Green Smoothie Basics

There are several leafy green vegetables you can use in your green smoothie recipes. We like spinach and kale the best, others include Swiss chard, bok choy, romaine, collard greens and even dandelion!

You can make green smoothies with water, milk, coconut water, almond, soy or coconut milk, and even juice. However, juice has added sugar, so keep that in mind when choosing.

There are so many fruits that work great in a green smoothie! Try banana, all types of berries, mango or pineapple, stone fruits like peaches, cherries or plums, apples and pears are great too, and you can even use oranges, avocado, and grapes.

You can certainly add yogurt, but if you do we suggest not using banana. As we mention in our basic green smoothie recipe, we use either yogurt or banana as the creamy base.

Oh yes, you can definitely add superfoods such as chai, flax or hemp seeds, and hemp or acai powder. For flavorings, you can add any pure extracts like vanilla or almond, nut butters such as almond or cashew butter, and cocoa powder, cacao nibs or cinnamon.

Yes! If you like, you can make green smoothie popsicles! if you want to drink it though, freezing and thawing a smoothie requires a little forethought. Make batches of your green smoothies and store them in individual serving containers with about an inch headspace. The night before you want to have your smoothie, move it from the freezer to the refrigerator. There are several other options for freezing smoothies here.

Green juice can be made in a blender or a juicer. I have a juicer and it makes removing the pulp super easy. if you don’t have a juicer, simply throw the ingredients into a blender. You can push the ingredients through a fine-mesh sieve to remove the pulp. But remember, all the fiber is in the pulp! Get a green juice recipe here.