Recipe Time: Your New Green Drink!
If you’ve eaten at True Food restaurant, you may know about Kale Aid. Perhaps you even love it, like I do.
Kale Aid is a refreshing juice packed with all kinds of healthy and good things. Apple, ginger, celery and cucumber are the predominant flavors. And of course, there’s kale! But kale haters, don’t despair. You can certainly use other greens.
My green drink recipe has a similar flavor profile as the original, but instead of a pulp-free juice, it contains all the plant fibers of its veggie and fruit ingredients.
Whip up the basic drink to boost your daily greens, or add some protein and more fiber for a smoothie that serves as a whole meal.
A tasty and easy way to boost your daily greens!
Your New Green Drink
Ingredients
1/4 to 1/2 cup filtered water
1 lemon (I use the juice of 1 lemon and part of the rind for zest)
1 apple (fuji, honeycrisp or whatever you have on hand! A pear works great, too)
1-2-inch piece of ginger (start small here, and add more at the end if you’d like)
1 cucumber, seeds removed
1 large or 2 small celery stalks
3 handfuls SuperGreens (a blend of baby chard, kale, arugula and others)
1/2 avocado (the fat helps your body absorb some nutrients)
1 pinch of sea salt
Green Drink, Smoothie Style:
To the ingredients above, add…
1 scoop collagen, whey or hemp protein (~20 g of protein)
2 T flax seeds
2 T pumpkin seeds
Instructions
Add all ingredients to a small smoothie blender (like NutriBullet or Vitamix, which pulverize small seeds). Blend until smooth. Sip slowly and enjoy!
Nutrition details you can feel fantastic about:
The basic drink recipe offers up ~17 g of fiber and a hefty dose of vitamins B5, B6, folate, C and K; and calcium, copper, iron, potassium and other minerals.
Prepared smoothie style with seeds and collagen protein, the fiber goes to ~26 g and protein = 34 g; And the mineral content jumps way up, proving a good share — if not most — of your daily requirements for calcium, copper, iron, potassium, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, sodium and zinc.
Wow, that is one nutrient-dense and tasty meal!
