Anyone have a healthy smoothie that tasted good?

[nadine_mn]

I am not gonna lie - I am not a fan of vegetables at all. I need to sneak them into my diet so I can't taste them. I love fruit smoothies - I make them with ice, fresh fruit, and yogurt - very tasty. I have read on various cooking and healthy eating blogs that adding kale or spinach to fruit smoothies is a good way to get extra vitamins.

Is this true - or can you really taste that healthy green stuff? I have seen those green smoothies and they make me cringe. For some reason I can't stand most vegetables if they are cooked - carrots, peas, spinach, etc. I prefer to eat them raw, so as much as I like lasagna for example - I can't sneak spinach in it. But maybe I can handle it in a smoothie since it is not cooked?

I am such a baby - I know. I am not proud of my veggie aversion. It sucks because I am trying very hard to be a vegetarian.

So has anyone had any luck with healthy smoothies that don't taste healthy?

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. OK. Your problems are over.

Purists will cringe and/or scoff, but this works for me.

You pour some V8 in the blender ( Yes I know it has preservatives and is made from non-organic guacamoli, etc. . Shaddupaminute.)

You add an assortment of *fresh* vegetables.... churning each addition by turns into smitherheens ( or "puree", if there's no "smithereens" setting.)

I will typically use your dark leafy greens + brightly colored orange, yellow and reds. There's mucho flavenoids in 'em... or some such thing.

So, typically: a handful of spinach , three of four baby carrots, part of a cucumber, one or two small peppers ( e.g. a yellow, a green, a red.... you follow, yes?)

One varies the contents from day to day to avoid monotony.

Add some spice if you wish. Even if you don't the salt from the V8 will still render it palatable.

If you hate the salty taste... get the no-sodium V8.)

Drink this every day and you will *never* die.

Never. Look at me: am I dead? I rest my case.

[AsahinaKimi]

2. I have tasted some smoothies that surprised me..

Made with a combination of both veggies and fruits. Carrots when first juiced are very sweet, but than begin to change taste, but when you add a combinations like banana and peaches, and even apple.. the flavors can change for the better. I have had dark leafy green juices that had banana and strawberries added to it, that sounds strange but was actually very good.

[nadine_mn]

7. This is what I was thinking of - and you say its good?

The dark leafy greens don't overpower the fruit?

[AsahinaKimi]

11. Spinich is a bit strong but if you have

fruits like banana, along with peach and or apples it can be very good. The strongest fruit for me is Pomegranate.. I can never drink those Pom drinks.. way to strong. Reminds me of Ginseng...which, for me has to be taken in teeny tiny amounts. I used to get Ginseng tea bags, and use one bag for a gallon of water..its way too strong! But some things like veggies can be blended.. for example you can blend green bell peppers with apple and banana .. and its not too bad.

[applegrove]

3. Buy veggie powder at the health food store.

Last edited Thu Aug 8, 2013, 09:08 PM - Edit history (1)

It is sweetened with maple sugar and doesn‘t have a strong vegetable taste. I make a smoothie with frozen wild blueberries, the tiny ones, and vanilla yougurt. The smoothie is turquoise and delicious. Doesn‘t taste of veggies very much.

[nadine_mn]

9. Oh - I will have to look for that

thanks!

[applegrove]

13. I meant veggie powder.

[surrealAmerican]

4. Do you like gazpacho?

That would be sort of like a vegetable smoothie without fruit.

[Cass]

5. Green monster smoothies are pretty good!

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/green-monster-smoothie-2/


Original recipe makes 1 smoothie Change Servings

1 cup fat-free milk
1/2 cup fat-free plain yogurt
1 banana, frozen and chunked
1 tablespoon natural peanut butter
2 cups fresh spinach
1 cup ice cubes (optional)


Directions
1.Blend milk, yogurt, banana, peanut butter, spinach, and ice cubes until smooth.

[nadine_mn]

6. That sounds tasty

I think I will have to try it - I have frozen bananas already (treats for the dogs on hot days) and most of the other ingredients.

Thanks

[trof]

8. You betcha! Peanut Butter smoothie.

Had a PB smoothie with mango, strawberries, and non-fat vanilla yogurt this morning.
Emphasis on the PB.
And a piece of pumpernickel toast spread with...PEANUT BUTTER!

[geardaddy]

10. Have you tried juicing?

I'm really surprised by how a lot of vegetables are actually very sweet when you juice them. For example, it sounds gross, but asparagus juice is very nice!

[Incitatus]

12. I assumed vitamins were lost in that process. It appears I was wrong.

A quick search indicates that most of the vitamins are in the juice, and the fiber in the pulp. I've been eating a lot of smoothies lately. Now it's to look for a good juicer to mix things up.

