It’s truly amazing to me how healthy greens can hide out in a delicious fruit-tasting smoothie. This blend has a full serving of each collard greens and spinach, plus the parsley and mint. The cranberries also add a lot of nutritional benefit: they have a relatively low glycemic index; they also contain antioxidants, substances that reduce cellular damage that can lead to cancer, heart disease and other illnesses.
Yes, there’s also 5 servings of fruit, which is a lot of sugar in one sitting. That’s why I’ve
added the tablespoon of Total EFA oil – to slow the glycemic impact of all that fructose. Even so, you want to think twice about eating this much fruit if you’re not doing a juice fast, or in some other way significantly reducing your carbohydrate intake.
Makes 24 oz.
1/2 a banana
1 pear, chopped
1/2 c frozen blueberries
1/2 c whole fresh cranberries
4 frozen strawberries
1/4 c frozen raspberries
4 – 5 parsley sprigs, leaves only
20 – 30 mint leaves
2 – 3 collard leaves, torn in pieces
big handful of spinach
1/2 c orange-pineapple juice
1/2 – 1 c water
1 ice cube’s worth of ginger juice (2 T or so)
1 T total EFA oil (or flaxseed oil, primrose roil, or whatever you have on hand)
Melt the ginger cube in the juice. Add all ingredients to the blender, except the water and oil. With blender running, add the oil and as much water as necessary to make the smoothie drinkable.