Supa Green; The (enormous) green smoothie post!

  

My pint of green deliciousness.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with green smoothies, they are a simple (but completely amazing) drink, made from fruit, green leafy vegetables, water, ice, & sometimes juice. Green smoothies are quick & easy to make, but for best results a powerful blender, such as a Vitamix is required.
Green smoothies are packed with nutrients, & because the ingredients are liquified, those nutrients are easily absorbed by your body :0 Simply put, I believe this is one of the very best things you can include in your diet!

 Basic Green Smoothie Recipe

Requires:
Powerful blender, such as a Vitamix, or Blendtec

Ingredients:
- 1 medium sized, ripe Banana (or 2 small ones)
- 1 Green Apple - Rinced, & quartered, with seeds removed.
- 1/2 a Grapefruit
- 1 Orange
- 2 handfuls of Kale Leaves
- 2 handfuls of Spinach Leaves
- 1 cup pure, Organic Orange Juice (no cordials, etc!)
- 2 cups Water
- 4-6 Ice cubes

Method:
1. Combine all ingredients, except the ice cubes into your blender.
2. Start the blender on slow, & gradually move up to it's top speed. Blend on highest speed for 25-30 seconds, adding an ice cube every 5 seconds or so.
3. Once ingredients are liquified (this should take no more than 40 seconds, tops!) switch back down to your blenders lowest speed, & turn it off.
4. Now your amazing drink is ready! Pour some into a large glass, & enjoy! : )

This recipes yields approx 3 large glasses of green smoothie, & it's fine to store in the fridge overnight to drink the following day.
There are many green smoothie recipes around, & you can try different combinations of fruit/greens, depending on what's available in your area.
There is a wide variety of greens that you can use, some of my favorites are -
*Spinach
*Kale
*Dandelion Greens
*Silverbeet (aka. Swiss Chard)
*Cos Lettuce
*Bok choi Greens
*Beetroot Greens

Be sure to rotate between greens to get a good variety, & because drinking large quantities of only one green may upset your tummy.
Greens vary greatly in taste, & it can be a good idea to work your way up, starting with something very mild like spinach, which adds little to no taste.
As a basic guide, you can start out with only a small amount of greens (say one handful) & add more each time you make a smoothie. I like my smoothies to be 2/3 fruit, & 1/3 greens, + the liquids. Usually I only use one variety of greens per smoothie, however all greens combine well with spinach because of it's mild flavor ;)
Green smoothies are a bit different from most other drinks, & you may not love them at first, but keep it up, & soon you'll never want to be without them!

For more info check out, Green For Life! this is where I learned about green smoothies.
Here's a short video to help get you started -

 

Go chug some green everyone!