She Takes The Plunge
Into green smoothie world! I made my first green smoothie today and it was SO GOOD! It didn't taste green at all. It was sweet and smooth and really good for me (so they claim).
We don't eat enough green food in this house (unless it's pesto sauce for the steak). And not anywhere near enough raw food. Not because we don't like raw food, but it's too much trouble.
That statement makes no sense, I know. But it's the sentiment around here.
Who talked me into a green smoothie?
I've been sorta following RawFamily.com and they finally convinced me to try it. First off, they all look so vibrant and young (because they ARE young, hello!)
They're also the experts on the topic. Victoria makes a good point about getting your greens this way [1]. She says, "... in order to get nutrients from greens, every cell of the green leaf has to be ruptured. To get all of the nutrients from food by oral mastication, one would have to spend several hours a day chewing." Drinking my greens was way faster, no doubt about it!
Two videos really got me going on this idea. In the first one, Sergei teaches the four basics for a green smoothie.
Then I watched this one with Valya about what fruits to mix, soluble and insoluble fiber [2]. You have to know this so that your smoothie will be smooth and will not separate. Critically important, if you ever want to have more than one sip of that smoothie!
Last Saturday, I bought organic kale at the farmer's market, then (Costa Rica) pineapple and bananas at the grocery. I already had organic kiwis and pears, filtered water... voila! Green smoothie fixin's.
Here's my Green Smoothie recipe:
1 C. pineapple chunks 1 kiwi peeled 1 banana 1/2 pear A bunch o kale -- probably 10 leaves, with the stem ends pulled off. I didn't cut up the kale, just stuffed it in the VitaMix.
NOTE: the ratio is 60% fruit to 40% greens.
I poured in water to the halfway mark and blended on high for about 1-2 minutes, until it was all one color of green with no specks of darker green. I didn't think it would happen, frankly, but it did. That VitaMix is a killer machine.
To blend up greens to a smooth consistency, you need a powerful blender, like a Vitamix or a Ninja!
The basic kitchen blender from the local pharmacy probably won't cut it. You'll need some horsepower or you'll be chewing kale.
After blending, I waited for a minute to see if it would separate and it did not. So, even though it was really, really green, I tried it. Yummy! Surprisingly so. I just really expected it to taste green, but it tastes like pineapple!
This made about two quarts. I drank one right away, then sipped on the other as the day wore on. It never separated and, as you can see in the photo, stayed bright green all day (in the fridge). Don't worry -- I ate food during the day, too. I'm not totally nuts.
Looking forward to my next smoothie, maybe with spinach or dandelions. I love cooked kale, so I buy it, but then never cook it... it always ends up as chicken food! This somehow feels right, this raw food in a smoothie.
Next time, I'm trying one of these recipes. The one with coconut looks promising... Now that I know how good they are, I'm going to try them all.
NOTE: The greensmoothiesblog is down right now, but you can find the info on rawfamily.com! [1] http://greensmoothiesblog.com/oxidization-with-blending/ [2] http://greensmoothiesblog.com/how-to-make-a-green-smoothie-tips/