Green smoothies can definitely be made in a regular blender.
Most green smoothies will turn out great in your regular blender and I encourage you to try some tips and get started on making healthy, nutrition packed smoothies a part of your daily routine. A nutrition packed green smoothie can have a huge impact on your health and well-being, especially if you are replacing cereal.
A smoothie made in a regular blender might not be quite the same consistency as one made in a high power blender, because a high power blender is able to completely break down the cell walls of the plant material and liquefy it. A regular blender cannot do that, but it can still handle the vast majority of recipes to make a good green smoothie if you work with your particular blender and get the hang of what it can and cannot do.
A regular blender needs help to make the smoothie drinkable without breaking the blender in the process. It takes a little time to get the produce smooth enough to drink. Don’t let that discourage you as it is well worth the effort due to the benefits of drinking green smoothies.
Focus on the smoothies you can make and don’t worry about the rest.
You can make it work by following the simple ideas presented below. The blender in the photo is the kind of blender I was using before I bought my Blendtec; an Oster 12 speed. I gave it to a friend who is still using it to make smoothies. It blended smoothies daily for months. At one point I overloaded it and thought it was broken, but it just needed a rest. After that I was more careful in how I used it and am sharing with you what I learned to keep my blender working properly and making green smoothies. It worked well enough when I treated it right. If you are interested in purchasing one, click on the link. It will take you directly to the blender at Amazon.com. Your purchase will help support our site.
Most of the smoothie recipes at The Feminine Review will assume you have a high powered blender, so make sure to adapt the recipes to baby your regular blender along rather than trying to blend everything at once.
There are some differences between using a high powered blender and a regular kitchen blender. First off, it’s best to use mostly fresh rather than frozen fruits and vegetables in a regular kitchen blender. Adding too many frozen vegetable and fruit chunks tends to overwork a regular blender and can cause a jam of frozen produce to wrap around the blade and stop it from working. For example, I had kale wrap around my blades due to using frozen fruit before the kale was completely smooth.
Frozen fruits and vegetables can be used in a regular blender, but care is needed to make sure ingredients are added and processed properly to avoid overloading the blender motor. Start by adding plenty of liquid. Try adding the ingredients with the most water content first and get them liquefied before adding more difficult items. Surprisingly, greens are very dense and tend to be difficult for the blender to process. Chop them before putting them in the blender. Gauge as you go as to whether you need to add more liquid, which is perfectly fine. Use as much liquid as you need. Frozen fruits and vegetables should be added last, a little at a time, blending between additions until smooth.
Since you will be using mostly fresh rather than frozen vegetables, it is best not to keep a variety of greens in the refrigerator or they will go bad quickly. Buy a package of greens and use them up, rather than having several packages of different varieties. You don’t need a lot of variety when it comes to greens anyway. There are plenty of options for fruits and other vegetables that keep your smoothies interesting by adding different things to your greens daily.
Be sure to unplug the blender if you are going to use a spatula to get things mixed a bit and pushed into the blades. Stopping frequently to use a spatula will help your blender puree produce more effectively. Never do this with the blender going!
Here’s a Green Orange Julius Smoothie recipe to get you started. This also makes an excellent smoothie for kids or adults who are not yet sold on how great green smoothies really are.
1 cup homemade coconut milk or coconut milk without carageenan (* see other options below)
½ tsp real vanilla extract
2 Tbsp chia seeds (optional)
1 peeled orange
2 sprigs parsley
2 cups baby spinach
1 cup kale
Add coconut milk, vanilla, chia seeds, parsley and orange to the jar and blend until smooth. Add spinach one cup at a time and blend thoroughly between blends. Add kale and blend until smooth.
The Green Orange Julius Smoothie tastes very much like an Orange Julius. It is refreshing and easy to drink. If you are starting out with smoothies, this is a good one to begin with. Most kids will like it as well. It is much healthier than what you would get at the mall.
*If you don’t have homemade and don’t want to use the boxed coconut milk, you can use 1-2 Tbsp of coconut cream/coconut butter and 8 oz. of filtered water.
According to the Wahl’s categories, this smoothie covers 1 ½ – 2 color servings, 2 ½ leafy green servings and 1 sulfur serving (the kale could be counted as a leafy green if you have enough sulfur vegetables in your day)
For an explanation of the vegetable and fruit categories, click here.
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