How To Make A Live Green Smoothie

(Be sure to read “What’s A Live Green Smoothie, Anyway?” too!)

Live Green Smoothies For Beginners

To help you gauge a good beginner’s proportion of greens to fruit, I’ve included measurements below. But I personally never measure my greens or my fruit when I make Live Green Smoothies. Since we’re dealing with fresh produce here, it’s hard to standardize measurements. A small very ripe banana will tend to be sweeter than 2 medium un-ripe bananas. “Three leaves of kale” could be tiny or gargantuan, depending upon the bunch you bought.

A good ratio to use when making green smoothies is 60% fruit to 40% greens.

You can use any kind of greens, and it’s good over time rotate your choice of greens. But keep it simple. There is no reason for complexity, and in fact the simpler your Live Green Smoothies are, the better your body will be able to digest and absorb the special nutrients that they carry.

A newbie to LGSs will generally enjoy them on the sweeter side. But your tastes will adjust after awhile and you’ll want less sugar and more greens. There are no hard-and-fast rules, though,only guidelines. Mostly importantly, learn how to make the smoothies that taste good to you so that you’ll enjoy drinking them, and drink them often!

After you’ve blended your smoothie, taste it before you pour it out. Ask yourself the following questions, then add fruit or greens accordingly.

• “Do I want this more sweet, with more fruit?”
• “Do I want this more watery, with less greens?”
• “Do I want this energizing and really clarifying, with more greens?”
• “Do I want this more refreshing, with less fruit?”

p

A Word About Blenders

When I first started “going raw” and discovered Live Green Smoothies, I had a $20 two-speed “smoothie blender” I picked up at Wal-Mart. I achieved my entire personal transformation using that blender, and I enjoyed drinking all the smoothies that little pipsqueak of a machine churned out.

However, when I later picked up a powerful 3+ HP Blendtec “Total Blender” (revamped and now called “Home”, but the same machine), my experience of drinking Live Green Smoothies jacked up as much as my vitality had. I’d never want to go back — the pricier Blendtec was worth every penny. So, if you can afford it, get a Blendtec. If you can’t… no worries. Your smoothies will just be a bit “chewier”… but there’s no harm in that.

However keep this in mind: there is evidence to show that the 2+HP blenders have the ability to break through the cell wall of the fruit & vedge in your smoothies, making them all that more digestible and their nutrients all the more “bio-available” to your system!

p

A Word About Preparing Your Greens and Fruit

If you use organic produce and you have a Blendtec, everything is quick and easy: Rinse the produce and throw into the blender whole, except for fruits that have pits or rough external skin. I don’t peel or core my apples; I use the stems on my greens; I don’t dice anything into small pieces; and I don’t make my smoothies in stages (“First blend this, then blend that… and now this.”) Everything goes in, the button gets pressed, and presto, in 40 seconds it’s done. Maybe I’ll add ice at the end, so I’ll do a 2nd round. But that’s the maximum fussiness I put into my smoothies. I am both busy and lazy, and I have to be hard-pressed and well-persuaded to put needless energy into any of my tasks.

In addition, I use water to create at least a 32 oz finished product, so I don’t have to repeatedly jam the fruit & vedge down to get it to blend. There is sufficient liquid in the blender to get the job done quickly and easily.

If you don’t use organic produce, I recommend transitioning over to more organic fruits and vedge – besides the pesticide residue you’ll decrease in your system, and your contributing to more balanced agriculture, studies have revealed that organic fruit & vedge do indeed have more nutrients. And I’ve taste-tested many times — organic produce is definitively sweeter, more mineral-rich, and more tender than produce grown using pesticides. As for food preparation, you’ll have to be more aware of removing peels and skins, roots and tops. Do what you need to do to make sure the food is clean and safe.

p

Simple Greens-and-Fruit Combinations For Live Green Smoothie Beginners

Spinach is the green of choice for beginners. It has a strong, tannic flavor when cooked, but when it is raw it has virtually no flavor at all. Instead, it gives a flavor of intense “freshness” when combined with fruit. Parsley is also very refreshing and enjoyable for beginners. I tend to use Parsley far more frequently than Spinach these days because it’s much, much cheaper and I’ve tightened up the purse strings. As you begin to branch out, try other greens: Kale, Arugula, Watercress, Beet Greens, Collards, Dill, Cilantro, even Broccoli. Later you can even experiment with making Live Green Smoothie with sprouts…which make “green smoothies” of all lovely colors — purple, fushcia, orange, and yellow!

