One of many enjoyable ways to up your daily intake of nutritious green leafies!
1 and 1/2 cups pure water
1 cup spinach leaves, tightly packed
1/2 cup ripe strawberries (green tops left on), medium diced tightly packed
1 cup ripe banana, tightly packed
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 to 3 teaspoons raw coconut oil
Using a high-speed blender, first blend together the water, spinach and strawberries until creamy. Then add the banana, lemon juice and coconut oil and blend again until smooth. Pour the mixture into a tall glass. Serve!
A few tips…
The listed ingredients equal to roughly 24 ounces of green smoothie.
You might think that this Basic Green Smoothie tastes only like spinach, but it really doesn’t. The flavors of strawberry and banana are pretty prominent, and nicely complemented by the slight zing of lemon juice and the silkiness of coconut oil. If it weren’t for the color, you could hardly guess that it had greens packed inside. But don’t take my word for it, make one for yourself!
Want to try a green smoothie but don’t particularly enjoy the “taste” of veggies?
No problem! You can simply start by first making some kind of fruit smoothie and then add to that a small amount of greens until you reach a desired ratio. Over time you can decrease the amount of fruit and increase the amount of leafy items. Easy! Of course, you can do what I did here and use bananas and strawberries but pretty much any type of fruit will work, depending upon your preference. You can try pear, mango, apple, blueberries, cherries, cantaloupe, papaya, pineapple, or orange. Instead of spinach, you can use beet greens, chard, lettuce (red leaf, green leaf, romaine), watercress, kale (lacinato, curly green, curly red), collard, or dandelion leaves. And don’t forget about herbs like cilantro, basil, mint, or parsley. Maybe spice things up with a bit of grated ginger. The possibilities are endless. Experiment! [smiley wink]
Not all blenders are created equal. If your blender is not overly powerful, you may need to pre-chop your green leafy vegetables (as well as remove tough stems) before processing. In general, blending the greens with water (or other liquid) prior to adding any remaining ingredients will greatly ease the blending process and encourage a lump-free smoothie. Sturdy greens such as kale and collard could prove challenging for some blenders. It may take a bit of trial and error to determine which green leafy vegetables are best to process in your particular machine.
Other smoothies to check out:
