Green Carrot Apple Ginger+ Smoothie

This is a simple smoothie, or what the Vitamix folks refer to as a “total juice” (to indicate that it contains the whole fruit; not just the juice separated from the fiber). This is the sort of thing I make most frequently.

This recipe builds on the classic combination of carrot-apple-ginger. As with most smoothies, the exact ratios don’t particularly matter. The only part that makes much difference is the amount of ginger. Not enough and it’s too mild, too much and it can be a bit overpowering. If this comes out not gingery enough you can easily add a bit more and blend for another 5-10 seconds. If it’s too strong for your taste, well, you can scale back the ginger next time. The spinach dominates the color, but not the taste.

3 Tbsp chia seeds
½ cup water
1 orange
2 carrots
1 apple
2 cups baby spinach
1 cm3 piece of peeled ginger
6 ice cubes

Makes just over 4 cups, which can be from 1-4 servings depending on your appetite.

Add items to the blender roughly in the order listed. Peel the orange with a knife, leaving some white pith, but removing all orange skin. Scrub the carrots with a vegetable brush and cut them in half. Quarter and core the apple. Peel the ginger. Once everything is added, put on the lid, turn blender on low and turn up to full power and blend for about 30 seconds. You’ll probably need the tamper to get it circulating at the beginning.

Update:This also goes nicely with beets.


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Comments

Green Carrot Apple Ginger+ Smoothie — 11 Comments

  1. Thank you so much. I’m so glad I found your website. Will be using these recipes constantly. I have both a Vitamix and a Blendtec so now I have plenty to do with them.

    Much success to you in 2014 happy New Year!

      • I wish food values would be included with the recipes. I would like to know the calories,carbs,sugar,etc. I count carbs ,need the information.

        • I’ve thought about adding nutrition facts. I might add them at some point, but the issue is that my recipes often list whole fruit, which can significantly vary in size. An orange could be 100 grams, or it could 200 grams. The recipes are more suggestions than strict guides. If you want accurate nutrition facts you would need to use a food scale for all of the produce ingredients.

    • I do remove the core, and the recipe above describes coring the apple.

      Apple seeds contain amygdalin, which releases cyanide when metabolized. However, the amount released per seed is small enough that blending a core’s worth shouldn’t hurt you.

    • I think if you do a study on this subject of cyanide, you will find that primitive people who eat only natural, organic and “unfractionated” foods, take in anywhere from 250 to 500 milligrams of organic cyanide. This natural cyanide is normal to human metabolism and is found in over 1200 unrefined foods and grasses. When eaten, an enzyme (rhodanese) is said to detoxify the cyanide and it is excreted through the body’s normal processes. The Hunza people are said to be the healthiest in the world and they eat fresh apricots three months of the year and dried apricots the rest of the time, including the nut inside the kernel. That nut is a lot bigger than an apple seed! I always include the apple seeds when juicing apples and have never suffered any side effects.

  2. We just got our Vitamix and this is one of the first recipes we’ve tried. We tried with 3 tbs of chia but that was too much for us. It’s absolutely wonderful without the chia and we’ll now try it with less chia to see the difference.

    • Looking back at this recipe, I agree that 3 Tbsp chia is a lot. I may have been slightly over-obsessed with chia at that time. If I were writing it up now, I think I’d probably put 2 Tbsp. (Of course there’s also variability in how big/juicy your orange is, and also how thick you like your smoothies.)

  3. I am so happy to see ginger in a reasonable unit!! Recipes that say “1/2 inch of ginger” could mean almost any amount.

    I just made this and it’s delicious. I used frozen spinach. Thanks!!

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