Kale..what else is good?

[Jodi]

I am having problems finding Kale at my local grocery store. Occasionally they have it, but more often they don't. I would like to start making green smoothies (once my juicer arrives). What other greens can I use that would be as beneficial as Kale?


Thanks, Jodi

[Revvell]

Ahhhh, grahsshoppa, one doesn't make green smoothies with a juicer; one makes green smoothies in a blenda!!!

Any dark green leafy veggie is good. Just have to play with them to make sure you like the taste. Some are overpowering and bitter. Chard is good; if you lik cilantro or Italian parsely or even curly parsely....It all comes down to what tastes good to you.

Check out mustard and dandelion greens, carrot and beet tops. Taste test first. If something's got a bitter taste then use less.

Revvell

[Keeponlivin]

I have trouble finding kale also, so I decided to grow it! :)
Though, my next in line is spinach.

[rawpriestess]

are you making green juice? or green smoothies? they are made differently.

If you are making green juice, you would need either a wheatgrass juicer, OR a high speed blender like a vita mix or a Ktec, and then you add lemon with peel and some water, and the greens and blap it all up and then strain through a nut milk bag,

If you are making a green smoothie, you just add it all to a blender and blap.

As far as greens, pretty much any kind of greens works, stinging nettles, spinach, cilantro, parsley, chard, lettuce, radish leaves, broccoli leaves, carrot tops, turnip greens, collard, etc. just go to the grocery store, and buy some veggies, and use the top parts that most people throw away.

But do not use tomatoe leaves, potato leaves or rhubarb leaves as they are all poisonous.

[VeganVixen]

Swiss Chard

[Jodi]

To be honest...I don't know what the heck I'm making!!! haha I ordered the juicer with the thought of perhaps growing and making wheatgrass. Not to mention fresh fruit juice. I would also like to make smoothies...which I do hav a blender for. I guess I just assumed you can do the smoothies in the juicer. I'm learning....


Thanks for the alternates to Kale!

Jodi

[rawpriestess]

Well, now I've got something to work with.

A smoothie is usually a concoction of a bunch of different fruits (and veggies) some frozen or at least mixed with ice, to make a kind of milk shake type drink. You use the whole fruit such as the entire orange (less peel and seedfs), or apple (less core), and just blend it all together and you have a nice icey cold thick drink with the whole foods, and the fiber of the foods, often people will add a help powder or flax seed meal to this to add protein.

Now a juice is simply taking only the liquid of the fruit or veggie, and leaving the pulp, so you need a juicer to separate the two, you can make juice out of citrus fruits, but you either need a citrus juicer, hand, electric, whatever, or you can use a high speed blender and make what is considered the "whole" juice, with includes the pulp, but no peel or hopefully seeds.

Now, Wheatgrass and the green juices on the other hand are entirely different.

You need a special juicer for those, as it takes a lot of work to extract the juice from wheatgrass, etc.

So, you can buy a hand crank one, (my favorite) or you can buy an electric one, or you can use a high speed blender, add some lemon including the peel, add some water to keep it moving, and strain through a nut milk bag, this is how Victoria Boutenko suggest you make green juices and they taste better, and they don't make you nauseas.

Hope this helps.