We should drink them! Juices and smoothies are a great option for getting your five-a-day, and give you plenty of opportunity to combine different colors of fruits and vegetables to get more complete nutrition each day. What do I mean combine colors? Well, if you use pinterest, you’ve probably already seen tons of infographics about which colors of produce typically contain which vitamins. So oranges and reds are high in vitamins A & C, whites and yellows have lots of potassium, and blues and purples are loaded with antioxidants. By getting servings from different colored produce, you’ll (theoretically) get a more balanced variety of dietary vitamins, minerals, and other healthy chemical compounds.
So what’s the difference between a juice and a smoothie? Well juices are processed in a juicer, and have all the fiber and solids pulverized until just juice comes out of the spout. It’s just the liquid stuff that was previously in your produce, which is why you’ll see people who juice regularly buying so much produce. It takes a lot of plants to make very little juice. Smoothies on the other hand are processed in a blender, and basically the produce just keeps getting cut into smaller and smaller pieces by the rotating blades until it’s a fairly uniform velvety blend.
I’ve got a few rules for juicing and blending, which I follow every time I prep a produce-based drink.
1. For smoothies, always include a banana. Bananas will make your smoothie blend up, well, smooth. Without a banana, it’s just chunky frozen fruit juice. Yogurt could also work, but bananas taste better and are cheaper.
2. When juicing greens, include a Fuji or other sweet apple, as well as a cucumber. Greens don’t contain much liquid, and don’t taste very good without some doctoring.
3. Use frozen fruits in your smoothies. Add to your blender, go off and do some kind of chore like take your morning shower or put dishes away from the dishwasher, then come back and blend about 20-30 minutes later. If making a smoothie for breakfast, you could prep the night before and store the blender in the fridge so the fruits don’t thaw completely by morning.
4. Vitamins break down in the presence of light and oxygen. Drink juice immediately, or store in an opaque container with as little extra air space as possible. If you don’t have an opaque container, place clear juice container in paper bag to block light absorption.
5. Remember that fruits contain a lot of natural sugars. Smoothies and fruit juices are good for vitamins and antioxidants, and smoothies include fiber, but both can be bad for calories, acidity, and sugar. Be sure to also take in some protein and fat so your body doesn’t suffer from spikes in blood sugar or a sugar crash later. Bacon, eggs, yogurt, nut butters, milk, cheese, and meats are all good sources of fats and proteins that can make a complete breakfast, lunch, or afternoon snack when paired with a juice or smoothie.
6. Never make juice in a blender. Kale juice tastes bad enough as it is, blended kale is even worse. Those tv commercials are liars, you can’t make good vegetable juice in a blender. It’s just wrong.
7. Raw carrots can have a really spicy flavor, especially concentrated in juice. Taste carrots before juicing.
So keeping these rules in mind, let’s get into a few of my favorite gluten-free smoothie and juice recipes!
Tropical Fruit Blend
Ingredients:
1 c. orange juice
1 banana
5-6 large strawberries
½ c. mango
½ c. pineapple
Directions:
1. Fill up bottom of blender with orange juice to the line that marks 1 cup. Break frozen banana in half and put each half on opposite sides of blender. Top with rest of fruit.
2. Allow fruit to thaw slightly in blender for 20-30 minutes on the counter, or overnight in the refrigerator.
3. Blend on medium speed to break fruits into larger chunks. Once fruit is broken, increase speed and blend until smooth.
4. If air bubble forms and smoothie binds, turn blender off and allow air bubble to escape. Gradually increase speed to finish blending.
5. Square blenders may create corners where fruit chunks get trapped. Occasional pauses in blending to scrape sides of blender may be necessary.
6. Pour into glasses and serve when smooth. A straw is recommended so smoothie doesn’t avalanche into the drinker’s face.
That’s it! Super easy, no additional sugar needed, a little tart, creamy thanks to the banana, and able to whisk you to a tropical island beach in a single sip (especially if you add a squirt of lime, a jigger of tequila, and a pinch of salt). Let’s move on to my other favorite smoothie recipe, the Black & Blue, named for the unique color of the fresh bruises I got at every jiu-jitsu class.
Black & Blue Smoothie
Ingredients:
1 c. blueberry & açaí juice
1 banana
5-6 large strawberries
½ c. blueberries
½ c. blackberries
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
1-2 scoops protein powder (optional)
Directions:
1. Same as above except place powdered ingredients between juice and fruits.
I actually came up with this smoothie as a way to help my BJJ bruises heal faster by increasing my daily intake of antioxidants. I couldn’t tell any difference in healing time, because I am cursed with skin that bruises easily and takes forever to heal once bruised. But it’s still a really good smoothie, so whatever. I’ll just have to deal with being bruised once I find the time and cash to go back to BJJ.
Standard Green Juice
Ingredients:
Several handfuls of kale
½ heart of romaine lettuce
1 cucumber
1 Fuji apple
1-inch cube ginger (optional)
Directions:
1. Clean produce before juicing if necessary. Apple seeds contain cyanide, coring the apple may be desirable.
2. Run produce through in order of least to most liquid. A juicy apple can “clean” any bits of kale out of the juicer that may have gotten stuck.
3. Heat from the moving parts can destroy vitamins. If juicer overheats before juicing is complete, turn device off and allow to cool down before finishing the job.
4. Use container with wide mouth to collect juice, as juicer may spray contents from spout.
5. Serve juice over ice and drink quickly before contents settle. If storing for later, shake storage container well before serving.
Not that this is the juicing industry standard green juice recipe (I don’t even know if they have one), but it’s the one I always use. Actually, this is so far the only juice recipe I’ve found that I even remotely like. Sometimes I’ll use spinach rather than romaine, but romaine’s actually higher in iron, and as a 26-year old woman, I need my iron. I also always forget to take my daily vitamin, so I’d better make sure I get what I need from food. Which is another reason using juices and smoothies to meet my daily produce requirements is a good idea, and why we all could stand to drink our salads a bit more often.
I hope you guys enjoy whipping up a few new produce-based gluten-free drinks this spring, and enjoy making up a few of your own recipes. Leave your thoughts in a comment below, or get in touch with me directly by filling out the form on the contact page.
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