In general regarding fruit: choose “sweet” fruits as the basis of your combination. Reserve less-sweet fruits, such as berries, as additions… unless you want an extremely low-sugar, very tart smoothie.

• One of my all-time favorite smoothie combinations is Spinach and Pear. It tastes like “essence of pear”… super-refreshing! Try 2 pears to a handful of spinach.
• Another excellent combination is Parsley and Mango. This makes for a gorgeous spring-green smoothie, and these two flavors really complement each other. One mango should suffice; add a banana or some grapes if you want it sweeter.
• Spinach with Banana & Vanilla is great, especially if you add a bit of ice — it’s like a pretty, green, vanilla shake! Use 2 bananas with the spinach, and add either a dash of organic vanilla extract or a 1″ piece of vanilla bean.
• One I make frequently is Grapes with Parsley. It’s extremely refreshing, and one that I generally make when I’m less inclined to sip — for example, when I’m taking one to the gym or making a smoothie after an intense workout, or when I’m getting my third blenderful of smoothies in at the end of a busy day. Use the grapes from a nice large bunch!

p

Basic Live Green Smoothie Recipe for Beginners

• 1 cup (or a good medium-size handful) fresh spinach or parsley
• 2 heaping cups (or two pieces) fresh sweet fruit
• good, pure water to fill blender to 32 oz (or to the point at which it won’t explode when you turn it on to MAX)
• 1 cup of ice (optional)

Blend: Put everything in the blender and blend til everything is broken down as good as your blender can manage. In my Blendtec, I have it set to 40 seconds, which is overkill. If you have a weenie-blender, you might want to give it a full minute or more.

Drink: Pour into glass & drink, or into ice-filled water bottles to take with you on-the-go. One blenderful will generally fill two large water bottles with ice, with a bit left over to drink.

Clean up: Rinse with hot water, then tip over to drain & dry. No need to use soap — you haven’t used anything that requires soap to break down.

After getting your smoothie feet wet, begin tinkering with these proportions.

• Add a larger handful of greens, between 1 and 2 cups, or more. Try different combinations. Branch out to using kale, arugula, dill, watercress, beet greens, collards, broccoli… or anything else green you can buy in your produce section!
• Add less fruit, or play with fruit combinations.

And then start exploring some of the more adventurous combinations on this site and elsewhere!

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Here are some “How To Make A Green Smoothie” videos, for your viewing pleasure…

How To Make A Green Smoothie, with GreenSmoothieGirl

This video was produced by Green Smoothie Girl, whose site is an absolutely awesome resource for green smoothies. Make sure you check it out! It’s extremely informative and well-organized, and I find that I’m extremely well in sync with GreenSmoothieGirl — AKA Robyn’s — take on everything from the greens to soy to coconut oil and salt.

[kaltura-widget wid="tu2vnczd6o" width="410" height="364" addpermission="3" editpermission="3" /]

***********************************************************

This video was produced by Tim VanOrden of Running Raw.Com. I love this guy, and need to go out of my way to meet him because he’s also someone who has been leveraging the vital power of raw foods to become an elite athlete later in life. And he’s got more personality than his smoothie has chlorophyll!

[kaltura-widget wid="wcjhbkjozc" width="410" height="364" addpermission="3" editpermission="3" /]

***********************************************************

This video was produced by Sergei Boutenko, a member of the Boutenko Family well-known for being leaders in bringing green smoothies to the world. Make sure you check out their site. I completely support their “Keep It Simple” take on green smoothies. They are wise and informative — not to be missed!

[kaltura-widget wid="7e06zb7wa8" width="410" height="364" addpermission="3" editpermission="3" /]

***********************************************************