Jarery

In a couple threads in the last few weeks some folks have asked about smoothies, i replied about green smoothies, and some folks asked for recipes, and others asked if ya just added veggies to a blender. Instead of answering each individually, i made a new thread for it.

Green smoothies are great for breakfast, and are great for eating more vegetables in your diet, especially green leafy vegetables that usually people only eat during salads. Most folks when they make a smoothie use dairy products and fruit. Green smoothies are just veggies and fruit but a lot healthier.

There are all kinds of set recipes, but really, its just toss in what you have. People usually start with a 60/40 mix of fruit to veggies and over time end up at 40/60 fruit to veggies.

I buy a variety of fruit such as banana, kiwi, apple, pineapple, mango, papaya, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, or whatever looks good when your at the store.

For veggies i buy romaine, kale, cucumber, celery, bean sprouts, spinach, dandelion, chard, broccoli, etc. Again its whatever is fresh, in season, and looks appealing to you. Most of the veggies I buy I never ate prior to green smoothies. Kale, chard, dandelion? Never ate it before.

Then I just grab 3-4 fruits, and 4-5 veggies and throw em in a blender. I toss in some hemp seed for protein, add some water or almond milk, and blend the crap outta it for 30 seconds. My blender is 3-1/2 HP. Ive had lawnmowers with smaller motors

Theres lots of websites out there with all kinds of info on them, google them if your curious about the nutrtional info on them.

Heres this mornings smoothie. Its mango/kiwi/apple/pineapple with celery/cucumber/broccoli/radish sprouts/spinach

The bitter veggie taste is masked by the sweet fruit so it tastes just like a less sweet fruit smoothie, you just have to get over the green color. My eyes say it'll taste bad, it actually tastes good.

geekonabike

What are you, Tim "The Toolman" Taylor in your spare time? Is that a Binford Tools special?

Seriously, what kind of blender do you have? I've been thinking about going the veggie/fruit smoothie route for awhile and wasn't sure I could find a blender that would last.

kidonabike

That actually looks really good, I'm going to have to try it!

Thanks for the recipe

Jarery

haha, ya this is the ultimate blender. If it can blend a snow ski, it can blend my smoothies. Might be price prohibitive for some Any blender will do them, just that some may only last 6 months to a year before burnout. But i follow the "go big or go home' philosophy

Mines called a blendtec, heres the companies viral marketing campaign, some are hilarious.

https://www.willitblend.com/videos.aspx?type=unsafe

palesaint

Wow, you leave the fuzz on the kiwis and everything? Crazy.

Looks good though. The idea of radishes is particularly intriguing. Might have to give it a try.

Jarery

I dont even take the stems off the apples lol. Seeds, skin, green leafy parts on strawberries, all goes in. Apparently all that stuff has lots of phytothingamajigs and other good stuff we typically toss away.

ironhorse3

Any tips on washing the raw vegetables? I just spray them off with the kitchen hose and drain in colander, but wonder of that's all that it takes. I like the large capacity blender. I've started making a similar (though purple) veg/fruit/berry smoothie and take about 10 oz with me to work to drink with lunch. I keep it in a cooler during the morning with ice.

kekrre

If the skin can take it, a scrub with a rough towel or scrubbing sponge wouldn't be bad. A lot of fruit/veggies come from the market with a layer of wax or pesticides on them, and in the words of Alton Brown, neither of those are good eats. For vegetables that you can't scrub, a rinse may be sufficient, but some people do give vegetables a quick rinse in some water with detergent, or you may be able to get away with letting vegetables swish in a pool of water (good for removing dirt).

And FWIW, eating kiwifruit with the fuzz on is the way to go, smoothie or not — I've done it since I was a kid, so maybe I've been pre-conditioned, but the best way to eat them is coined (~1/4 inch thick), skin on, tossed in plain yogurt
I never realised that so many people didn't eat the skins.

cyclehen

reminds me of that old SNL bit, the "bass-o-matic"! Seriously, I think I would have a really hard time w/ the texture, more than the color.

geekonabike

There are a number of things out there that do a bit more then just get some of the loose dirt off:

https://www.veggie-wash.com/cgi-bin/c...item=654912947
https://www.vermontsoap.com/vegwash.shtml
https://www.safeguardproducts.com.au/
https://organicpharmacy.org/products/...FeFM5QodyCMjAQ

My Personal favorite:
https://www.amazon.com/Earth-Friendly.../dp/B000J6EAQA

Or make your own:
https://planetgreen.discovery.com/hom...ggie-wash.html

ironhorse3

Thanks for the links. I'll try the home made version. I never got sick, as far as I know from eating raw vegetables but have this minor concern that keeps popping up.

