Please share tasty green smoothie recipes

[sora]

Hi,

My green smoothies are yucky. Today I put 3 bananas (not frozen), 2 cup of frozen blueberries, 4 dates, 1 pear, handful of kale and some water. It was sweet but the kale smell was too strong. It was too pulpy too. My 3yr old won't drink it and I could not finish it too and almost wanted to throw up. What can I put in to hide the kale smell? I could just put a few leaves but it won't be very nutritional.
Please share your green smoothie recipes.

[Klynne]

I prefer to use fresh spinach, it's very mild in flavor. For us, pear just doesn't cut it (texture and flavor wise) in smoothies. :

Here's what I typically do:

2-3 handfuls of spinach
1-2 banana(s)
(one apple)
kefir, coconut water, or water
a handful of almonds/chia/hemp seeds
about 1 cups strawberries (I just throw stuff in the blender so I'm guessing here.)
1 tbs healthy oil (like hemp, flax, coconut, udo's blend...)

hth!

[jazzharmony]

What kind of blender do you have? You need a super powered one if you want it really smooth, no pulp,etc.
My 8yo and I drink a smoothie every morning with banana, berries and one other bit of fruit, kale and Swiss chard, zuchini, whatever greens we have. That's it. We use a vitamix and it's completely smooth and tasty.
I do agree with the PP that spinach is one of the mildest smoothie greens so maybe try that.

[Naturally organic]

Try adding carrot

I made a green smoothie last week (my blender has a juicer attachment). Tried the spinach by itself. Blech! Added a kiwi, a pear, some pickled ginger, cucumber and finally, a whole lot of carrot juice! About 2 parts carrot juice to other. Loved it that way. Nasty without the carrot. I'm looking forward to other suggestions. I have to be careful with the bananas because they are an asthma trigger unless they are a bit on the green side. Would a banana like that sweeten the spinach juice enough?

[425lisamarie]

pears and apples will make for a strange texture unless you have a vitamix and run it a long time. I make pear/apple sauce and cook it but they won't drink it in a smoothie.

kale is strong unless you use very little, but I can get away with adding TONS of spinach. On the other hand kale is more nutrient dense for less calories than spinach. Do you have a scale? I actually weight my greens for smoothies so i know exactly what we are getting. It's an easier way to measure for me. I would just use both, very little kale, and some spinach. It all boils down to what you can eat and what you/kids LIKE. I need my kids to enjoy food and not have to choke it down. I think kale is better cooked in foods like minced finely and added to meatballs/caseroles etc.

[sora]

I use Vitamix for smoothies. I had very high expectation of Vitamix but I guess it cannot do wonders. The yucky smoothie I made last night was better this morning although I had to blend it again quickly because it was all separated and yucky. The strong smell of Kale has gone. I think the smell is particulary strong when it is freshly blended. But the color wise was very unappealing - brownish. I have tons of frozen blueberries to go through so if you have a good green smoothie recipe that involves frozen blueberries, let me know. Also, does frozen bananas make a big difference? I usually use banana unfrozen as I often forget to freeze them.
Anyone tried wheatgrass smoothies in Vitamix? I would be very interested in doing it if I can grown them at home.

[Sativarain1]

frozen banana taste much better!

[77sugaree]

I have discovered that using some sort of milk in my green smoothies instead of water makes them taste so much yummier. Here is how I make mine:

1 banana
handful of fresh spinach or kale
spoonful of almond butter
about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of frozen blueberries
a couple of frozen peach slices (optional but good source of vit. C)
1 cup of either rice, almond, hemp or cow's milk (or however much it takes to blend it up)

mmmmmm...

[Snowflower]

Mine goes something like this..

Spinach &/or kale (kale is strong so I just use a little, but a lot of spinach)
half an Avocado
Spirulina
Wheat grass
Brewer's Yeast
Hemp or Flax seeds
Coconut oil
half a Banana
Orange Juice and a little Ice..

I found Oj really hides the Kale flavor well. It's good!

[hotharmony]

What about frozen spinach? I have a bunch of frozen spinach could i use it in a green smoothie?

[Klynne]

You said the smoothie separated... I've never had that happen before. What did you put in it?

I know some people have a probelm with green smoothies just because their taste buds are not used to it. It can take time and tweeking to love 'em, but it will happen

Originally Posted by Snowflower

I found Oj really hides the Kale flavor well. It's good!

Thanks for the tip!

Originally Posted by hotharmony

What about frozen spinach? I have a bunch of frozen spinach could i use it in a green smoothie?

I use frozen when fresh isn't on hand

[Elizabeth2008]

I'm a biiiiggg fan of beet greens! They are DE-lish in the smoothie. I usually mix with a frozen banana and some frozen blueberries, unsweetened kefir, a little molasas, and perhaps a splash of juice. You could add some raw honey to make it a tad sweeter.

[Chakra]

This is my favorite green smoothie. My kids chug this like it's soda.

Banana
blueberries
spinish(sp?)
water

I like to freeze my bananas because it gives my smoothie a nice texture

[CrunchyMamaToBe]

Originally Posted by hotharmony

What about frozen spinach? I have a bunch of frozen spinach could i use it in a green smoothie?

