Not a fan of green shakes? Give this recipe a try!

[Bruce Achterberg]

(If you want to skip the intro, you'll find the recipe below.)

Steve has tried various green shake concoctions while on his raw food trial, which you'll find detailed in his archived logs. I personally find the green shakes delicious, but not many people seem to share that opinion, including Steve's vegan wife and kids.

I imagine some people are a bit scared of trying them, lest they keel over from the horrible taste, but luckily, I have a solution. After some refinement, I came up with a green shake recipe that I found consistently enjoyable, regardless of how much of it or how often I had it.

I also ran it by two people who, for their sake, will remain nameless. These people aren't exactly shining examples of health and are primarily focused on food tasting good (to speak nothing of health and nutrition), but even this recipe got their approval and was described with terms such as "mmmm, it's nice!" These people have had some exposure to my whole-foods vegan diet and usually wouldn't touch some of the more ruthlessly nutritious things I prepare, but this recipe was an exception.

I can't say the recipe is original, but this is the first tangible expression I've seen of it. Making good shakes can take a bit of trial and (sometimes not so tasty) error, so I hope to save you the trouble and detail how you can make a winner green shake the first time around. Here's the recipe:

Green shake: Sweet variation

Ingredients

• 1 banana
  
• 2 (Kensington pride) mangos
  
• 1 handful of baby spinach leaves, pre-washed (you can use a little more or less spinach without significantly impacting the taste; it's up to you)
  
• 1 tray of ice cubes (my ice cube tray holds 15 average sized ice cubes; I use all of them)
  
• About 1 cup of water (if you want a thicker shake, add less water; less-thick, add more water. 1 cup makes it somewhere in between and is my desired consistency -- not watery, but not so thick that it's an effort to slurp down)

Method

• Peel the mangos, and strip the flesh into a blender (I don't have a Vitamix, just a Breville Optimax blender that was bought new approx. 2 years ago. I've no idea how well this recipe would work with a food processor or barmix, so use those at your own risk).
  
• Add the banana.
  
• Add the spinach.
  
• Add the ice.
  
• Add the water.
  
• Blend until you can't see pieces of spinach floating around. Don't blend it too long, or the friction from the blades will remove the subtle chill the ice gives the shake, which, in my opinion, is an important part of the shake.

The shake should be a light green-ish colour, and it should have a smooth, relatively thick consistency, somewhere between a milkshake and a thickshake.

This recipe makes enough shake to fill 2 average-sized glasses.

Enjoy!

... and if you like the recipe, or come up with any interesting variations, please share your feedback in this thread.


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Note for the mods: I made this thread in this forum instead of the Health & Fitness forum to target those who come to the Steve Pavlina forum after reading Steve's raw food logs. You can move the thread if you want, but I'd consider the green shakes an idea from Steve's blog, so I think it should be ok here.

[gettingskinny]

That sounds great! I usually do banana, spinach, oranges and grapes. If I need to make some for the whole family, I add water. I then add ice or frozen strawberries! YUM!

[Wildside]

Good thread Idea Bruce...good to see what others use in their green smoothies. I posted in Steve's Raw food trial Day 27 thread about my variation on the green smoothie but I thought I would put it in here as well jsut to keep them all together. Enjoy!

I usually have at least 2 a day, one in the morning and one when I get home from work, (or after a workout). I use banana's and usually an apple with lots o spinach, oh and some frozen berries (strawberry, blueberry etc) for flavor and to chill the smoothie.

The big difference with mine is I always put in two tablespoons of hemp protien powder. The Hemp protien powder is raw (I think all types are) and besides being a complete protien source it also has the perfect ratio of EFA's and has 55% of your daily fibre with each serving (2 tablespoons)...the stuff just rocks! If your every worried you might not be getting enough protien on a raw diet, hemp will take care of that for you.

[H2Ogrl]

I really like spinach, celery, cabbage, or sometimes carrots <yes I know it isn't "green" >. With that or some combo of those veggies I add typically: mango, rasberries, strawberries, pineapple, or blueberries. Though I put in just a little fruit...the taste goes a LONG way!! I found out that if you just put in your favorite fruit(s) with a bunch of whatever veggie you like it always turns out great!!!

I particularly like the: mango, strawberry, spinach, and celery combo!!

I use frozen fruit with sometimes fresh fruit in order to not have to deal with ice.

[gettingskinny]

spinach and carrots are the easiest veggies to hide in smoothies for the kiddos!