Have you joined the green smoothie revolution yet? I love them. We all know we have to eat greens, but sitting down to a large bowl of spinach is not always possible (or fun). Green smoothies are a great way to get a big dose of vitamins and minerals in a form that is easy to digest. They are different to freshly squeezed juices, because you use the whole food and the fibre is still intact. They are fantastic if you feel a cold coming on or you are feeling a bit rundown. I absolutely love the flavours in this one I have come up with. Not too sweet, but with a nice zing from the mint. If you don’t like mint, this recipe is also really yummy with a half a lime (with skin) instead of the mint.
I need to mention green tea. I hate the stuff. It tastes like grass to me!! But, I know the health benefits are substantial. So, I was looking for ways to drink it, without drinking it. Then it came to me – hide it in a smoothie! Genius (if I do say so myself!). Now, if you want to get reaaaaaaally tricky, you could make up a heap of green tea ice cubes and use them!
Ready to make it? This recipe will give you enough smoothie for two to three large glasses.
Pineapple Green Tea Green Smoothie
Vital Stats: Gluten Free, Grain Free, Nut Free, Egg Free, Vegan
Okay, so this what you need:
300g of fresh, ripe pineapple
1 pear
large handful of baby spinach leaves (I like spinach because it doesn’t have a strong flavour – in fact, you can’t even taste it!)
half a handful of fresh mint (I throw in the stalks too)
1/2 cup green tea (made with two organic green tea bags and cooled down)
2 teaspoons of Inliven (or other green powder), optional
large handful of ice
So, this is what you do:
Chop up the fruit roughly and chuck everything into your thermomix or strong blender. Whizz the heck out of it. I like to go slowly up to speed 10 and then blend for about one and a half to two minutes, just to make sure it’s all smooth. Pour into glasses :
the mummy glass or
Actually I use the kiddy glass a lot too. It’s a fabulous insulated BPA free tumbler from Oggi with a screw on lid and a non-spill straw. You can get them from kitchen stores. Perfect for green smoothies on the go too. Sip one on your way to work in the car instead of that coffee!
Now, a chat about kids and green smoothies. Is it universal that kids have an aversion to green? Or is it just that their young palates prefer sweet things? Anyhow, I had to use all my clever mum tricks on mine before they grew to love green smoothies.
Spinach in my drink??? they cried ! Are you serious??? I am sooooo not drinking that !!!
The next time I made a green smoothie, I put it into stainless steel travel mugs. Here darlings, try this lovely smoothie I made you – just keeping it cold in the travel cup.
Mmmmmm yummy they say. Open the lid I say! Ha Ha…… green smoothie. One point to Mum!
Now, they happily drink green smoothies (as long as I use spinach – some other greens are really bitter and they really make a fuss about that!). Try it out on your kids – you might need a bit of clever marketing – younger kids might think alien juice is pretty cool! It is a fantastic way to boost their daily nutritional intake or to use as a meal replacement if they are feeling a bit sick.
If you would like some more ideas for green smoothies, the fabulous Jess Ainscough at The Wellness Warrior is giving away a FREE ebook filled with over 80 green smoothie recipes. I downloaded it. Awesome.
So, if you enjoyed this, let me know! Do you have a favourite green smoothie recipe? I would love to hear it.
{this post contains affiliate links}
I love green smoothies! Thanks for the recipe. Do you have a Thermomix? Is it great? I’ve been tossing up the Thermo and the Vitamix.
Hi Linda!
Yes, I have had my beloved thermy for about 18 months now. Would not be without it. I think it is better than the vitamix (I have seen them in action) as you can also cook food like soups, curry, risottos (and a million other things) as well as steaming things with the varoma. It’s worthwhile having a demo in your home to check it out.
That’s a ringing endorsement. I think I’ll go with the Therm. I just got a bit distracted with all this recent Vitamix hype. Thanks for the advice.
No problem… there are loads of facebook pages and blogs devoted to healthy cooking in the thermomix too… on the right of the blog you will find links to Quirky Cooking and Foodie Mum !
Hi Sonia, this looks delicious! I followed the link from your 10 ways to wake up without coffee, I need all the help I can get! Have you tried this with Kale?
Kristen xo
Hi Kristen…. thanks for stopping by! I haven’t tried it with kale because I can’t get it where I live (crazy!) but the spinach is divine. You want to be the kale guinea pig? 😉
Hey Sonia,
I love this, you are my constant helath/eco conscience, always challenging me to go one step further. At present we are in the middle of a seriously crazy soccer season, coaches of 4 teams, secretary, treasurer, president, registrar & fundraising coordinator all under the one roof and made up of 2 people.
In the midst of this I have wanted to either delay my morning coffee or put it off altogether, thanks to this Sonia I have been having a morning ‘smoothie’ for a couple of weeks.
Cheers Sonia, I love your work. Dalles
Look after yourself Dalles -hope the smoothies make a difference!
I have all those ingredients (except pear) and will be using my Oscar Vital Max juicer to get started! Thanks. Derya
This sounds delish Sonia! Bookmarking for my next one – Have you found the wellness warrior book useful?
yes, it is great! lots of different ideas!
I tell my five year old and three year old that it is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle juice (broccoli soup is Ninja Turtle soup). They didn’t think twice and now all the neighbourhood kids want to try some! 🙂 I already send around jugs of kefir… 😉
love it Megan !!!