Michelle D. wants to know what superfoods I put in my green smoothies… so I’m showing you today on #AskWardee!
Not only that, but my green smoothies solve the BIG problems with the “usual” green smoothies. Namely, they are usually high oxalate, high sugar, no fat, and no protein.
On the other hand, my green smoothies are low oxalate (I’ll tell you why this is important below), low sugar, as well as including healthy fat AND protein for a complete meal.
The formula is flexible, too, using all real foods. Keep reading or watching below to learn how!
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Table Of Contents
The Question: How To Make A Green Smoothie With Superfoods?
I sent out an email a few weeks back, referencing my green smoothies with superfoods (some of them from Perfect Supplements) and Michelle D. asked:
Can you please provide a recipe for your current green smoothies with these specific Perfect Supplements?
Michelle, thank you for your question!
Because we’re featuring your question today’s #AskWardee, you’re getting a gift — a FREE Mini eCourse! Our team will be in contact with you so you can choose which one you’d like!
What’s Wrong With The Green Smoothies Everyone Else Makes…
There are BIG problems with the green smoothies you see everyone else making, and here they are:
- They’re high in oxalates. Dark leafy greens such as kale, collards, spinach, chard, and beet greens have high oxalic acid, which binds with minerals and prevents you getting the mineral content of what you’re eating. For example, spinach. It’s high in iron, yet the oxalates in spinch prevent you from getting the benefit.
- They’re high in sugar. A lot of green smoothies are 40% to 60% fruit. That’s TONS of sugar! With obesity, diabetes, pre-diabetes, and other blood sugar issues on the rise, this certainly doesn’t help!
- They don’t contain complete protein or much protein at all. We need complete protein for our muscles, among other things. Protein is made of amino acids. Complete protein contains ALL the essential amino acids, while incomplete proteins contain only a few. The fruits and veggies in the usual green smoothies contain incomplete protein, and not even enough of those to meet our nutrition needs.
- They don’t contain fat. Again, they’re made of just veggies and fruit… no fat. We need healthy fats for our brain, mental focus, healthy digestion, to control blood sugar, to increase absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and other nutrients, and to feel satiated and full.
…And Here’s How My Green Smoothies Are Better
My green smoothies are different! The problems above are solved:
- Low oxalates. I use pre-steamed greens or fermented greens to reduce oxalates. Or, I choose greens naturally low in oxalates. So we get all the nutritional benefits of those veggies without the mineral blocking!
- Low sugar. I limit fruit and starchy vegetables (and these can be skipped entirely), instead sweetening to taste with liquid stevia. Stevia is a sweet-tasting, non-sugar herb and you can read more about it here at #AskWardee 107.
- High protein or at least some protein. We use our homemade Instant Pot raw milk yogurt as a (complete) protein add-in. It has no sugar (the milk sugar, lactose) because it’s cultured 24 hours. You can also use a non-denatured protein powder, such as this one from Vital Whey.
- Healthy fats. With a range of healthy fats to choose from, we add a bit to our smoothies to help with digestion, slow down blood sugar response, and to help us feel satisfied and full longer. We use sour cream (skimmed from the top of the homemade Instant Pot raw milk yogurt) or MCT oil (more info here).
In addition, I add lots of superfoods to make the smoothies even healthier! You can read more about those below.
For more information on some of these improvements, read:
- Healthy Smoothie DOs and DON’Ts
- The Best Way To Add Spinach To Your Smoothies
- Why We Steam Kale (And Other Dark Leafy Greens)
- Dehydrate Your Way To Green Powder
The Superfoods…
You can add so many different superfoods to your smoothies! Pick and choose, depending on what you have or any health concerns you want to work on.
Here are our favorites:
- raw apple cider vinegar — great for balancing pH; helpful for digestion, detox, and gut health; probiotics
- lemon juice — helpful for digestion, detox, the immune system, and more, plus adds a fresh taste!
- beet powder (save 15% with coupon DRCOWANSGARDEN) — helpful for constipation, as a liver/gall bladder tonic, high in iron, lowers blood pressure; or use cooked beets or 100% beet juice
- collagen (save 10% with coupon TCS10) — while not a complete protein, it has high concentrations of the amino acids helpful for skin, hair, and connective tissue; one of those amino acids is glycine which helps detox from glyphosate that we get even on our organic produce.
