Green Smoothie Magic - 132+ Delicious Green Smoothie Recipes That Trim And Slim (7 page)

Let’s just put all that to bed and say: “We get it”. Cram a lot of greens into a smoothie and if you balance that with other well-chosen ingredients you’re sure to get a highly nutritious drink. Job’s done. The percentages are just an indication that you need greens. By the way, if, in the beginning, you can’t do that in a smoothie, then eat a few salads.

Ingredient Quantities In This Book

My aim is to make these recipes easy to make. I have read many recipes over the decades that suggest using a bunch of this or that. A bunch? Sorry, that does NOT compute. Sometimes bunches of say, basil are just a couple of stems with a few dozen leaves. While at other times a bunch is a veritable bounty of literally hundreds of the fresh green fragrant herb.

Or what about when you read something like ‘a small pineapple’? I live in pineapple country. I can find pineapples that would yield less than 1 cup and other ones that you could get over 2 cups out of and both of which you COULD consider small. So ...

Instead of telling you a bunch of basil, you’re more likely to be told a quantity. You’ll see ‘1/2 cup basil’ or ‘1 cup of pineapple’.

Handfuls, Bunches Or Cups?

You won’t be told to throw in a ¼ ‘bunch’ of basil. There is the very occasional handful (of nuts or mint). Smoothie-ing is not an exact science because the produce you buy is variable. However it is easy to measure a cupful of greens or fruit.

In this book you’ll find that I have included a simple and as accurately-reproducible guide to measuring ingredient quantities as I could manage.

While fruit sizes can change, where it matters I have quantified it for you.

Which Vegetables Are Starchy?

I agree with many other smoothie greats (!) that starchy vegetables should be avoided in smoothies. If you need proof of that, then try to imagine a potato smoothie. Hahaha

There are degrees however. Some will tell you not to put in beets (beetroot) or carrots because they are too high in carbs or even starchy. They say it’s because it needs to sit within the guidelines of a combination diet.

So to make it easy, how about I give you a quick guide on starchy and non-starchy veggies (at least the ones that are sometimes in contention!)?

Starchy Vegetables To Be Avoided In A Green Smoothie

Don’t put these in your smoothie:

• Corn, squash and pumpkin, potatoes and sweet potatoes, peas and parsnips.
  

You will see that in this book that I often love to use the
leaves
of the sweet potato. They are very mild and blend well. They’re also high in iron. :)

Non-Starchy Vegetables

There are plenty of non-starchy vegetables. Let me AVOID making this a long list, because frankly, common sense tells you that you’ll want to avoid putting eggplant or mushrooms in your smoothies!

Instead I have listed the vegetables that go very well in green smoothies
for their nutritional profile
and the way they complement the other ingredients. Some of these vegetables will have a tiny amount of starch in them.

Nature really does things in a way that does not necessarily ‘comply’ with man-made rules. Trust me, these vegetables work
really
well in a green smoothie! (I should know – I tested every single one of them!)

• Carrots, beets, broccoli, celery, onion, tomato and peppers and cucumbers (those last three are technically fruits) and of course just about all your ‘green leafies’.
  

I’ve made sure that the recipes in this book reflect the best way to give a good blend and flavor.

~ · ~

Not All Green Smoothies Are Green

Well ... they are and they aren’t. To me, a green smoothie is all about putting lots of green leafy vegetables into a well-assimilated good-tasting drink. A so-called green smoothie based on raspberries or blueberries is more likely to be purple, blue or even browny! They’re not all green in
color
.

In fact I have enjoyed smoothies of colors of a wide spectrum from yellowy lime, to vivid green, to dark green, browns, purples and reds! A veritable smoothie rainbow.

The key is to have a couple of cups of green leaves (that are well packed) in each serving! The amount may increase or decrease because there are other green vegies that you may add that are beneficial.

For example if I am adding a stalk of celery, then the recipe may just call for 1-1.5 cups of greens. If I am adding herbs such as cilantro (coriander) or mint or parsley they may just add to the amount of greens. I often substitute a ¼ to a ½ cup of broccoli florets. A recipe may ask you to add in a handful of sprouts.

Our Obsession With Food And The ‘Best Way To Cook It’!

The world seems to revolve on the joy and fun of putting ingredients together. “Masterchef” style television shows pitting cooking prowess skills of amateurs head to head. Sometimes it seems the more detailed and the more steps you put food through, the more revered the result will be.

