The perfect green smoothie

What makes the perfect green smoothie? There is so much hype around smoothies, you can’t swipe through social media without seeing a picture of a bikini clad female on a white sandy beach with people around her looking on with an envious eye. But when you are sitting down at your favourite café or even making one at home do the faces around you looked scrunched up in such a way that they are thinking ‘why would you want to put yourself through the pain of drinking something as ghastly looking as that?”

The saying goes ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ meaning you don’t know what is on the inside so don’t cast judgement too quickly. Sometimes you do need to see it to believe it and in our case, you need to taste it to like it.

We are often asked if the green smoothie is worth all the hype? Is it a come and go health trend or is there really merit to drinking one every day?

Why you should love drinking green smoothies

• Increase energy due to vitamin and mineral content
• Decreased recovery time as they help with inflammation & soreness
• Quality way to digest carbohydrates and calories
• Easy to increase your intake of fruits & vegetables
• More fibre as you are blending whole fruits and vegetables
• Packed full of antioxidants to help prevent or delay cell damage
• Easy to ‘pimp up nutrients’ with added superfood ingredients
• Packed with phytonutrients from the green vegetables helping boost your immune system

Drinking smoothies helps create a slow release of nutrients avoiding blood sugar spikes. Imagine starting your day with a green smoothie packed with energy rich vitamins, minerals and fibre, how good would you feel? Nourished, calm, even healthy?

Tips on how to make the perfect green smoothie

Start with a good base

• Filtered water
• Coconut water
• Coconut milk
• Dairy free milk; almond, oat, soy, rice

Add your greens; up to 2 cups

• Spinach
• Kale
• Collard greens

Add fruit; up to 1 cup

• Banana
• Pineapple
• Orange
• Berries
• Apple
• Mango
• Papaya
• Avocado

Pimp up your smoothie with superfoods

• Spirulina
• Barley Grass
• Chia seeds
• Protein powder
• Maca powder
• Cacao powder or nibs
• Nut butter
• Hemp protein or seeds
• Fresh ginger
• Maple syrup

Planted Life’s favourite green smoothie combination

1 cup nut milk
1 tsp protein powder
2 tbsp cashew nut butter
1 cup Tuscan kale, stem removed
1 ripe banana
1 tsp chia seeds
½ tsp minced ginger
½ tsp turmeric spice mix
1 tsp maca powder
1 cup ice cubes

Put all of the ingredients into a blender and puree for a minute or two, until smooth and deliciously creamy. Serve and enjoy.

Believe us when we say, what may start out as you jumping on the green smoothie bandwagon will soon become a healthy habit as proof really is in the green smoothie!

What’s your perfect green smoothie combination?