Green Smoothie Magic - 132+ Delicious Green Smoothie Recipes That Trim And Slim (13 page)

Use them in small amounts on occasion anyway, no matter what you believe. Remember to use an array of ingredients available to you.

You may have also heard of ‘microgreens’ which are really small plants
grown in soil (or soil substitute) that you harvest with the root or seed
(such as you do with sprouts). They are a subset of sprouts.

Common examples are herbs, sunflower sprouts, sorrel or rocket. Restaurants like to use microgreens as attractive garnishes. Just as you will do for your ‘macro’ greens, you will have to get acquainted with your smaller varieties to be able to work with them. Locate them, taste them, get to know them, use them.

All sprouts including microgreens are best eaten raw and are beautifully suited to blending in smoothies. Some varieties of sprouts are very bland such as alfalfa. Others such as mustard or radish sprouts can have a very strong flavor. Please use the guides in the
Green Smoothie Magic
recipes when choosing your greens.

Remember, you’ll find a guide in every recipe as to whether you I recommend mild, strong or a mix of greens to make delicious creations.

As this book is ALL about using easy to find ingredients you’ll either find these wonderful greens either in your supermarket, farmers’ markets or you can even choose to grow them yourself.

As most of these recipes will have 2 cups of greens indicated in the list, you can either substitute a handful of sprouts or just throw in a few on top of your ‘allocation’ to pack an even greater nutritious punch.

After all, the more you drink green smoothies, the more you’ll enjoy the taste of your greens!

Examples Of Sprouts And Microgreens

The classic sprout you can find almost anywhere is alfalfa. You can also find broccoli sprouts, radish, onion, mustard and chives. They all look pretty much the same! Broccoli and alfalfa are probably the most mild.

Larger varieties are lentil sprouts, mung beans, garbanzo beans (chick peas), sunflower seeds, lentils, buckwheat, soybeans (edamame), quinoa, fenugreek, peas, barley, oats, millet and wheat. These tend to be very easy to distinguish. Mung beans are the ‘classic’ bean sprouts that you would get in Asian cookery.

Microgreens are pretty much smaller versions of the big plant or mature sprouts! I can find no definitive evidence pointing to them having a better nutritional profile than the large plants. They’re simply smaller.

Growing Your Sprouts

You can sprout just about any vegetable or grain: Buckwheat, sesame, lentils, sunflower seeds and grasses.

You can grow your own using no more than seeds, jars, a material such as pantyhose through which water can flow and hold back your sprouts when you’re rinsing your babies! I recommend that if you’re inclined to grow your own stocks of sprouts, then there are plenty of online resources to show you via video – a quick search on YouTube will get you started!

To start sprouting, you’ll need to soak your choice of seed then germinate them. Then you’ll have to rinse them several times per day.

If smoothie-making is new to you, then don’t take on too much to start. Just buy your sprouts and greens and take things one step at a time.

There are several types of sprouting kits that make it pretty easy to sprout in your kitchen. So get comfortable with your health journey and then take the plunge when you’re ready.

You see, you don’t
need
to have sprouts to create your concoctions. They are definitely nice to have and a wonderful addition to your repertoire of greens, but you’ll find if you just get started with the so-called ‘ordinary’ ingredients it will be easy to go ‘onward and upward’ from there.

By the way, one of the big differences between sprouts and microgreens besides plant size is that sprouts that we find in the shops or grow at home are cultivated using water. Microgreens are grown in soil.

Storing Sprouts

Just pop them in the vegetable drawers in your fridge. Microgreens will need to be washed and dried and stored. Sprouts need slightly different treatment. This is important: Use them within 2-3 days. Sometimes you need to rinse sprouts with water especially if you want to prolong their life. The test of their freshness is in the eating. Make sure they’re moist fresh and crisp. If they look or feel slimy then just compost them.

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Freezing Fruit

In an ideal world you would make smoothies with locally sourced organic produce that is in season. But what if a) the produce is not locally grown, or b) it’s not available (for any reason) when you want it? What I would love to suggest to you though is that freezing fruits is a wonderfully useful and delicious thing to do.

You’ll do this for a number reasons.

1. Frozen mangoes, bananas, pineapple, peaches, apricots and so on give your smoothies that smooth texture that you’re after and that consistency.
   
