Basics of Making Healthy Fruit & Vegetable Smoothies

Series Summary

Smoothies make a healthy, nutritious snack or meal for any occasion; there is little you cannot do with a smoothie recipe. With ingredients from strawberries and bananas to kale and celery, smoothies could be considered the ultimate food, containing all of the body’s daily essential nutrients and fuel, preserving the whole foods concept, and helping you stay fit, healthy and strong.

Once you have the right blender—and a few key bits of knowledge about food preparation—you are ready to start making your own smoothie recipes. But first, try some of the ingredients you see in this free smoothie video series. Our expert will give you some of those key tips to get started; then learn how to make a basic fresh fruit smoothie. Other recipes include a vegetable smoothie, a detox smoothie, an energy smoothie, an immune booster, smoothies for dessert and more. Click on a recipe that seems tasty and go for it. Once you have a feel for it, try making some of your own smoothie recipes.

Video Transcript

" Hi! I’m Nili Nathan with Expert Village. Today I’m going to be demonstrating how to make smoothies. This series will have everything you want to know about smoothies and then some. The first thing I want to tell you about is why you should consider smoothies everyday. Smoothies are a great way to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your diet, which normally would be a little difficult. but with a smoothies, you can throw it all in the blender and that’s how you make sure that your nutrients. Obviously, the first thing you need is a blender. I like to use the vita mix; it’s a power full blender that will liquefy seeds, nuts, and grains. I can put almonds in here and liquefy it. It’s also very good for any fruits and vegetables. The good thing about it is, unlike a juicer where you throw away the pulp, where most of your vitamins and nutrients are, in this thing there’s no pulp. Therefore, you get more vitamins and more minerals and nutrients and less mess, so that’s a good reason. Then of course, you’re going to want to start off with your base, which is your liquid. If you’re a milk drinker, that’s fine. I recommend that you get organic with no hormones and antibiotics. If you prefer, you can try rice dream, which is non-dairy, that’s a good alternative for people who don’t want dairy, or soy milk. I like to get soy milk unsweetened, because if you start reading the labels, you’ll be surprised at how high the sugar content is. This one is only one gram. Then we can sweeten it with some natural alternatives that will get to in a second. If you want you can also a little bit of a fruit juice as a base or even water if you’re watching your calories and your carbs. Coconut milk is also something interesting that you can try. Actually, if you can get whole coconuts where you live, that’s an amazing treat that you’ll like, but if you can’t you can get canned coconut milk or coconut juice. This is coconut water actually. The other thing you’ll need is your protein powders. Get a protein powder that has a lot of minerals and vitamins in it. We can throw in a scoop in there. Another thing that I like to use is brewer’s yeast. Yeast has a lot of digestive enzymes; very good for you. It’s high in magnesium, high in mineral content as well so you’ll get all your minerals with a good yeast. If you don’t have access to some of the greens, it’s okay to use the powder, spirulina, or wheat grass. You throw in a teaspoon or two in there. Another thing you may want to try is raw wheat germ, which is high in vitamin E and it’s very good for you. You can also throw in like a teaspoon or two in your smoothie. Then I like to use bee pollen in some of my smoothies. This is an energizer. Actually, bee pollen is one of the highest sources of protein in food, so it’s something I recommend you try. Then you can get whole flax seeds, which are high in Omega 3's and Omega 6. The vita mix will actually blend the seeds into a meal and then you can make your smoothies. I’ll show you some of that a little bit later. Then I like to use sea salt or Celtic sea salt, which is an a more natural form and it has lots of minerals and vitamins. You can try to find it online if your local health food store doesn’t carry it, but a lot of health food stores are now carrying it. That’s a good salt to use. "