If you’re looking for a quick way to get large amounts of live nutrient rich dark greens into your diet, our green smoothie recipe can’t be beat!  It’s sweet and delicious and takes 5 minutes or less to make.  It’s also very easily adaptable. I’ve drank a quart for breakfast for years and Roy does too.  We’ll give you all our hints and tips for the yummiest green drink ever. Try it for a month and see if you don’t notice a difference in how you look and feel!  If you’d like more info on drinking nutritiously, check out our “All About Juicing” post which has a free printable pesticide chart.

Green Smoothie Recipe : Short Version

In a blender add:

• 1 1/2 cup water
• 4 to 6 ice cubes
• 1 full head romaine (bottom trimmed off)
• 1 huge handful baby spinach
• 1 large frozen ripe banana
• Blend till smooth and creamy. Makes 1 quart for 1 person. Drink immediately.   If it’s not sweet enough add a little honey.

More Options and Details

This recipe is very forgiving and you can add or take away all kinds of things. Try to keep this goal in mind: getting a large amount of nutrient rich  dark greens into your body.  You should drink a FULL QUART of this at once. Super easy to do because it’s so yummy. Since this is a green smoothie recipe, we have a great Greens SuperFood Powder that would also fit perfectly:

After you’ve gone through our ideas below you might want to hop on over to Positive Health Wellness site and check out their “All In One Guide To Making A Green Smoothie“. It’s  filled with even more great ideas and info on this topic!

TOOLS

Good Blender. After burning out 2 or 3 normal blenders we finally invested in a Vita-Mix many years back.  They last forever and will blend anything. Plus they do a lot more than just blend stuff, including grinding flour! However, those are not in everyone’s budget so just make sure your blender can blend frozen fruit.

Mini Coffee Grinder (optional) I use this exact one for grinding my flax seed. It’s also very handy for grinding nuts, herbs etc.

THE GREEN SMOOTHIE RECIPE BASE

Try to use organic greens if affordable and available.

1 1/2 Cup water with 4-6 ice cubes

Frozen Bananas. Using frozen bananas is what makes your drink sweet, rich and creamy.  Freeze them extra ripe.  The riper they are the sweeter they are. We buy bananas in bulk, peel them and then cut them into 1″ to 2 ” pieces and freeze in 1 gallon freezer bags, one layer thick.  Each day we grab what we need for our smoothies.  I typically use enough pieces to make 1 full banana. The more you use the thicker and sweeter it gets!

Romaine Lettuce, a full head with the bottom cut off.

Baby Spinach. As spinach is very tame in flavor use a HUGE handful!

OPTIONAL ADDITIONS

A lot of what you use in your green smoothie recipe is done to taste. So go easy on things until you decide what amounts you like best.

Kale  is a super food, meaning it’s one of the most nutrient rich foods on the planet. If you can use it, do so. Keep in mind it does have a  very strong flavor so I only use a small handful. That way you don’t taste it.

Flax seed.  This is another super food and  I always add 1 TB of ground flax seed to each smoothie.  Never buy this pre-ground because as soon as you grind it, it  starts losing its nutrients. I have a tiny electric coffee grinder that sits on my counter, as mentioned above. It gets used daily for this purpose. You could also use flax oil in place of the ground seeds. Flax gives you those Omega 3’s our bodies so desperately need which is why I add it to all our smoothies. FYI: The outer shell of the tiny flax seed is so tough it cannot be digested which is why you have to grind it.

Cacao Powder We use this when we want a chocolate smoothie. Or just toss in a little cocoa powder.

Psyllium Husk You can add 1 tsp of this into your smoothie. I mainly use it because it’s an item I keep on hand all the time. It’s pure fiber. If you choose to use less bananas this will help make your drink thick.

Other Frozen Fruits: Blue berries (another super food and it makes your drink a pretty purple).  Frozen strawberries are great also. Remember, frozen fruits make your drink thicker.

We’ve also used 1/2 a fresh mango on occasion. Gives it a wonderful flavor and adds to the sweetness.

SWEETENERS (IF NEEDED)

If you use plenty of ripe bananas your drink will be very sweet but if you use less you may want to use some added sweetness.  You can add in a small amount of honey, Stevia, agave nectar or Xylitol We’ve used every one of these at various times, my favorite being Xylitol due to it’s benefits to teeth. (See our post Kiss Your Dentist Goodbye!)   The protein powder below also sweetens your smoothie and you only need 1/2 scoop for 1 quart of smoothie.

 

SUN WARRIOR PROTEIN POWDER

This is completely optional and I only mention it because Roy and I have got spoiled using it the past year.  It’s a plant based ultra-nutritious powder.  Keep in mind you get high level of protein from dark greens so it’s not needed for that reason but it has other nutrients plus it’s sweetened with Stevia and comes in vanilla and chocolate. If you prefer to not add a lot of fruit into your green drink this does a wonderful job of sweetening and flavoring it.  We prefer the chocolate and we only use 1/2 a scoop per quart which is perfect.

How We Make Our Green Smoothie

If you  would like it thicker just add more frozen fruit and/or ice cubes.

As I mentioned, I drink a quart of this every morning and love it. It’s delicious, filling and off the charts good for you! Try replacing your normal breakfast with one of these for a month and see what happens.