2. You can stockpile lots of fruit ready for the months when that fruit is not available fresh for you. At least you’ll know where it came from!
   
3. Berries are fragile and have a short bench or even fridge life. So besides giving great consistency and temperature, berries will last all year round. They give great color to your concoctions too.
   
4. Frozen fruits are ... um ... cold! So you may not need to add ice at all.
   

How To Freeze Fruit For Smoothies

Seems simple. Pop that fruit in the freezer. There is a little more to it however!

Bananas

Peel your bananas. Put them in a container or sealable bag, just one banana deep. They will be much easier to remove. Bananas are not rock hard when frozen. They are actually quite easy to slice from the whole fruit when you have a good knife. Just be careful with all frozen fruit. Keep an eye on your blade and your fingers well away. Try always to apply the blade by securing it in the fruit and then apply the pressure straight down.

I like to keep the bananas whole. When you take the bag or box out of the freezer you’ll easily prize the number of bananas you need. All the recipes that need bananas need them in whole units to keep it easy.

You can liberate space in your freezer by placing your already frozen fruit in a resealable bag. Or you can liberate the flatter freezer containers and add more frozen fruit to a deep container that can stay frozen for months without risk of freezer burn to your precious cargo. Just keep whatever you choose well closed.

Pineapple

Peel your pineapple. Cut the pineapple up in wedges that involve a portion of the core. It’s best to use sweeter specimens if you can manage. When you cut the fruit, see if the core is particularly woody. You shouldn’t have to remove the core. I prefer to blend as much of the usable fruit as possible. The core provides you with great fiber too. If you leave a little of the eyes in the flesh, don’t worry too much. It’s just a little fiber that will blend up well.

Store in bags and let freeze flat. Then, if you like, you can break up the frozen pieces in the bag. When you need then fruit you’ll take out ½ and 1 cup amounts.

Mango

Mango is a sensational fruit in smoothies. Can you tell I love them? I do my very best to store as many mangoes as I can. It’s a real delight when I can get the taste of summer in the middle of winter.

There are 2 ways to chop up mangoes. One is to leave the skin on first. Then, with the fruit lengthways take a knife and slice off the cheeks taking the length of the blade to skim it along the broad side of the flat stone. You’ll be left with 2 cheeks and the stone, all with flesh on them.

Take a cheek flesh-side up in one palm. Take a tablespoon and introduce the tip between the skin and the flesh and work the tip around the cheek and towards the center. This will pry the flesh away from the skin quite cleanly.

With the stone, remove as much of the flesh as you can and remove the skin too.

Freeze the flesh either in a shallow freezer box or in plastic storage bags. Once frozen for the first time I actually remove the flesh and slice thickly and then replace in the freezer in an airtight container or bag to prevent freezer burn.

You’ll find that mango is also quite easy to chop in the frozen state. If you have pieces already roughly chopped then they are simple to portion out with your fingers whenever your recipe calls for it.

Berries

Strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, red and black currants, boysenberries, you name it, they are all excellent candidates for freezing. Berries don’t normally stay fresh for long periods of time and some berries have very short availabilities when in season, so freezing makes sense.

Many berries are also available in the freezer section of your supermarket, both organic and non-organic varieties.

However, if you choose to freeze your own here are a couple of tips. Prepare your fruit when you bring them home. Wash them in fresh (possibly filtered) water and then let them drain in a colander and then to dry on a dry tea towel.

Hull your berries if necessary or if called for. Remove any inedible bits. Cut large strawberries into smaller teaspoon size portions while still fresh. Strawberries freeze quite hard and you may find them hard to cut safely.

Freeze flat in a bag or shallow box. They should be as dry as possible when they are put into their containers so that they don’t become coated in ice. You can transfer frozen fruit into a deeper container when frozen through.

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Green Smoothie ‘Rescue’ – What To Do If A Recipe Doesn’t Work Out!

You know, recipes turn out differently from time to time. When I say add a banana, if you had a banana that’s 10 inches long and the time I made it I used a 5 inch banana, well, naturally the output will be a bit different.

Same goes with greens. I have had rocket (or arugula) that is strong and peppery. I have also had it when it’s quite mild.

Smoothie recipe results rely on the beauty of nature in all its color and variations. Being a little flexible is sometimes important.