- turmeric powder — a powerhouse herb, especially soothing to the adrenal glands which are often stressed out
- maca powder — helpful with energy, fertility, hormonal dysfunction, depression, circulation, mental acuity, and more. We like the red or black maca available here.
- psyllium seed husk — additional fiber to help with elimination; use 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon and work up to it
- chia seeds — providing fat, protein, and fiber, and thickening the smoothie nicely!
- other superfood powders — Dr. Cowan’s Garden offers many different superfood powders and we rotate through several, including burdock, horseradish, sea vegetables, and more! Get 15% off with coupon DRCOWANSGARDEN at checkout.
- fermented kale powder (save 10% with coupon TCS10) — arguably, kale is a superfood. In case it’s too time consuming to pre-steam and freeze your own, you can buy this handy powder where fermentation has reduced the oxalic acid for you. 🙂
Healthy Green Smoothie Recipe/Formula
It’s important to use a heavy-duty blender like the Vitamix. We’ve had ours going on 15 years now and it is hands-down my favorite appliance! I wouldn’t be happy without it!
Use whatever ingredients you have, yet the liquid amounts should stay the same for easy blending. We prefer raw and organic wherever possible.
If you find yourself using the same dry superfoods over and over, why not try making this Superfood Smoothie Mix to save you time from getting into multiple containers every time!
How To Make Healthy Green Smoothies With Superfoods
Want all the green smoothie benefits... without the high oxalates, high sugar, low fat, and low protein? Watch, listen, or read to learn how I make my healthy green smoothies with protein, nourishing fats, and superfoods like collagen, maca, and (most importantly) vegetables. Completely customizable yet simple and delicious, this low carb easy smoothie recipe is perfect for breakfast, for kids, for weight loss... you name it!
Ingredients
- 1/4 to 1/3 apple use a green apple for less sugar
- 2" to 3" piece cucumber
- 1 stalk celery
- 1 small to medium carrot
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley chopped
- 1 "puck" pre-steamed then frozen greens or 1 teaspoon fermented kale powder or low-oxalate greens powder
- 1/3 cup berries frozen
- 1/4 to 1/3 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 to 1/3 cup beet juice or 1/2 teaspoon beet powder with 1/3 cup water
- 1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons MCT oil or cream from homemade yogurt, or a combination
- 1 scoop sustainably sourced collagen (certified glyphosate free) save 10% with coupon TCS10
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon maca powder red or black
- 1 tablespoon psyllium seed husk
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- 1 to 1-1/2 cups yogurt or 1 scoop Vital Whey non-denatured protein powder
- 3 to 4 dropperfuls liquid stevia extract
- additional pure water or homemade cashew milk for consistency
Instructions
-
Load up the Vitamix with ingredients in the order listed, except for the yogurt. It's important to have the soft fruits/veggies at the bottom along with liquids for easy blending. The order of the rest of the ingredients doesn't matter.
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Blend, starting on low and increasing variable speed until the Vitamix is circulating the foods well.
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Then flip to high and let fully blend.
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Now add the yogurt and instead of blending on high, just churn on variable speed 4 to 5 until mixed in. (This prevents your smoothie from getting frothy.)
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It's best to consume within 20 minutes of making this, so the veggies are at their most potent nutrition.
How (& Why) To Eat More Vegetables!
We learned recently from Dr. Thomas Cowan, of Dr. Cowan’s Garden, that it’s so important to get a wide variety of plants in your diet. He recommends we consume 100 different plants through the course of a year (not every day!). In fact, the variety is more important than the volume.
And by the way, fruits, veggies, herbs, spices… they all count toward your 100. 🙂
In his book, How (& Why) To Eat More Vegetables, Dr. Cowan points out:
…we can see that the plant world is a rich and abundant supply of the many nutrients and chemicals humans needs to survive and thrive. These various nutrients are best consumed on a regular basis and are derived from variety — in color, plant part and growth habit of the plant. By emphasizing variety, we give ourselves and our families the best possible chance to live a disease-free and vital life.
You can get more info on this short and sweet book right here.
And by the way, we’re loving the different powders that Dr. Cowan’s Garden offers. They give us a bit more variety than we would otherwise get.
If you do order any powders, be sure to use code DRCOWANSGARDEN at checkout to save 15% on your order! Click here to shop.
Any Questions Or Comments?
If you have other questions or comments about your own experience with green smoothies, be sure to leave them in the comments!