I have used frozen spinach in mine. We end up with little flakes of spinach, but it works OK.

Originally Posted by Snowflower

I found Oj really hides the Kale flavor well. It's good!

I agree that pretty much any citrus will mask the strong greens flavor. Pineapple is good, too.

I normally wouldn't use more than 1-2 big leaves of kale (for about 1.5 pints of smoothie total). Same for chard or "mature" spinach (big leaves with thick stems that we are getting in our veg/csa-type boxe this time of year). The "greens" flavor gets to be too much.

I am a fan of young/baby spinach or avocados for my greens. And frozen fruit chunks have saved my smoothies on many many occasions. Mango is my favorite.

[aircantu1]

I use all frozen fruit. I think it makes it taste a lot better. Creamier, more like ice cream, I guess. Mixing non-frozen stuff in the blender makes it seem very warm and runny to me.

I change the "recipe" all the time but lately it's something like this:

1/2 frozen banana
handul baby spinach leaves
couple frozen peach slices
couple frozen strawberries
1/4 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup coconut milk (I've used almond, soy, etc... with good results. The only thing I don't like is cow's milk. It gets foamy in smoothies)
1/4 cup or so of yogurt, whatever type/flavor I have
A scoop of protein powder
A little stevia, honey, whatever sweetener I feel like using that day

And whir it all around on puree for about a minute. It comes out perfectly smooth in my old cheap Cuisinart blender that works perfectly and will not die, leaving me no excuse to buy a Vitamix.

[ASusan]

I use a blender that is over 25 years old.

Frozen, raw 1" piece of liver on the bottom
1/2 to 1 banana
large handful of whatever greens my CSA grows this time of year (mixed)
CIDER!

I love the taste of cider smoothies these days.

[sora]

It's too bad most of more tolerable green smoothies recipes call for baby spinach only. I would like to use more dark green like kale and a variety of other greens. I was hoping to consume much more greens with green smoothies. I was disapointed that I could only tolerate a few leaves of kale in three tall glasses, which I cannot even drink in a day. I consume way more raw veggies through eating kimchi(fermented spicy veggies from Korea) than green smoothies. And kimchi is so yummy and nutritous with all the acidophilus. The only drawback of kimchi is a bit too salty. Vitamix was a bit of waste of money for me. Or is there anything else Vitamix can do better than other blenders? I did not have good result with dry chopping with Vitamix. I can only put one veggie at a time and after being chopped, it was hard to remove the veggies from the blade.

[jolenegreen]

This is my fav blend...although it comes out a little chunky my kids seem to like it!

Handful of baby spinack
1 head of broccoli
handful of chopped garlic
3 green apples
1/2 pineapple
1 mango
1 kiwi
1 banana

[Erin+babyAndrew]

Originally Posted by sora

It's too bad most of more tolerable green smoothies recipes call for baby spinach only. I would like to use more dark green like kale and a variety of other greens. I was hoping to consume much more greens with green smoothies. I was disapointed that I could only tolerate a few leaves of kale in three tall glasses, which I cannot even drink in a day. I consume way more raw veggies through eating kimchi(fermented spicy veggies from Korea) than green smoothies. And kimchi is so yummy and nutritous with all the acidophilus. The only drawback of kimchi is a bit too salty. Vitamix was a bit of waste of money for me. Or is there anything else Vitamix can do better than other blenders? I did not have good result with dry chopping with Vitamix. I can only put one veggie at a time and after being chopped, it was hard to remove the veggies from the blade.

I love my Vitamix! My favorite is making hot soup without making any dirty pots or chopping all kinds of veggies and waiting for it to cook on a stove. 10 minutes including washing the veggies to having hot soup on the table is my favorite
I also like being able to sneak a tomato and carrot into my kids' "ice cream" they love it!

I made a green smoothie for lunch today and my 3 yo loved it.

I didn't measure, this is just approximate.
2/3 C grapes
1/2 banana
6 frozen peach slices
1 frozen strawberry
1 T flax seed
2 handfuls spinach leaves
2/3 C water
4 ice cubes

[sunnysandiegan]

Originally Posted by sora

It's too bad most of more tolerable green smoothies recipes call for baby spinach only. I would like to use more dark green like kale and a variety of other greens. I was hoping to consume much more greens with green smoothies. I was disapointed that I could only tolerate a few leaves of kale in three tall glasses, which I cannot even drink in a day. I consume way more raw veggies through eating kimchi(fermented spicy veggies from Korea) than green smoothies. And kimchi is so yummy and nutritous with all the acidophilus. The only drawback of kimchi is a bit too salty. Vitamix was a bit of waste of money for me. Or is there anything else Vitamix can do better than other blenders? I did not have good result with dry chopping with Vitamix. I can only put one veggie at a time and after being chopped, it was hard to remove the veggies from the blade.

I love my Vitamix!

We make all sorts of things: peanut butter, almond butter, wheat flour, oat flour, powdered sugar, broccoli cheese soup, veggie soup, fruit/veggie smoothies, pancake batter, fruit sauce/syrup (I like it thicker with less sugar), tomato sauce, marinara sauce, roasted red pepper alfredo sauce, clementine kiss (frozen orange/vanilla drink), and more....