Crunchy Segments: Green Shake

So apparently green shakes are popular right now.

I don't know why people drink them, but we've been making one every day for a few months now. They're pretty good and people say that they're good for you.

Anyway, here is the recipe that we use,

Ingredients:

about 2 cups (loosely packed) roughly chopped greens

1-1.5 cups of water

1 apple

1 pear

1 ripe banana

about 1.5 teaspoon frozen juice concentrate (any flavor 100% juice)

about 0.5 teaspoon spirulina powder

Optional additions:

frozen peas (thawed first)

carrot juice

celery

I start off with just the water in the blender. Then I add the greens. In this example, I'm using kale, but any leafy green will do.

Roughly chop them (2 inch pieces) so they'll fit in the blender.

We've used spinach, mustard greens, collard greens, watercress, chard, and turnip greens so far and they all were tasty. The key is to make sure you get the greens blended up really fine before you start adding the other ingredients. Otherwise, you'll end up with big chunks of kale in your shake. To do this, I use the "ice chop" setting on my blender and just whiz the water and the kale until it is as smooth as I can get it. The "ice chop" is nice because it is like the pulse button on some food processors and it allows you to turn the blades in short spurts to chop up the big chunks of greens. If you don't have a button like this on your blender try starting on the slowest speed you can and work your way up to faster speeds.

It should look like this when you're done:

Use a rubber spatula to scrape the chunks down if they get stuck on the side.

Next you can add the fruit.

You don't need to peel the apples and pears, just chop 'em up a bit.

Then add them a few pieces at a time while the blender is running if you can. Just don't add them all at once, it might overwhelm the motor and it'll take longer to get the consistency you want.

It should look something like this now:

Next we add spirulina powder.

Spirulina is something of an acquired taste so feel free to leave it out.

Then we add frozen fruit juice concentrate (the 100% juice kind). This is to sweeten it a little. It isn't necessary but I find that it makes the spirulina a little more palatable.