Food

Green smoothies: the smoothies that seduced the world

GreenSmoothie_revolution
Written by EFW Staff

The power of the green smoothies

More than a year ago VIPs, actress and the health enthusiasts started to post on the social networks pictures of their green smoothies, and their success continue. At all, this fruit and vegetable smoothies, in addition to keep the shape, are real super food: healthy, rich in vitamins and minerals, detox and satisfying.

You have heard about the green smoothies for sure, a real trend in the last two years! However if you haven’t already perfectly understand what we are talking about or you don’t know how to prepare them, here you are an explanation of the secrets, benefits and recipes of the best green smoothies.

Green Smoothies: the secret of these smoothies

Why green? The green smoothies, nominated as healthy and tonic smoothies par excellence, have to be rigorously green. The reason is that they are prepared with green leaf vegetables that are naturally rich in minerals, vitamins, iron and chlorophyll; moreover they have a great tonic and alkali power, giving energy to our body, thus a real healthy refill! They are pleasant also uncooked bleding together fruit and natural sweetener (like stevia or agave syrup).

Spinach, chard, lettuce and valerianella aren’t sufficient to make the green smoothies tasty; these are the basic ingredients of a green smoothie, but they need to be sweetened with others sugary ingredients such as the ripe seasonal fruit. The secret of the green smoothies is the right mix and proportion of the ingredients.

How to prepare a Green Smoothie

Peach-and-Pineapple-Smoothie

The proportion is everything: to obtain a green smoothie good and tasty you need to blend together the 60% of fruit and the 40% of leaf vegetables with a big glass of water, about 250 ml. The fruit plays a fundamental role, not only it sweeten the flavour, but also it enrich the smoothie adding fibres, sugar and carbohydrates, useful to give energy. Finally, it is fundamental to obtain a creamy and velvety consistency, avoiding the effect of a sad greenish water with a ferrous taste. It is possible to personalize the smoothies but the proportion 60-40 create the green smoothie par excellence!

The green part of the smoothies

Green, as we said, can’t miss! The leaf vegetables have to be blended rigorously uncooked, choosing among a wide choice preferring the seasonal vegetables. The favourite is the romaine lettuce, low calories and a lot of nutrient, but also the iceberg lettuce, lamb’s lettuce, besides spinach and chard (do not eat them everyday to avoid an excess of oxalic acid enclosed in this two vegetables). Do not put restraints to your creativity, use parsley, celery, cucumber or spontaneous herbs.

Recipes for super summer green smoothies

Kale-and-pineapple-smoothie2

A good and practical rule to prepare green smoothies is to choose two types of fruit and one vegetable, avoiding to mix too much flavours and risking bad pairings. Once you choose the mix, blend them according to the proportion 60% of fruit and 40% of green leaf. Both if you want to lose weight before the summer and if you feel the need of a detox week or simply if you are looking for fresh and healthy breakfasts, snacks or lunches for the summer, the green smoothies are a great solution. Thus we advise you to try this three recipes that we choose for you.

Strawberries, banana and spinach: blend everything together and drink at breakfast. It is sweet, delightful and perfect also for the children, it will have a creamy and fresh consistency if you freeze the banana before blending. This smoothie is a must of the green diet!

Mango, peach and Romanian lettuce: the flavour is sweet and delicate, slightly sugary, it is a great energizer, perfect as a tonic snack after the workout or for a light lunch.

Pineapple, peach and cucumbers with lemon and mint: fresh and hydrating, the fresh flavour of the mint, lemon and cucumber make it a perfect smoothie to quench your thirst and freshen up in the hot summer days.

 

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EFW Staff