Light Green Monster Smoothies

I know juicing is all the rage right now, but I’m willing to fight for smoothies in hopes that people will still think they’re cool (apologies for what I just realized is a borderline smoothie pun). I love that smoothies, like juice, are super easy to eat (drink), but have fiber to fill me up, and a little bit of texture, too. Plus, I know you can make crackers and stuff out of your juice pulp, but smoothies are a surefire way to use up an entire piece of produce all at once. I think a green monster is one of the best options for packing the most nutrients into one glass!

I think this “light green monster” smoothie is a good introduction to the idea of green smoothies in general, because the arugula and celery are very subtle, providing more of an accent to the lushness of the fruit than anything else – and arugula has a much softer texture and complementary flavor than, say, raw kale. In fact, I think the veggies improve on the flavor here because they stop the smoothie from being cloyingly sweet. I mean, I fed it to my partner and he didn’t even realize it had vegetables in it, until he wanted to know the recipe. =]

I have a Magic Bullet that I use for blending cashews, silken tofu, almond milk, and even cooked cauliflower, but it doesn’t do a great job with fibrous things like celery and leafy greens. For that, I turn to the food processor. It can handle everything except for straight ice cubes. Here’s to (hopefully) many more years of trying to avoid buying an expensive blender! (Update 5/13/2016: I caved and bought a refurbished Ninja…)

I also mentioned this when I shared my raw kiwi mango tarts, but you can totally eat kiwi skins – just give the fuzzy part a good scrub if your kiwis aren’t organic. They add a nice little bite. That makes the prep for these smoothies ridiculously easy, because nothing has to be peeled – just chop it up and go.

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Light Green Monster Smoothies

Keyword green monster

Servings 2 large or 3 small servings

Ingredients

• 1 banana , sliced
• 1 green apple , seeds and stem removed, chopped
• 1 pear , seeds and stem removed, chopped
• 2 kiwis , chopped
• 3 ribs of celery , sliced
• zest of ½ lime
• ½ c . frozen pineapple chunks
• 2 c . loosely packed arugula

Instructions

• Add the chopped fruit, celery, and lime zest to a freezer-safe bowl for 1-2 hours before you want to enjoy your smoothies, so that they'll be nice and cold.
• Add the cooled fruit mixture to your blender or food processor along with the frozen pineapple. Blend until smooth. Add the arugula in two batches, continuing to blend until the arugula is well incorporated. Serve immediately.