Green Smoothie Recipes and Guidelines

Handout #2
Meeting 1
October 21, 2009



Green Smoothie Recipes
Just blend them all well. For the recipes with frozen fruit, cut the fruit into small pieces and blend just the fruit and water, then add the greens and blend again. For my recipes, where water amount is not indicated, I just eyeball it and pour the water so it comes about halfway up the fruit. Recipes make about 1 quart each. Make sure frozen berries do not have sugar added!

Basic Green Smoothie

3 ripe bananas
2 handfuls of greens
purified water


Muddy Grass

1-2 TBS raw cocoa powder
1 TBS agave nectar, or to taste
3 frozen bananas
2 handfuls of greens
purified water


Berry Green Smoothie
(We like to use blueberries or strawberries)

2 bananas
2-3 handfuls any frozen berry (can also mix berries)
2 handfuls of greens
purified water


Medallion Mellon Smoothie

3 cups cantaloupe, cubed
9 leaves romaine lettuce



Lovely Green Goodness

1 banana
½ Royal Gala apple
½ Bosc pear
1 cup kale
1/8 cup water


Impeachmint!

1 ripe peach, or ½ cup frozen peaches
1 sprig mint, or 5-7 mint leaves
1 cup spinach
1 cup water


Tropical Green Smoothie

1 cup spinach
½ mango
½ banana
½ cup pineapple chunks (fresh, not canned!)
½ cup water


Anticancer Smoothie

1 pint broccoli sprouts
1 pint ripe organic blackberries
1 cup purified water


Guidelines For Optimal Green Smoothie Consumption
(From Victoria Boutenko’s Book Green Smoothie Revolution; chapter 10.)

To help you receive the most benefits from drinking green smoothies and to avoid some typical mistakes, I have created the following guidelines:

Prepare your green smoothie first thing in the morning in the amount that you usually consume in one day, one or two quarts. Pour enough smoothie into a glass for your morning enjoyment and keep the rest in the refrigerator or another clod place, but not in the freezer.

Sip your green smoothie slowly, mixing it with saliva for better absorption. Sometimes I put my smoothie in a coffee mug and carry it with me to the car or office. That way I minimize the chance of spilling it, and others don’t notice the green contents of my cup.

Don’t add anything to your smoothie except greens, fruit, and water. I don’t recommend adding nuts, seeds, oils, supplements, or other ingredients to your green smoothie because most of these items slow down the assimilation of smoothies in your digestive tract and may cause irritation and gas. Even though I provide some recipes with these ingredients for special occasions in the book, I encourage you to stick to the basic green smoothie recipe (fruit and greens) in your daily routine.

Drink your smoothie by itself, and not as a part of a meal. To get the most nutritional benefits out of your green smoothie, don’t consume anything, even as little as a cracker, with it. You can eat anything you want approximately forty minutes before or after your smoothie.

Do not add starchy vegetables such as carrots, beets, broccoli stems, zucchini, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, eggplant, pumpkin, squash, okra, peas, corn, and green beans to your green smoothies. Starchy vegetables combine poorly with fruit and may produce what my children call “gas-4-less.”

Don’t add too many ingredients to one smoothie, such as four different fruits and six different greens. To keep things easy on your digestive system, try to keep most of your recipes simple to maximize nutritional benefits.

Learn to prepare a really delicious green smoothie so that you are always looking forward to the next one. If your drink is not tasty, you will eventually give up on it. Keep your taste buds happy.

You should always rotate the green leaves that you add to your smoothies. Almost all greens in the world contain minute amounts of alkaloids. Tiny quantities of alkaloids cannot hurt you, and even strengthen the immune system. However, if you keep consuming kale, or spinach, or any other single green for many weeks without rotation, eventually the same type of alkaloids can accumulate in your body and cause unwanted symptoms of poisoning. (I discuss more of the significance of rotation of greens in Chapter 4). Please note that you don’t have to rotate the fruit in your green smoothies. Most commonly used fruits contain very few or no alkaloids and cannot cause the same toxic reactions as greens. However, rotating fruits will enhance the variety of flavor and nutrition in your smoothies.

Choose organic produce whenever possible. The absence of pesticides and other toxic chemicals is only one of the many benefits of organic food. The most important reason to consume organic food is the superior nutrition of organic fruits and vegetables in comparison to conventionally grown produce. Above, I discussed how nutritionally deficient most people are. The best way to nourish your body is to consume organic produce and, whenever possible, locally grown produce as well. I consider it very important to eat fruit that was allowed to fully ripen on the vine because it is several times more nutritious than unripe fruit. You derive those benefits most completely when you consume fruit shortly after it has been picked. Produce that is shipped from great distances may have a cheaper price tag, but it’s harder on the environment and on our health.