Whether you’re a health enthusiast or a dessert lover, our refreshing smoothie recipes fit in with every demographic. Made with fruits and veggies packed with nutrients, yet with a creamy, slushy, milkshake-like texture, smoothies are a satisfying treat indeed. Texture is what makes smoothies creamy and decadent, and it’s also what differentiates green smoothies from green juice. Of course, raw fruits and vegetables have a high water content, so blending them fresh out of the fridge or fruit bowl will probably result in a watery smoothie. The key to effortlessly improving the texture of green smoothies is freezing the veggies and fruit that go into them.
Freezing essentially solidifies the water content in food and is also a great way to preserve their nutrients and extend their shelf life. If you have a package of spinach, leftover cooked beets, or celery stalks that have been sitting in the vegetable crisper for too long, you can cut them up into bite-sized chunks and throw them in a freezer-safe Ziploc bag to use for your upcoming smoothies. The solidified water that hardens the veggies will not fully liquify in the blender, breaking down into a smooth, creamy thickness like ice cream. If you’re an avid smoothie drinker, you can even buy packaged frozen fruit and vegetables, doling different combinations of ingredients into sandwich bags to pull out and dump into the blender. Starchy root veggies like the sweet potatoes in this sweet potato smoothie need to be cooked before freezing.
More tips for thick creamy, delicious green smoothies
Freezing your veggies before adding them to your smoothies will make them creamier than using their fresh, raw counterparts. But, there are plenty of other tips for ensuring the desired thickness, starting with liquid to solid ratio. Even if you use frozen fruit and vegetables, adding too much liquid will result in a watery consistency. So, aim for a simple ratio of two-part solids to one-part liquid. Most blenders like this Ninja or even these super-efficient Magic Bullet blenders have carafes with cup and ounce markers. You can thus start by adding the liquid to the 1-cup mark, then add the frozen ingredients up to the 2 to 2.5-cup mark.
Another way to bolster the thickness and heartiness of your green smoothie is with nut butters, seeds, and yogurt. Not only will these ingredients make the smoothie extra creamy and decadent, but they also pack a powerful macro content of protein and fat. If you’ve ever enjoyed a classic chia pudding, you know that chia seeds secrete gel when they come into contact with liquid. Consequently, you can leave a tablespoon or two of chia seeds soaking in milk, juice, or water to utilize the gel they secrete as another smoothie thickener. Of course, the greenest thickener of all is an avocado. Whether you freeze them or add them fresh, avocados will bring a creamy richness to any smoothie without interfering with the flavors of the fruits and vegetables.