[MiddleFingerMom]

15. The trouble with juicing is that most juicers (if not all) separate out virtually ALL the fiber...

.
.
.
... and I didn't find "stirring" it back in to be palatable at all -- so you get the vitamins, but not the rich
fiber content that can add so much fiber so tastily to your diet. A smoothie from a blender DOES leave
all that fiber in.
.
.
.

[Incitatus]

20. It looks like a good juicer costs several hundred dollars.

I think I'll stick to my salads and smoothies for now.

[Chan790]

31. It's a "never buy new" item.

Your local thrift store that carries kitchen goods is full of them usually. They're one of those items people buy, then use for like a month, then get rid of. I'm pretty sure you can find one for under $20.

[geardaddy]

27. We got a used Juiceman II on Craig's list for $20

It works great.

[R B Garr]

14. Try a pumpkin pie type smoothie, too

The pumpkin has a lot of beta carotene and is very low calorie and low carb. I usually use about 1/4 cup, which is half of the 1/2 serving listed on the nutrition list. Then I add some cinnamon and fresh nutmeg and sometimes some ginger to give it that pumpkin pie spice. The sweetener is in the protein powder I use. The can of pumpkin lasts me a few days and keeps fine in the fridge, and it's pretty cheap. I use it in between other smoothie concoctions that I mostly use fruit for.

I see you want the green veges. Is there a good juice bar near you? I usually go to a juice bar instead of breaking out my juicer and going to the store. Some of them let you choose from a variety of fresh veges so you can build your own preference, which gives you an idea of how to do it at home. Just the other night I talked to a woman whose choices looked good -- I think she said it was mostly carrot and pineapple with a little kale mixed in. I usually get fresh ginger added to mine no matter what greens I choose. It really perks up the drink and the ginger is very good for you. They even have ginger shots where I go, which I just love.

Love the idea of peanut butter smoothies, but that sounds maybe too addictive for me! Peanut butter is crack-a-lackin'. Love it, Love it!

[R B Garr]

16. Here's the menu from the juice bar I go to - maybe it will give you ideas

on what to mix together because I think they list the ingredients, at least they do on their menu board in the market.

http://www.mothersmarket.com/pdf/menus/mothers-market-juice-bar.pdf

Edit: The Goddess of Greens is about their top seller (yes, I did ask a while ago, lol).

[Flaxbee]

17. half a bag of spinach, two cucumbers, two apples, and a big chunk of ginger root = delicious

Of all the dark leafy greens, spinach has the smoothest / best taste.

We got a juicer from a friend who had two (the poor man could never resist those buy-one-get-half-off-the-second-one deals); I just made a juice of two bananas, two apples, two cucumbers, and a chunk of ginger root (the ginger has to be peeled - I just slice off the skin -but I put the apples and cucumber in with the skin).

I also love to add raw beets (very good for you) and carrots.

The ginger root adds quite a spicy kick - in a very good way, in my opinion. About an inch-two inch chunk of ginger. Yum.

Really, it can be quite delicious. You don't get the fiber from the veggies if you juice, but you do get the nutrients.

In my opinion, you don't need yogurt or anything other than the fruits and vegetables - just adds calories. I also avoid canned/bottled juices as starters because so many of them have high sodium and/or sugar content with other preservatives.

To mask the taste of veggies if you still don't like them, just add more apples.

And if I've got half a tomato, or bell pepper, or something else that might go bad before I get around to eating it, I'll toss it in the juicer, too.

[politicat]

18. I don't notice a spinach flavor in mine.

Though I agree on the color -- it just looks wrong. I have that weird brain disconnect when I see food that is the wrong color for what my eyes tell me I should be tasting. If I'm tasting tropical strawberries, them what I'm eating should be salmon-pink, and if it's not, it does not matter if it tastes fine. My brain will refuse to cooperate. My solution is an opaque lid.

My recipe varies by what's in season/on sale at my market, but the current recipe is:

6 strawberries
some pineapple
some mango
2 handfuls baby spinach
1/2 cup yogurt
3 tb vanilla whey protein powder
1 scoop Metamucil (yeah, yeah, I'm 37 but it tastes okay mixed in and more fiber never hurts)
Enough juice to fill in the spaces -- juice is usually an orange-mango-carrot blend.

I put everything in a wide mouth mason jar and use my hand blender to smoosh. I have a cozy for the jar and I use a plastic opaque lid with a hole for the straw (hole has a sugru grommet.)

Autumn/winter recipe usually switches to apples, carrots, butternut squash, pumpkin and apple juice, (still with spinach; we grow our own with a small hydroponic rig since we average about 3 pounds a week) with a dash of Penzey's Cake Spice blend. I find that cooked carrots blend better for me, so I tend to steam a 3 pound bag of baby carrots then freeze them. I tend to drop smoothies all together once morning temps are below freezing. (Also, there's good evidence that cooked red/yellow/orange vegetables have a higher content of lycopene and beta-carotene than raw.)

