A Bananna Spinich Smoothie?

April 23, 2009 8:07 AM

Looking for more than just a fruity smoothie...

So this week I jumped onto the breakfast smoothie bandwagon thanks to a healthy living blog where I found this recipe:

# The juice from 1 lemon
# 1/2 cup parsley
# 1 stalk of celery
# 2 big handfuls of Spinach or collard greens
# 1 inch of peeled ginger
# 1 medium cucumber
# 1 apple, peel on, no seeds or stems
# 1 banana (peel off of course)
# Add water as needed for a good consistency.
*I added 1 1/2 cups of ice and just a little bit of water

I got to tell you I was really apprehensive about the concoction but it's great and I'd love to find other healthy smoothies like it.

It's not hard to find smoothie recipe's online but I am having difficulty finding a similar fruit vegetable combination (apparently this is half a day's supply of each) that I don't have to go to a specialty grocery store to get the ingredients.

The other piece to this puzzle is that it would be nice to know the health benefits associated with the finished piece and or the individual ingredients.

Can anyone recommend fruit and vegetable healthy smoothie recipes or point me to a free online resource?

posted by doorsfan to Health & Fitness (4 answers total)

I just stick pretty much whatever is to hand from the fruit bowl into a glass with some milk and/or yoghurt then stick in some flavourful things like honey, ginger, herbs, wheatgerm etc ect and then blend. It's always exciting...

There is a reference library here.
posted by BadMiker at 8:19 AM on April 23, 2009

The whole raw vegan community specializes in this kind of thing. I'd check out

www.rawfreedomcommunity.info/forum
goneraw.com
masala.welikeitraw.com/

My personal favorite is avocado/kiwi/spinach/coconut, but I also do mango/cucumber as a refreshing drink quite often. I've added nearly every type of green; basil (with apricot and orange), kale, mint, chard, etc. The more bitter darker ones need more sweet fruits to balance them.
posted by melissam at 8:20 AM on April 23, 2009

What I was missing was the actual name in my searching: Green Smoothie. That term brought me a wealth or resources. Here are just a few:

Apple-kale-lemon
4 apples
½ lemon juice
5 leaves of kale
2 cups water... Read More

Peach-spinach
6 peaches
2 handfuls of spinach leaves
2 cups water

Mango-weeds
2 mangos
1 handful of edible weeds,
such as lambsquarters, stinging nettles, purslane, etc
2 cups water

Strawberry-banana-romaine
1-cup strawberries
2 bananas
½ bunch romaine
2 cups water

Pear-kale-mint
4 ripe pears
5 leaves of kale
½ bunch of mint
2 cups water

Special thanks to Ridgefield Wellness for the recipes.
posted by doorsfan at 8:58 AM on April 24, 2009

I am usually someone who likes to cook with recipes, but for smoothies, I just throw whatever fruit I have in the blender, together with fresh or frozen spinach or kale and liquid and it always comes out okay. If it is not sweet enough, I add a date and I find that green smoothies really need some sort of ice, either ice cubes or frozen banana or greens.

This is a recipe that looks like the smoothies I make.
posted by davar at 12:34 PM on April 24, 2009