Learning to make an epic-tasting green smoothie in minutes is a good investment in your health — giving you the upper hand when you’re wanting to nourish yourself with a quick, nutrient-dense breakfast while the kids are hollering at you or when you’re craving a Tim Tam at 3pm. Smoothies can taste sweet and delicious with nothing but a handful of greens, a dash of fruit and some healthy fats. Once you master the basics, you can create your own crazy combinations.
INGREDIENTS
1 large handful of greens
Use dark, leafy greens such as kale, spinach, cavolo nero, chard, collard greens, or pretty much any good quality greens you have on hand — but keep away from rocket or mustard greens.
1/2 cup frozen fruit
Go for creamy fruits like banana, mango, pear, apple, pineapple or papaya, to name a few. This will be the base that will provide structure. If avoiding fruit, you could use avocado or young coconut meat instead.
1 Tbsp of healthy fats
Nut butters (almond or cashew are my favourites), a tablespoon of activated (soaked) cashews nuts or brazil nuts, hemp seeds, coconut yoghurt or avocado. This will add extra creaminess and keep you satisfied well until lunch.
1 cup liquid
This could be filtered water, coconut water, nut milk of choice, or freshly squeezed fruit juice.
1/3 cup ice, for extra body
METHOD
Throw everything into a high-speed blender for around 40 seconds, pour into a glass and enjoy. Once you've mastered the basics you can go next level with your own flavour creations.Adding additional flavours to your base could be anything from another fruit, vegetable, a squeeze of fresh citrus, some fresh herbs (mint, basil, parsley, coriander) or spices (ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg or cardamon).
Creativity tip: Try adding one thing at a time. Sometimes flavour ideas taste better in your head. Making sure you taste along the way so if you do go wrong you know where that was for the next time. Life is too short to not nourish yourself with the good stuff — so drink green smoothies!
