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Green Smoothies: Mix & Match Ingredient List for Your Inspiration!


Certain fruits and vegetables can mix with the color of green leafy vegetables and turn what was supposed to be a vibrant green smoothie into a brown monster smoothie. The color of the smoothie won't affect the flavor, though, and even the vitamins and minerals will remain intact. However, we do eat with our eyes as well as our palate, and therefore a brown smoothie may end up being thrown down the kitchen sink, no matter how tasty and nutritious it is. To save you trial and error, we have created a Mix-and-Match Ingredient Chart which can act as an easy-to-use green smoothie builder. The ingredient lists it contains should help you pick green smoothie ingredients that will yield beautiful green smoothies!


How to Use the Chart?

With a little bit of imagination and experimentation, you can create countless green smoothie recipes with the help of the Mix-and-Match Ingredient Chart below. Pick one or more greens/vegetables from the first two ingredient categories (vegetables and fruit) and mix them with a liquid of your choice (from the third category) in a high-powered blender or food processor. If you are using a low-powered blender, be also sure to read the article How to Make Green Smoothies in a Regular Blender.

Green smoothie mix and match

To enhance the texture of your green smoothie, add an ingredient from the fourth category of the Mix-and-Match Ingredient Chart. To boost the flavor and nutrient profile of your smoothie, add one of the healthy smoothie "add-ins" from the fifth category.

Finally, before you start using the Mix-and-March Ingredient List below, keep the following color mixing rules in mind: Green vegetables and green fruit such as kiwifruit will yield smoothies with an intense green color. If you like your smoothies vibrant green, mix green-colored vegetables with yellow fruit. If you don't mind a deeper color, you can also mix greens with orange fruit.

1. Vegetables 2. Fruit 3. Liquid 4. Texture 5. Add-ins

Green(ish):

Spinach
Fennel
Kale
Celery
Broccoli
Zucchini
Iceberg lettuce
Romaine lettuce
Parsley
Cucumber
Mint
Purslane
Lamb's lettuce (mache)
Collard greens
Endives
Sunflower shoots Baby beet greens
Watercress
Dandelion greens
Swiss chard
Garden cress
Cabbage
Parsley

Green(ish):

Kiwifruit
Pears
Green apples
Honeydew
Green grapes

Yellow:

Pineapple
Bananas
Mango
Oranges
Grapefruit
Starfruit

Orange/yellow:

Peaches
Apricots
Papaya
Cantaloupe
Apples

Green(ish):

Green tea
Yerba mate
Lemongrass tea
Mint tea
Wheatgrass juice

Neutral:

Water
Yoghurt
Cow's milk
Kefir
Soy yogurt
Soy milk
Oat milk
Hemp milk
Almond milk
Rice milk
Coconut milk
Coconut water
Ginger tea
White tea
Lemon juice+water
Vinegar+water

Yellow:

Orange juice
Apple juice
Chamomile tea

Any color:

Avocado
Crushed ice
Peanuts
Almonds
Cashews
Pecans
Walnuts
Ground flaxseed
Sunflower seeds
Cooked rice
Cooked beans
Oats

Any color:

Hemp seeds
Chia seeds
Bee pollen
Maca powder
Spirulina
Chlorella
Cinnamon
Cocoa powder
Minced ginger
Grated coconut
Vanilla extract
Matcha
Oat bran
Rice bran
Psyllium husk
Wheat bran
Wheat germ


Red Veg-and-Fruit Smoothies, Anyone?

In the strictest sense of the word, green smoothies are made of green leafy vegetables and other common green smoothie ingredients. However, there are plenty of vegetables that are not green but that offer an equally broad range of health benefits. Red vegetables, in particular, are loaded with health boosting nutrients. Red smoothie ingredients don't blend well with green ingredients (unless you like your smoothies brown), but there are plenty of orange and yellow vegetables and fruit that will mix well with red ingredients. Veg-and-fruit smoothies created using red and orange/yellow ingredients will range from light orange to bright red in color.

Red smoothie ingredient list

To use the Mix-and-Match Smoothie Ingredient List below, pick one or more red, orange or yellow vegetables from the first two ingredient categories (vegetables and fruit) and mix them with a liquid of your choice (from the third category). Keep in mind that the more yellow ingredients you use, the more yellow/orange your veg-and-fruit smoothie will be. Focusing on red vegetables and fruit will yield smoothies with a more intense red color.

If you like your red smoothies thick, pick a texture-enhancing ingredient from the fourth category in the below Mix-and-Match Ingredient List and add it to the mix. To finish off your super healthy creation, add one of the healthy smoothie add-ins from the last list.

1. Vegetables 2. Fruit 3. Liquid 4. Texture 5. Add-ins

Red/orange:

Tomatoes Carrots Cooked sweet potatoes Cooked beets Red endive Red cabbage Bell peppers

Red:

Strawberries
Raspberries
Pomegranates
Watermelon
Cherries
Cranberries
Red currants
Red gooseberries
Lingonberries

Orange/yellow:

Pineapple
Bananas
Mango
Oranges
Grapefruit
Starfruit
Peaches
Apricots
Papaya
Cantaloupe
Apples

Red:

Rooibos tea
Cranberry juice
Carrot juice
Beet juice
Tomato juice
Hibiscus tea

Brownish:

Prune juice
Kombucha
Licorice tea
Lavender tea
Raspberry leaf tea
Lemon verbena
Apple juice

Neutral:

Water
Yoghurt
Cow's milk
Kefir
Soy yogurt
Soy milk
Oat milk
Hemp milk
Almond milk
Rice milk
Coconut milk
Coconut water
Ginger tea
White tea
Chamomile tea
Lemon juice+water
Vinegar+water

Any color:

Avocado
Crushed ice
Peanuts
Almonds
Cashews
Pecans
Walnuts
Ground flaxseed
Sunflower seeds
Cooked rice
Cooked beans
Oats

Any color:

Maca powder
Hemp seeds
Chia seeds
Bee pollen
Cinnamon
Grated coconut
Cocoa powder
Minced ginger
Vanilla extract
Oat bran
Rice bran
Psyllium husk
Wheat bran
Wheat germ



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