Green Smoothies are, technically, easy and fast for any day/morning/whatever. There are two main steps you need to know:
- Add greens.
- Add secondary flavor & liquid.
The rest is just details and nuances. Your blender is somewhat important especially if your GREENS are relatively fibrous veggies, like leafy greens. A good ‘regular’ blender or my favorite stick blender can handle spinach or cucumber. BUT. For things like parsley, kale, raw ginger root, and the like, you’ll need serious firepower to obliterate that stuff. Like, a Vitamix. Or any of those other fancy blenders that they demo at Costco.
Ok, here we go. Step ONE: add greens! Yes, that is a WHOLE bunch of flat-leaf Italian parsley. Trust me, it’s freakin’ good for you.
Oops. First, we should take off the bottom stems and tag. Hee.
Ok, now we need to add at least a little extra flavor, because just pure parsley might be a bit on the uber-healthy side for most folks. A banana is a good option, frozen or not (as is a green apple for extra green-ness):
At this point, add a little water to help things along. A half-cup should do it. And then, always add salt. It brings out the flavor of ANY food. Add a pinch or a grind or whatever you know to be your preference:
Start blending! It might take a little while to get absorbed down into the blades of obliterative death, especially if you are not using the blender’s “pusher” tool, as I am not:
Success! All of the junk is twirling around merrily, on low power. After 20 seconds of that, it’s time to consider more speed.
HIGH power! This is the speed at which if you blend for more than a minute or two, it will warm up and eventually turn into steaming soup. Yes, really. So don’t go too crazy, and feel the side of the pitcher to make sure it’s not getting warm.
After about 30 seconds of cell-wall destruction, you are ready to pour:
Enjoy your ridiculously healthy drink. I sometimes add a splash of cider vinegar afterwards, for a little extra digestive goodness.