More Traditional Cooking Info…
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Helpful Links
- FREE 14+eBooks and FREE Traditional Cooking Video Series
- How (& Why) To Eat More Vegetables, book by Dr. Thomas Cowan
- Healthy Smoothie DOs and DON’Ts
- The Best Way To Add Spinach To Your Smoothies
- Why We Steam Kale (And Other Dark Leafy Greens)
- Dehydrate Your Way To Green Powder
- Superfood Smoothie Mix
- Which Stevia Is Best? #AskWardee 107
- Homemade Instant Pot Raw Milk Yogurt
- Vitamix — high-powered blender I can’t live without!
- fermented kale powder (save 10% with coupon TCS10) or low-oxalate greens powder (save 15% with coupon DRCOWANSGARDEN)
- beet powder (save 15% with coupon DRCOWANSGARDEN)
- raw apple cider vinegar
- MCT oil (save 10% with coupon TCS10)
- collagen (save 10% with coupon TCS10)
- turmeric powder
- red or black maca powder
- psyllium seed husk
- chia seeds
- Vital Whey non-denatured protein powder
- liquid stevia
- homemade cashew milk
What Is The #AskWardee Show?
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Do you drink green smoothies? What ingredients and/or superfoods do you include? Please share your thoughts in the comments!
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Thanks for this very informative video & notes, Wardee. You always do a great job.
I do want to comment on the oxalate information, though. You are spot on for advising everyone to try to avoid a lot of oxalates in diet because of how it binds with minerals & interferes with their absorption. One of the reasons some people need to be extra vigilant with this is kidney stone formation. And if you have ever experienced the passing of a kidney stone, you know vividly why you want to avoid that experience ever again, besides the long term damage that they can cause for you kidneys & ureters.
All this said, a couple of things included in your smoothy are high in oxalates besides the most obvious leafy green foods. Beets/beet juice/powder & chia seeds are also very high in oxalates & advised to be avoided by people who form calcium oxalate stones. The yogurt with calcium will help bind to the oxalates & form stones in the kidney, if not enough water is taken in to help flush this all out but it will also reduce the amount of absorbable calcium. It’s a fine balancing act. I say all this not to be critical but to encourage the inclusion of information on this fact for people who might want to make & drink your smoothies but who may not have an understanding of why it may be important to not use the beet products or the chia seeds & substitute something else instead. Everyone has to be on top of their own health needs for sure but sometimes people read & listen to things like this, hear that this recipe is low in oxalates because of how the leafy greens are prepared before being used & then don’t remember to look at all the things in the recipe that could present problems as well. Oh, & the steaming of leafy greens is very controversial as to whether that procedure really decreases oxalate content much at all. Depends on the source of information you read. Some sources say that the loss of other water-soluble nutrients is greater than the decrease in oxalates, so makes those veggies not as viable as a source of much more than their fiber content contribution. Anyhow, I have gone on long enough here. Again, thank you for all the teaching you do & for considering this information when you do teaching on the content of things in foods.
Could I sub raw milk kefir for the yogurt?
Hi, Elihu,
Absolutely! 🙂
~Peggy, TCS Customer Success Team
Thank you so much I could not drink green juices because I am sensitive to oxalates 🙂
Hi, Tanya,
You are very welcome! Enjoy 🙂
~Peggy, TCS Customer Success Team
Really disappointed to see this. Items like beets/beet juice, raw carrots, frozen greens which include spinach and celery are NOT low in oxalate. Please do your research before claiming something is low oxalate when it is not.
Hi Ash,
Actually we do state that greens are high in oxalates in point 1 of the What’s Wrong with Green Smoothies section.
But we explain how to reduce the oxalates by steaming the greens in the next section.
Hope this clarifies things. 🙂 ~ Vicki, TCS Customer Success Team
Hi,
What fruits are low in oxalate?
I’ve read that powdered, they are lowered.
That being said, can you suggest a powdered capsule form, low in oxalates??
Hi Julie, we found this link for a list of low oxalate foods: https://eatbeautiful.net/low-histamine-low-oxalate-food-list-printable/
Wardee recommends Perfect Supplements. Check out their fermented kale powdered: https://traditionalcookingschool.com/ps
~ Vicki, TCS Customer Success Team
This recipe is a good starting point for me, so thank you. However, as a kidney stone patient, I have to add to your list of high-oxalate foods. These include beets, turmeric, raspberries, almonds, and rhubarb, as well as spinach. These are the main foods I’ve been taught to avoid to keep from getting new kidney stones.