Green smoothies have been around for a while. You might have even seen someone drink one or you make them yourself.

Lydia and I were introduced to the concept of Green Smoothies as a nutritious breakfast through Victoria Boutenko’s book: “Green for Life”

Here is a quick introduction to the yummy ones. We have been making them daily for the past 7 years and have literally perfected them. I now whip them up in less than 10 min (including greens harvest from our garden).

A basic Green Smoothie from our kitchen normally contains:

• 1 ripe banana, fresh or frozen
  Quick tip about freezing ripe bananas:
  a) peel them before freezing,
  b) cut them in inch size pieces before blending! I killed the drive shaft of our good old Osterizer blender with a whole frozen banana once. Thank heavens for spare parts!
• 1 orange or grapefruit, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1-2 apples or pears or any other seasonal fruit fresh or frozen
  We blended a season’s supply of persimmons, froze it in ice cube trays and kept the persimmon cubes in zip lock bags in the freezer, same with berries, halved plums…
  Pineapple and mango make lovely flavours. Kiwifruit can be a bit on the tart side.
• 2 T of chia seeds
• 1 bunch of greens from our garden, kale, parsley, puha, dandelion, lettuce, collard or broccoli leaves
• 1 avocado, peeled and pitted
  keeps the whole smoothie nicely emulsified, means it will not separate over time
• 2-3 cm (1 inch) fresh Ginger, thinly sliced
  Make sure you slice any fibrous ingredients thinly as even the most powerful blenders will not break down long fibers. Don’t believe me? Try blending wheatgrass leaves in your smoothie without cutting them beforehand! Just don’t serve the result to your spoiled darling (who might not like fur balls in his/her breakfast :-))
• 2-3 cm (1 inch) fresh turmeric, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup sultanas, optional yet pleasant when you use grapefruit or bitter greens in your smoothie
• Enough filtered water to fill about 2/3 – 3/4 in your blender jar

Extras could be any superfood like spirulina, maca powder, goji berries etc..
Fermented foods or apple cider vinegar have not proven to be a safe addition here in New Zealand. Leaving your green smoothie bottle outside the fridge for several hours can turn it into an explosive device. Ain’t pretty when you open the lid and half of the green content is propelled out of it by the expanding fermentation. Happened to me more than once and not only in private.

OK, now put the lid on your blender jar and press “Play”. Our Blendtec blender requires about 2-3 smoothie cycles of 25sec each to liquify everything into a smooth smoothie. Top up with water in between cycles if required.

We found the 750ml glass bottles from organic tomato sauce best suitable. They have a wide neck, can be washed in the dishwasher, are easy to fill and to drink from.

There you have it!
Easy! and not much to mess up
– aside from your T-shirt with the green stains down the front 😉

René

PS: Check out www.willitblend.com for a good laugh!