The Live Green Smoothie Diet

I was delighted this week to find a good local source of giant aloe vera leaves! It’s been a few months since I enjoyed a smoothie made with fresh aloe vera gel, and the fresh gel is el primo for alkalizing your body and helping to get rid of inflammation and stiffness, not to mention a whole host of other great health benefits.

I wanted to make an alkalizing smoothie especially for my mom, who — for health reasons — prefers her smoothies to be on the low-sugar, low-glycemic side. She found this plenty sweet, but you will see how surprising mild in sweetness it is. Most people mistakenly think of mangoes as being a very sweet fruit and, after having made smoothies using mangoes almost every way imagineable, I can vouch for it being a refreshingly mild in sweetness.

Is Aloe Vera Gel Bitter?

Now, as for the gel… I always use the monster-sized leaves I find in the grocery store, but I know that many people have smaller plants growing at home and are itching to use those. I have heard numerous complaints about aloe vera gel being bitter, which I have never, ever experienced. The aloe juice, yes… but the gel. And I have a sneaking suspicion that the bitter gel may be found in whatever variety these smaller home-grown plants may be.

Coincidentally, my parents just picked up & planted an aloe plant over the weekend, so I will be trying it out to see if it tastes any different.

From my experience, when I cut open a fresh aloe very leaf, the gel always smells like chicken soup, not the real kind but the sort they used to make when I was in grade school. I have no idea why this is the case, but, there it is. However, when I cut out the gel and use it in a smoothie (and I use ALL the gel in a giant leaf when I make a smoothie), the flavor is utterly, completely neutral. I can even make deliciously mild vanilla smoothies with it and it doesn’t interfere with the delicate flavor.

So. That’s my spiel on gel from the sacred aloe plant (which, by the way, comes to us via the health wisdom of Egypt, how nice).

Picking up a few leaves every time you go to the grocery store is a good practice. They run about $1.99 in my area. A fair price, I think, for the kind of rejuvenating, rejuicifying effect they can have on connective tissue in your body!

To cut the aloe vera gel out of a fresh aloe vera leaf:

1. First, slice down along each side of the leaf to cut off the spiky edges.

2. Next, cut the leaf in half crosswise (just to make it easier to handle), and then cut the top layer of green skin off each piece.

3. And finally, run your knife underneath the layer of gel, just above the bottom layer of green. As you release the gel from the bottom, cut it out in blocks or panels, and when you’ve finished, scrape or cut out any extra little bits.

And take care — the gel is slippery! Rinse your hands while you’re working, so you can maintain control without losing a finger.

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