Green Smoothies

In April 2013, I stumbled upon The Raw Family website and was impressed with their story and recommendation to add more leafy greens to your diet. Since that day, I have consumed a large green smoothie nearly everyday. I heartily agree that one of the best dietary changes one can make is to add more leafy greens to your diet. Greens are high in calcium, protein, vitamins, minerals, fibre and antioxidants. I also agree that we should rotate the greens we consume, consuming a variety of different ones.

Recently I was asked for some of my favorite green smoothie recipes. I follow the basic Smoothie recipe of:

• 2 cups greens
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups fruit
• juice of 1/2 lemon

Over the course of a couple of weeks, I jotted down the ingredients from the green smoothies I made. Generally, the greens are interchangeable, except perhaps for the mint recipes, so feel free to use whatever greens you can get.

My shopping lists generally contain the follow greens:

• organic spinach
• organic kale (several kinds if available – curly green, dino and red kale)
• parsley
• cilantro
• mint

However, there are other greens that are sometimes available – mustard greens (very spicy), collard greens, beet greens, swiss chard, etc.; so don’t be afraid to give them a try too.

Once my garden starts producing I can generally grow all the greens I need. Don’t forget to include such less used greens such as carrot and radish leaves. And there is a large variety of wild edibles (aka weeds) that can be consumed, that are delicious and often more nutritious than the cultivated greens. My favorite is stinging nettle leaves.

Banana Blueberry Kale

• 2 bananas
• 1 cup blueberries
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 cups kale
• 2 cups water

Mango Kale

• 1 banana
• 1 ½ cup mango cubes (or pineapple)
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 cups kale
• 2 cups water

Spinach Mint

• 1 cup spinach
• 1 cup mint leaves
• 1 banana
• 1 ½ cups mango (or pineapple)
• 2 cups water
• Juice of ½ lemon

Chocolate Mint

• 5 bananas
• 2 cups almond milk
• 1 cup mint leaves
• 3 tablespoons cocoa

Chocolate Parlsey (you won’t even know there is parsley in it)

• 5 bananas
• 2 cups almond milk
• 1 cup parsley
• Couple drops mint oil
• 3 tablespoons cocoa

Mango Parsley

•  2 cups mango cubes (or pineapple)
• 2 cups parsley
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 oranges, peeled
• Zest of 1 orange
• ¼ tsp turmeric
• 2 tsp grated ginger
• 2 cups water

Ginger Spinach

• 2 cups mixed berries
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 tsp grated ginger
• 1 banana (or ½ cup pineapple)
• 2 cups spinach
• Pinch of stevia
• 2 cups water

Raspberry Beet

• 3 bananas (or 1 cup pineapple)
• 1 cup frozen raspberries
• 2 cups beet greens
• Juice of 1 orange
• Juice from 1 beet
• 2 cups water

Cilantro

• 2 cups mango (or pineapple)
• 1 banana
• 2 cups cilantro
• 2 cups water
• Juice of ½ lemon