[blogslut]

19. This looks good:

http://asimplyrawlife.blogspot.com/2012/08/raw-green-smoothie-with-peas.html

[u4ic]

21. I make them

I don't have exact amounts, but these are the ingredients for my favourite smoothie:

unsweetened chocolate almond milk
chia seeds (leave these in the almond milk for about 5 minutes, they will swell and give you an extra thick smoothie; they are a great source of protein and fibre, too)
1/4 avocado
1 scoop of greens+ or Amazing Grass natural
blueberries or your favourite berry or berry mixture
raw broccoli
spinach
celery
a bit of spirulina powder if you are so inclined
I often add protein powder (I like Manitoba Harvest Hemp 70, by far the smoothest and best tasting)
Depending on the fruit I use, I either add a couple of dates or xylitol as a sweetener if it isn't enough. I don't like too sweet of a smoothie. Fruit is often enough.

Blend everything in a blender. Enjoy!

Alternately, I just won the Acai and Mango greens+ powder and it's very tasty. It's sweetened with stevia. I can just put it in water and mix it, it's great on its own. The Acai Amazing Grass isn't as good in my opinion. The latter also has a chocolate flavour, you could just add that to milk and have that as a smoothie if you don't want too much work.

[BainsBane]

22. It doesn't have to have vegetables to be healthy

fruit, yogurt, and protein powder makes a healthy smoothie.

[davidpdx]

23. We make fruit smoothies during the summer

Our blender is just tiny so it doesn't make much. We use frozen strawberries, a little milk, and a little yogurt. I like them as thick as possible.

[DebJ]

24. A bit off topic, but if you like tomato sauces like those on pasta,

that is where I was able to smuggle in a large amount of veggies for my son and
my husband, who both hated them. Squash, tomatoes, green pepper, onions, peas
whatever I had on hand, smothered in the sauce, garlic, spices...it worked. They ate them.

[noamnety]

25. One thing that might help with that

is to puree the veggies.

Some people don't like cooked vegetables because of the texture, and for some it's a taste issue. In adding spinach to the lasagna, I suspect the issue is either the spinach texture, or that the spinach was canned (which is disgusting, imho, and always soapy tasting). Even in a school cafeteria, kids who hated spinach were fine with it when it was fresh raw spinach pureed in a food processor and mixed with the cheese part of the lasagna. It did tint the cheese a bit, but in a blind taste test you would never know it was there.

[LWolf]

26. I'm the wrong person to ask,

since I like things many people don't.

If you want veggies in your smoothy, I'd go with fresh spinach and mint. You can pretend the green color is mint.

If you want to be a vegetarian, at some point, you are going to have to take on the veggies, though. There's certainly nothing wrong with eating them raw; they are better for you that way, anyway. There's no reason you have to cook them to include them in a meal. Eat them raw on the side, or eat them as snacks throughout the day.

Spinach and mixed greens salad...you can add lots of veggies for texture, and use your favorite dressing, or make your own, and add fresh fruit, to flavor the whole thing.

I eat green and wax beans like french fries, raw or steamed. I love raw asparagus. Mushrooms, raw or cooked...not really a veggie, but I love them anyway. Of course, broccoli and cauliflower are good raw, and I like cabbage in slaw or soup. I could go on and on, but you need to find some that you can manage.

Vegetarian or not, our bodies need to eat plants.

[Arugula Latte]

28. I find fruit generally overpowers the veggies.

I recently made a very summery smoothie with melon, a few strawberries, cucumber, basil and arugula (gotta live up to my DU name!). It was delicious and refreshing. Cucumbers are surprisingly packed with good nutrients (I say surprisingly because I used to assume that something with that much water content wouldn't have much to offer, but au contraire). They are great in smoothies because of their mild taste and liquid content.

[Arugula Latte]

29. Another one that is mostly healthy and tastes like dessert ...

I make these for my kids. Blend frozen banana, milk or almond milk, natural peanut butter or almond butter, and ... then get some chocolate in there. I use the unhealthy syrup stuff, but I'm thinking cocoa would work and that is not bad for you at all. You get calcium, protein, and fruit all in one delicious smoothie. The frozen banana gives it an ice cream-like texture.

[Chan790]

30. Try using beet greens.

Not a lot at first, but increase with time until you find the point where it's unpleasant and curb it back a little. They're really candy-sweet (they're going to add natural sugars and thus calories, if that's a concern) so you should be able to pair them into other sweet fruits or use them to sweeten other less-sweet smoothie mixes or blunt off bitter or acidic flavors.