Smoothie prep highlight: When I couldn’t find the blender lid and figured it wouldn’t make much difference... then watched my 4-year-old jump sideways off the stepstool to dodge flying chunks of frozen mango and parsley particles.

Photo by Judy Sobeloff

Acrobatics aside, for people who already enjoy fruit smoothies, green smoothies may be an almost seamless way to boost your family’s consumption of leafy greens.

After my children saw friends drinking a Groovy Green smoothie in the Co-op deli, asked to try it and actually liked it, I was inspired to try making green smoothies at home. The big surprise was that our green smoothies weren’t green. With the addition of berries, the blended greens were nearly undetectable, at least to the non-suspecting eye. (The deep, rich green of the Co-op’s smoothie is due to the presence of wheatgrass and spirulina.)
Some bonus points I gleaned from reading—green smoothies are a great way to eat greens because the greens are raw—nutrients haven’t been leached out through cooking, and the greens are consumed without the usual accompanying oil and salt. Unlike juice, smoothies use the whole fruit, which means they are more nutritious (containing fiber), less wasteful, and more convenient (ask anyone who’s cleaned a juicer). Also, says Victoria Boutenko, “People told me that after a couple of weeks of drinking green smoothies, they started to crave and enjoy eating more greens.” (emaxhealth.com)

Basic fruit smoothies use juice (usually apple), a banana, any kind of frozen fruit or fresh fruit and ice; green smoothies seem to work with many combinations of greens and fruit. I found helpful suggestions on eatlivingfood.com from Boutenko and on greensmoothiegirl.com. (Watch the three-minute video on this site.)

Armed with a reasonably beefy blender, we invited friends over and served two versions of green smoothies to six kids aged roughly 4 to 7. We tried the less intense version first: apple juice, spinach, banana, frozen strawberries, frozen raspberries and frozen red grapes.

The range of reactions from the kids included two who wouldn’t taste it, two who liked it, and two who said they didn’t like it but then downed their whole cup.

As for the adults, my friend Lisa noted, “The raspberry seeds camouflage the small flecks of green. It tastes like summer.” My friend John added, “It’s very good, like a tropical storm. I never had anything like that! I don’t get out much.”

For the second round, we added collards and kale to the spinach, and substituted pineapple chunks and juice for the apple juice. I planned to add more greens, but all four parents who tasted it cautioned me against this, as a look of panic set in.

Apparently kale is a deal breaker for some people, partly because of the texture. Note that it’s recommended to start small with adding greens and then gradually increase over time. While “Green Smoothie Girl” advises working up to a fruit: veggie ratio of 60:40, we probably weighed in around 80:20. 

The kids’ reactions were again basically favorable, except one child. Her mother exclaimed, “She liked it—look, she drank the whole thing!” only to be informed by her daughter, “No, I dumped it out on the grass.”

John called this one “a fruity harvest, very hearty. I think I just need to acclimate my taste buds to it.” Fred said, “I really like it. It’s got those little veggie bits that kind of grow on you.” Lisa pointed out, “Those little flecks of green—if you chew them, it’s like a breath cleanser in between sips!”

Next morning I set out to make some green smoothies that were actually green. My 4-year-old, especially excited about this prospect, said, “Maybe it would turn green if we added all the parsley in our yard!” We tried parsley and mango with pineapple juice first and then with apple juice. He liked both, his older sister didn’t like either (“too flaky”), and Fred and I liked both, particularly the apple juice version.

Bright green may or may not go over as well with kids as other popular colors for food such as bright orange or blue, but I am excited to bring green smoothies into our lives, full steam ahead.

RED (GREEN) SUMMER SMOOTHIE ONE
Apple juice
Fresh spinach
banana
Frozen strawberries
Frozen raspberries
Frozen grapes

Blend well, adjust amounts to taste, and serve immediately.

RED (GREEN) SUMMER SMOOTHIE TWO
Pineapple juice
Fresh spinach
Fresh collards
Fresh kale
Pineapple chunks
Frozen raspberries
Frozen strawberries
Frozen grapes

Blend well, adjust amounts to taste, and serve immediately.

MANGO-PARSLEY SMOOTHIE
Apple juice (or pineapple juice)
Parsley leaves
Frozen mango chunks

Blend juice and parsley well. Add mango and blend. Adjust amounts and serve immediately.

GROOVY GREEN SMOOTHIE (from the Moscow Food Co-op)
Frozen banana
Frozen mango
Orange-mango juice
1 shot wheatgrass
A little bit (1 tsp.) spirulina powder

Blend and adjust to taste. (Note that all these ingredients are sold at the Co-op.)

Judy Sobeloff’s favorite color is green.