Food Green Smoothies

I recently tried green smoothie-making for the first time.. and I want to stick with it.

Right now, I'm using kale as my green. I usually add one or more of the following fruits: banana, mango, kiwi, strawberries (I'll add blueberries to this list if they go on sale again), as well as orange juice, ice, whole flax seeds, and brown rice protein powder.

Have you tried green smoothies? If you have, what greens do you tend to use in them? Do you use a dairy base? Do you add other veggies or just fruit?

I often make my fruit smoothies with yogurt, but that seems like it wouldn't work out very well for a green smoothie. I'm not sure why I feel that way.

 

Is there some specific reason why you need a green smoothie?

I'm thinking Popeye would like a Spinach Smoothie.

 

Specific reason? Not really. It's a good way to get more raw leafy greens into my diet without having salads, and it's quick for breakfast. I like to put kale in scrambled eggs, but I hate taking the time for that and having to wash the pan after making said scrambled eggs.

They taste good and get more vitamins and minerals into my diet with relatively little effort. I'm battling a cold right now, so the additional vitamin C without the burny feeling of straight OJ on my throat is nice as well.

 

S just makes his regular smoothie and adds in a packet of Amazing Grass' Green SuperFood drink powder for the "extra" stuff. Personally, I think it tastes horrid, but he's getting used to it. It has iodine in it so I tried another brand. I'd think that adding some juices to the kale, rather than yogurt might work well. Pineapple, orange juice, or apricot nectar maybe? Or some Very Veggie juice if you're in the mood for more savory flavors.

 

Usually I use OJ for the green smoothies.. I haven't tried them with yogurt yet, and I don't really intend to.

I forgot about frozen berries, Baraka! I used them a lot in fruit smoothies, but got out of the habit of using my blender. I'll have to price them at the grocery store sometime.

I've found that kale (I add about a cup of it torn up) doesn't really have any flavor in my smoothies, or at least it's easily overpowered by a banana and some orange juice. I'm curious as to how other greens would hold up.. spinach seems like it would be more strongly flavored, and I like it in salads on its own, anyway.

 

I decided against that pretty early - I have heard bad things about it. However, I have found that the taste really is covered up effectively with just a banana and some orange juice. I just can't imagine the same being true for spinach, as it has a very distinct flavor.

I love kale in scrambled eggs, though. And in pasta sauces. It's yum.

 

BIG green smoothie fan.

McDonalds' Shamrock Shakes count, right?

 

I don't know what it is about spinach, really, but I just don't fancy its flavor with fruit. I'll try it, I'm sure, and I'll prove myself wrong, but my mind right now has it worked up to just not taste great. Kale is pretty mild, I think.

I would love to find some other greens to try, though.. over the next month or so, I should probably get a little bit of every green carried at the grocery store a couple blocks away and see how they all taste in a smoothie.

 

Spinach and strawberries are awesome together in salads. So are oranges and spinach.
I bet they'd be great in a smoothie. I'm going to have to try this now... juice and kale or fruit and spinach.

 

I love my Magic Bullet. It's my favorite appliance because it's perfect for a single gal. I use it to make smoothies all the time and sometimes I add alcohol. OK, a lot of times.

I usually do Frozen strawberries, banana, OJ and a splash of milk, soy or udder. I used to add some vegan yogurt, but stopped doing that for some reason. I often add protein or whey powder if I am using it as a meal, which was my intention today, but forgot about a lunch meeting.

Never added greens before, but think I would enjoy spinach in that mix. I agree with noodle suggest and BG that spinach and fruit go well together. Mmmmm raspberry vinaigrette on a spinach salad with sliced apples, candied pecans and feta.

 

I bought some endive today. We'll see how that goes. I also grabbed some frozen peaches, frozen strawberries, as well as more bananas and OJ.

This morning I added some cherries to my smoothie since I didn't have any bananas. They certainly added some color (to the smoothie as well as my hands) and covered up any flavor of the kale really well. Honestly, to date I haven't yet really noticed the kale flavor at ALL in my smoothies, and I'm putting at least a cup of it in there. I feel like I might be doing something wrong, but it tastes good and I like it, so I'm going to continue going with it..

 

I had a smoothie for lunch today, but didn't have any green stuff except for some frozen spinach. I didn't think that would work.

 

Endive worked out pretty well today, but I think I actually prefer the kale. It's a teensy bit cheaper, too.

I'm going for variety, though.. I'll be trying escarole next. And I'm considering cabbage, although that sounds kinda.. yuck.

 

Currently enjoying today's smoothie, Strawberry, mango, pineapple-oj and vanilla flavored protein powder. Yummy. Gonna try the frozen Spinach tomorrow.