Did you make a resolution to eat more fruits and veggies this year? Sounds like a great idea. One way to do that is to start drinking more fresh smoothies and juices. And by “fresh,” we mean, “homemade.” After all, why spend way too much money on a juice cleanse of dubious value, when you could incorporate your favourite ingredients every day for much less?
There are a lot of recipes for smoothies and juices out there, but it can be hard to figure out which techniques and ingredients to use. But if you keep to this guide, you’ll save yourself a lot of trouble.
First, choose your equipment. There are a lot of blenders, juicers, and smoothie-makers on the market, and it can be easy to feel confused. Keep in mind that blenders take whole foods and pulverize them into a puree or milkshake consistency, while juicers take only the moisture from fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds to create a liquid drink. By and large, it’s better for you to consume at least some of the fibre from these plants, so if you do pick a juicer, pick one with changeable filters that allows you to get some of the solid matter.
- The Sweethome recommends the Vitamix Pro 300blender for smoothies. It’s pricy, but it carries a 7-year warranty and mixes at such powerful speeds that you can make hot soup by dumping in raw vegetables and broth and pushing a button.It does great work on frozen fruit, which is essential for smoothies.
- For a less expensive but still powerful option, consider the Nutribullet, which promises to “extract” the maximum amount of nutrition from whole foods. The standard Nutribullet recipe includes a cup of dark leafy greens, a half cup of frozen fruit, a tablespoon of nuts or seeds, and enough water, juice, milk, or yogurt to fill the blender cup. Like most other blenders, it can be used to make salsa, guacamole, hummus, mayonnaise, etc.
- If you’re more interested in juicers, the Omega 8003 is a powerful option with easy clean-up and changeable filters which allow more fibre to make it through.
So, are you looking for a recipe that takes advantage of winter’s unique bounty of produce? Try ours on for size:
1 cup kale, de-stemmed
1 banana
1 blood orange, peeled and roughly segmented
1 T ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 t chia seeds
1.5 cups water, juice, yogurt, soy milk, almond milk, or liquid of your choice
Depending on the liquid you choose, you can include more or less protein, or make the drink completely vegan or hypo-allergenic. Play around with it, and enjoy that kick of nutrition in the morning!
