Inspiring Green Smoothies?

Last time I posted about Keeping It Real, Michelle asked:

I have been making green drinks for a while but haven’t found anything to make kale taste good. What is your smoothly recipe?

 

While I will NEVER aspire to run a food blog (I know my limitations!), here’s the recipe that I’ve worked out for my family.

This is different every time, but here’s the rough quantities. This recipe makes about 3 to 4 cups of smoothie. It’s best served immediately, but you can still drink it later if you put it in the fridge. I also have a BlendTec blender, so my smoothies are really smooth. If you have a less powerful blender, you’ll need to adjust the more “grainy” ingredients accordingly.

To specifically answer Michelle’s question, I’ve found that freezing or dehydrating the greens (including the kale) before I add it to the blender makes a HUGE difference. (Dehydrated greens have even less flavor than freezing, but either method helps.)

I’ve also found that if I have fairly ripe bananas AND at least one citrus fruit, I can cut down on the amount of “sweeteners” we add.

*ToriAnn’s Green Smoothie*

Put in the blender in this order (fruit/other liquids or water/greens)

1 banana
1/2 an apple or orange
1/2 cup berries, any kind (I used mixed or blueberries or strawberries)
1/2 cup “other” fruit (sometimes pineapple or mango or kiwi–whatever is on hand)

2 Tbsp apple juice concentrate (I just leave the concentrate in my fridge and use some every morning)
1 Tbsp agave (you could also use honey)
1 to 2 tsp vanilla (it may be more, I never measure!)

1 tbsp flax seeds

1-2 tbsp almonds

water so that it almost covers the fruit (you can also use 1/2 milk/soymilk/rice milk etc.)

kale, swiss chard, or spinach greens (stalks and leaves) so that they fill the same amount of space in the blender as the fruit (I never measure this. I’m making for a ton of people, so I put all the greens in until my blender is full–if it tastes too “green,” do less the next time. You can also add more sweetener or vanilla to mask the “green” flavor.)

Blend until it’s all smooth and yummy!