Green Smoothies ♥<br/> Fourteen Tips + Five Recipes to Get You Started (2024)

Confession Time

While I wanted to try green smoothies, I really didn't expect to like them. But I do! At first, I experimented with "how much green" tastes good – and fast learned that I like "more than less" green but "not a ton" of green.

Then for the last few years, my morning routine regularly includes a green smoothie – most often, with milk to fulfill the Weight Watchers milk/calcium/protein requirement. I call it "breakfast in a glass".

How to Make a Green Smoothie

Green Smoothies are fast, easy and (can be) very pretty! I've collected some favorite Green Smoothie recipes here, just to inspire. And tips? You bet, lots of tips!

Because in the end, for a Green Smoothie to work, it's got to suit you. Here's what works for me, let me know what works for you!

GREEN SMOOTHIE TIPS

or Skip to Five Recipes That Work

START WITH FRUIT, THEN ADD GREENS The trick is to start with fruit, then add green to taste.

The first Green Smoothie, I started with a single leaf of Swiss chard – and the taste was all fruit.

For the second Green Smoothie, I used two leaves of chard, brightened with lemon juice – and this tasted decidedly bright and green and VERY alive. I loved it!

The third Green Smoothie, I used three leaves of chard, that was a bit much to my taste.

You'll quickly learn how much green suits you at first. Over time, you can increase it.

WHOLE FRUIT If you can, keep to "whole" fruit (versus juice) so that you get the full benefit of fiber:calories. If need be, thin the smoothie with water or milk instead of fruit juice.

SUBSTITUTE VEGETABLES FOR FRUIT No doubt, fruit is the source of the calories and sugars (albeit, natural fruit sugars, not processed sugar) in smoothies. To switch things up, substitute cucumber for fruit (for low calories) or avocado (for richness).

They aren't "green smoothies" but I love-love-love a Tomato Smoothie.

CHOOSING GREENS Especially for your first Green Smoothies, stick to tender greens like leaf lettuce, spinach and Swiss chard. Beet greens can also be tender but tend to muddy the smoothie color. Kale can be good but at least to my taste, is too earthy and green tasting for smoothies.

If you're in the grocery store, touch the leaves, if they're tender to the touch, they'll make great Green Smoothies.

KEEP IT BRIGHT Citrus juice is an important brightener so keep some lemons and limes on hand. I have great luck with not just the juice of a lemon or lime but the whole lemon or lime (skin sliced off, of course).

FAMILIARITY MATTERS Banana tastes "familiar" and adds creaminess. Banana is especially good when you're first starting to experiment with Green Smoothies.

WHAT KIND OF MILK? Milk of course adds creaminess too, even skim milk. Buttermilk adds a little "tang" and over the years, it's become my favorite dairy for smoothies of all sorts. Plant-based milks like almond milk and soy milk work too.

Can you use fruit juice? Of course. But women, especially, I think, should choose milk-based smoothies for protein and calcium.

TRAIN YOUR TASTEBUDS Try to avoid adding processed sugar, teach your tastebuds to appreciate things sweetened only with fruit.

That said, there may be times when a little sugar works. When my then 90-something father lived with us, he'd refuse many vegetables but happily drink up smoothies made with lots of fruits and veggies plus a little sugar. I wrote about it here, and a Cucumber Smoothies.

GREENS vs FRESH HERBS It takes a LOT of fresh herbs (like mint, say) to be equivalent taste-wise and color-wise of a single leaf of chard, say. So I use fresh herbs just as a flavor accent, not as the "green".

DO YOU NEED A SPECIAL HIGH-POWERED (i.e., HIGH-PRICED) BLENDER? No way, you really don't! All my smoothies are made with a regular $25 blender from Target or the like.

Yes, a lot of food bloggers are raving about their Vita-Mix blenders and maybe one day you'll decide one is worth the investment too. In the mean time? Just drink up, green smoothies are amazing!

Chances are good though, that you'll want to let your blender work for its keep vs a few pulses or two. For Green Smoothies, I usually run the blender for a good minute or two.

NEED MORE CALORIES? If extra calories or extra protein are important, add an egg. This may be raw food but feel free to skip the shell. :-) Since the egg is "raw", all the standard precautions apply for pregnant women, those with compromised immune systems. You cay buy pasteurized eggs, this helps.

PRETTY GREEN COLOR? NOT ALWAYS Don't be surprised when green smoothies don't always turn out a pretty green color. This tip comes from my clever cousin Barb who makes smoothies in a Vitamix. She says, "When the smoothie looks like poop, you put it in a solid glass. When it's a pretty color, you put it in a clear glass." Light-colored fruits (think pears) will help but then again, blueberries are delicious so maybe it's time to get out a colored cup!

ONE FOR NOW, TWO FOR LATER Here's a revelation, smoothies keep! So now I make a blenderful, drink a glass and put the rest into one-cup glass jars for the fridge. Later on, a quick stir and my smoothie is good to go. There's more info about making smoothies ahead of time, Make-Ahead Smoothies.

SMOOTHIES & WEIGHT WATCHERS When Weight Watchers launched PointsPlus in 2010, fruit servings became "free". That meant that technically, the smoothies made with just fruit and vegetables were considered "free". Frankly, I ignored this and chose to calculate calories and points the way I always did, because fruit calories can add up really fast for those of us who really love fruit.

But then? When Weight Watchers switched to SmartPoints and then Freestyle? Under these new systems, whole fruits and vegetables remain "free" but smoothies, well, sorry, they're not free, not ever. And, let me bet that you'll be kinda shocked at how many points are in a smoothie – not even the giant cups at smoothie places, just a one-cup serving. Yikes!

MAGIC RECIPES! If you create your own Green Smoothie, leave the magic recipe in a comment!

And do read the comments from other readers, they are packed full of great tips and ideas! This is a very active recipe, one of A Veggie Venture's most popular!

Are Smoothies Healthy?

When my elderly father lived with us, I used smoothes to coax liquid, vegetables and fruits to his diet. (I wrote about smoothies as we age with Cucumber Smoothies.)