The first time I tried making a green smoothie at home I used a low-end blender. The results weren’t that great. There were bits of greens and no amount of extra blending would break them down – I didn’t really pursue making green smoothies further as a result. Then, late last summer, I got my hands on a Vita-mix Pro 5200.1 This was revolutionary for me – I use my Vita-mix multiple times each day and recommend that everyone interested in making smoothies get their hands on a high-powered blender like a Vita-mix.
Amazing blender in hand, I tried making another green smoothie. This time, within a few seconds the smoothie was just that – smooth. However, I didn’t really enjoy the taste, even after adding additional ripe fruit. One of the ideas behind green smoothies is that you add just enough ripe fruit to help overcome the natural bitterness of most greens – but I was still not happy with the results. So I stopped exploring making green smoothies at home. In the intervening time, I had some green smoothies that my friends made for me. They seemed fine — so why were my own green smoothies lackluster to my taste buds?
It was the Kale!
Seeing the video by Kacper Postawski on green smoothies posted on the blog for his upcoming 7 Ancient Health Secrets DVD series, inspired me to give green smoothies another try. After trying to make green smoothies at home for the third time, I finally discovered why I was unhappy with my previous smoothies (blender issue aside). It was the kale! There’s a taste in kale (particularly black kale) that I don’t like that still comes through even after adding more ripe fruits to the mix. How did I figure this out? I made a green smoothie using some amazing organic red chard and was pleased with the results. I later verified that my previous use of kale was the culprit by making a green smoothie with only kale as the green.
My solution then to enjoying home-made green smoothies is to make the smoothies without kale or by just adding a small amount of kale in relation to other amazing greens. Using this break-though, I’ve now made green smoothies using mixtures of red chard, red lettuce, dark green Romain lettuce, black kale, spinach, and dandelion greens in combination with ripe pears and bananas as the fruit base. The issue wasn’t the bitterness of the greens (dandelion greens are quite bitter for example), just that one kale taste that comes though in my home-made green smoothies.
The basic recipe for green smoothies is about 50%-50% greens to ripe fruit with sufficient (filtered) water to produce a nice consistency. As you acquire the taste for enjoying greens more, you’ll likely be able to add less fruit to the mix and increase the proportion of greens.
The main proponent of green smoothies is Victoria Boutenko of the Raw Family, author of Green for Life and the Green Smoothie Revolution (available from Amazon.com
If you live in the greater Vancouver area (BC, Canada) a good place to get amazing organic greens all year round is Eternal Abundance.
I’ll add pictures (with descriptions) of some of the green smoothies I’ve been making for myself as they become available. So please keep your eyes here on Eat Raw Vegan!
Notes & References
- I purchased my Vita-mix from OrganicLives located in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Welcome to the world of green smoothies! I personally couldn’t live without them!
Im glad you found your perfect combo! Its funny because every morning for the past week I have been making smoothies with kale, nut milk and a banana. Yum!
Hi Everyone,
So here is the first of what I hope to be a nice series of photographs detailing some of the basic green smoothies I’ve been enjoying:
Ingredients: filtered water, green leaf lettuce, dandelion greens, McIntosh apple, banana, and a little Sproutein and camu camu. All produce organic. You can get Sproutein and camu camu powder from OrganicLives.
Wishing Everyone success, health, and happiness!
Your friend,
M.E.B.
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