It’s great news that there is a movement against the scarily growing fast-food lifestyle. It’s not at all large enough, if you ask me. It’s going to take quite some time before the results of any healthy changes are obvious in our western cultures.

Some people are now subscribing to a ‘slow food’ philosophy, taking their time in the preparation and eating of their fare.

Probably the most popular new(ish) food movement is the Raw Food Movement!

Raw Food You Ask?

I do LOVE raw food and I do also eat amounts of cooked food. Eating raw food, as my family does in increasing amounts, is not only delicious it makes us feel vibrant, energetic and healthy.

But with children, unless you’ve started out with superlative habits, convincing your child(ren) that MOSTLY raw food is the way to go can be downright challenging.

There is a tremendous amount of evidence, both real and anecdotal which shows that plant-based foods and especially those that aren’t cooked are the elixir of life. Ha, a bold claim. But frankly, we are talking some amazing effects on the human body.

Put simply: Green smoothies help you consume more raw foods – EFFORTLESSLY!

In almost every case plant-based and raw foods have more nutrients for your system. In other words the body has a greater chance of assimilating all the goodness in the food. You see, cooking processes that use heat above about 115 degrees Fahrenheit (c 46 degrees Celsius) are responsible for making changes in the nutrients, often completely inactivating them.

There also seems to be quite a backlash against the mis-information that we are constantly fed by the big wheels of business; pharmaceutical, marketing, food companies and governments.

People (once they’ve had some kind of awakening) want to return to the simplicity of wholefoods, natural medicine, or even better, using food as the first port of call for healing conditions and diseases and in doing so maintaining health.

Ah yes! Raw food. It does seem logical that eating fresh fruit and vegetables in their raw uncooked state in most cases is going to deliver the cleanest, most nutritious form of nourishment for the body and soul!

Contrast that with those recipes designed to hide ground up vegetables in cooked meals to trick the children. Zucchini cake - I mean, really? Delicious, maybe, but what purpose does it serve (in most cases) but to subdue people into a false sense of security.

Most often the nutrition has, in all intents and purposes completely left its origin and that vegetable has now just become a ‘filler’. And pssst I have been guilty of disguising vegies in certain meals. Fortunately with green smoothies, it’s just easier and there’s nothing to hide – and the nutrition is there. It’s a win-win-win situation.

I am not a raw food evangelist and this book is not at all political.

Raw Food Waiver

I think it’s worth issuing you a waiver here: While cooking food can kill enzymes and nullify the nutrition, there are foods which IF you choose to eat them, really MUST be cooked.

Some foods need to be cooked if they contain virulent (dangerous) bacteria or toxins. An example for you: You would never eat raw kidney beans. They can’t even be simply added to a stew, they need to be boiled first to kill the phytotoxin or to bring it down to non-toxic levels.

Certain components of certain foods are more potent when they are cooked making them better for you. While tomatoes are great raw, if you want to improve your lycopene intake (a potent antioxidant) then cooking improves lycopene levels.

Cooking carrots has often been recommended so that the cell walls can breakdown effectively and therefore release nutritional goodness. Cooking is also said to increase their level of beta-carotene (which converts to vitamin A). Cooking does however destroy levels of vitamin C.

In certain parts of the world people are being cautioned not to eat raw eggs, meat and even sprouts because of certain microorganisms.

If you pulverize your carrots in a blender or a juicer then you’ll get everything you need in very good amounts. Much of the work is done by your machine. The cell walls get broken down effectively and the nutritional wonder inside becomes more bioavailable.

From an ease of digestion standpoint cooking your carrots is good (especially boiled whole) because I can probably bet that you’re not chewing or pulverizing them in their raw form as well as your blender or juicer can. With the current juicing and smoothie-making trends you don’t need to cook them. Raw is my preference.

Tuning Into You

When you consume your green smoothies you will notice a change in your relationship to food (if you haven’t already). It feels so empowering to reject old food choices easily and naturally while preferring things you may have even felt ambivalent or repulsed by before.

Case in point: I simply cannot imagine my daughter consistently sitting down to a plate of salad with 2 cupsful of green leaves along with a pile of other foods. It would seem a very daunting (and large) task. She now has AT LEAST that every time she has a smoothie. It feels like a victory to her parents, but to her, she feels empowered and happy to know she’s easily contributing to a lasting legacy of health (deliciously).

The benefit is that, over a short amount of time, you really learn to tune into what your body really needs and wants. It responds so well to the clean fresh ingredients. You will find that choosing what you need becomes intuitively easier – without effort.