Jynx

I understand you just throw everything together but does anyone have any info on what fruits and vegetables work well together? any fruits and vegetables combos that just taste bad? thanks, this is a great thread and I will now have to pick up a new blender. Think a food processor would work or will it not spin fast enough?

Jarery

I have not tried a food processor. They may work as long as you chop items up small enough. In my photos I chopped items to make a decent photo, but I could toss them all in whole and still get the same end results. Where normal blenders fail is some of the leafy greens dont get chopped up fine enough to become liquid.

Give it a shot though, cheaper method if it works.

As for fruit/veggie combos. I tried avocado and didn't like it too much, made it too creamy, but if you like dairy smoothies it may be similar. For fruits the ones that work best are sour/tart ones. Even lime and grapes work well. I dont think there is any that wont work, and variety makes it a new experiment every day.

For veggies, I have not found any flavor wise that i dont like, I was missing green veggies from my diet so thats what i have been concentrate on. There are a lot of sites , mostly vegetarian or raw food sites, that might have much more info.

Good luck, and welcome to the green side !

Lykolate

Apple seeds contain cyanide, or so I have read...

mtclifford

Apple seeds contain amygdalin which is a cyanide compound. You would have to grind hundreds if not thousands of seeds to cause yourself any harm though. (imagine an all apple seed smoothie).

Personally I find most smoothies nasty myself, especially the vegetable ones, I'd much rather just eat the vegetables unprocessed.

Jynx

Made one for breakfast today. The blender I have is HORRIBLE ( I was using a mashed potatoe masher to push down the leaves and fruit on to the blade). Looks like I have to go buy another blender. The smoothie tasted pretty good though.

msincredible

I'm the same, I just prefer the fruits and veggies whole.

Jarery

Yes. And many people eat apple seeds for just this reason, as the cyanide is thought to kill cancer cells. Research is sketchy since like many things, you have the underfunded natural medicine folks in one camp vs the billion dollar pharmaceutical companies in the other, so info gets a bit biased

Jarery

Thats sorta the point, for many who dont eat veggies this is a way to increase their consumption. There is no way i would sit down and eat a breakfast of spinach, sprouts, cucumber and celery. So although i may prefer each one individually as itself instead of in a smoothie, it just is never gonna happen.

illwafer

nice job.

stu842

Ok well now I have to try this. Can't let me roommates see though... they will think that I have officially lost it

I've tried to add more vegetables to my diet, but they just end up going bad in my refrigerator because I simply never eat them.

Machka 

+1

I look at this and wonder why someone wouldn't just have a nice salad instead ... or add several kinds of veggies & fruit to every meal.

shagohod

what about/why not using food dye to color it, say red to look like fruit punch

Jarery

Mainly because i dont have an hour to eat breakfast which is what it would take to make then eat what i put in a blender. A kale salad i also dont find appetizing. The smoothie takes me about 2 min to make and about the same to drink.

My main reasoning is i was getting zero veggies for breakfast, just at dinner/lunch with salads and sides. Now my breakfast is 100% veggie and fruit, and my daily intake of veggies is about 5-10x than before.

Most people use a lot of salad dressing also which if store bought can be high calorie, fat, processed chemicals, etc. If im going out for dinner, like you i'd prefer the salad.

Nutritionally, the smoothie is better as its broken down more than you can do with chewing.

Above cut/paste from https://www.formerfatguyblog.com/2008...ded-salad.html

And finally, a reason to have it instead of a salad......they taste great

mtclifford

It is a wonder we survived as a species before the invention of smoothie.


And taste great is a highly objective opinion, the few I have had have tasted simply awful to me, not to mention they look like the results of the jolly green giant going on a drinking binge.

But hey to each his own