Green Smoothie
Today's green smoothie (breakfast of Champions!) came out really creamy. I'm not sure why, but I'm sure enjoying it. I've got 2 superfoods packed in this one, goji berries and goldenberries (a.k.a. Incan Berries and Golden Inca Berries). Just for a change I decided to add some spice – cinnamon and ginger, it's a subtle but nice change.
Ingredients:
4 kale leaves (stalk removed)
bunch of curly parsley (any kind will do)
4 sprigs apple mint (alternatively any other fresh mint)
2.5 cups kombucha (alternatively use filtered water)
3 frozen bananas
1 handful frozen goldenberries
1 handful dried goji berries
2 good shakes of cinnamon powder
pinch of celtic sea salt
pinch of powdered ginger
Instructions:
Put all the greens into a blender. Add kombucha up to the 2.5 cup mark on my blender jug. Blend, starting on slow and gradually turning up the speed until the liquid starts turning green (at first the liquid is still clearish, with green leafy bits in it, but I keep blending on high until the bits start liquefying).
Add the rest of the ingredients, breaking up each frozen banana into about 3 pieces. You probably don't have to break the banana if you have a super-blender, like the Vita-mix.
The banana and goldenberries will thicken the mixture, so add more kombucha or filtered water until you smoothie is the consistency you like.
This will make several large glasses, and will keep in the fridge for the rest of the day if you want to drink it throughout the day.
Tip: The quickest way I've found to de-stalk the kale is to grab hold of the thick end of the stalk with one hand, wrap my thumb and index finger around the stalk near my ‘holding' hand with my palm facing toward the leafy part and then just sliding my thumb and index finger up the stalk to pull off the leafy part.
That’s a good question, thanks for asking. As Green Smoothie Junkie pointed out, fiber is the big difference between the two. I’d just like to say that both green smoothies and fresh vegetable juices are really good for you, so it’s not a matter of one being better than the other.
Fiber is important, in fact it’s now considered an essential nutrient. It’s also filling, so between all the nutrients and the fiber I find green smoothies will last me for hours, it’s like a full meal except it doesn’t slow me down like a meal would.
The other big benefit of green smoothies is that you get a massive hit of green leafy vegetables. Most of the time vegetable juices don’t include leafy greens. Usually the base is something like carrot, tomato, celery or maybe beet. While they are all nutritious, they aren’t leafy greens which nutritionally play an important role in our diets. I basically fill the blender with leafy greens, and that’s a lot of green. Some vegetable juices may have parsley or a bit of leafy greens in them, but it won’t be in the quantity you’d get in a green smoothie. In fact if you had a glass of that much juiced leafy greens you just might feel like gagging. And that’s the beauty of a green smoothie – you get the greens, but the banana and other ingredients mellow out the taste, so they are actually slightly sweet and refreshing. So it’s a really good way to get lots of green leafy vegetables in a form that’s really nice tasting.
I think fresh vegetable juices are a great way to get a high dosage of bio available nutrients. Green smoothies are similar, but just adding lots of fiber and the nutritional benefit of greens. Ultimately, I’d like to be drinking both every day. I’ll be writing more about the nutritional benefits of green smoothies in a full article at some point too, so you might want to subscribe to my RSS feed if you’re not already.
Very nice recipe. I can’t imagine cinnamon in a green smoothie but this is the second recipe I’ve seen with it so I’ll have to try it. Thanks for sharing.
As for the difference between juicing and green smoothies, the main difference is fiber. You do not get the benefits of fiber when juicing.
Thanks! I don’t know what made me even think of adding the cinnamon, but I’m glad I did. The ginger was sitting right beside it on the shelf, so I thought I’d add some of that as well. The cinnamon and ginger were really nice in it, subtle, but nice. This smoothie turned out really creamy too, and the only thing different that I added was those spices, so it must have been that, it was a really nice result.