Making a delicious, nutritious green smoothie (and not a chunky brown disaster) is easy. I promise.

Method:

You want your smoothie to be 40% greens and 60% everything else. Blend greens and liquid first, then add whatever fruits and vegetables you want to include. This will prevent finding unappetizing chunks of spinach floating around in your smoothie.

Greens:

The most common greens to put in smoothies are spinach or kale. Their mild flavors make them great for those of us who don’t want to taste our greens. Swiss chard is also very popular, but it has a much stronger taste.

Photo by Ben Rosenstock

Liquid:

Depending on your blender, you may or may not need to add liquids to your smoothie. If you have a super powerful blender like a Vitamix, no liquid should be required. For everyone else, pick a liquid depending on what else is in your smoothie. Nut milk mixes well with berries, and juice or coconut water mix well with pretty much everything.

Photo by Ben Rosenstock

Fruits:

One must-have for green smoothies is frozen bananas (make sure to take the peel off before you freeze them). Bananas add bulk and sweetness to your smoothie, as well as cover the taste of the greens. Some flavor combinations to try: pineapple, kale and banana or spinach, vanilla almond milk and banana.

Photo by Ben Rosenstock

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