10 Best Vegetables For Smoothies
Smoothies are drinks made with blended fruits and veggies.
While they have a similar consistency to shakes, they’re different.
Shake vs Smoothies
Shakes are usually considered a dessert, they usually have ice cream and/or milk, syrups, fruit, and are topped with whipped cream.
Smoothies usually just have fruits and veggies, and a liquid (water, regular milk, soy, oat or almond milk, greek yogurt, or regular yogurt usually), but people sometimes also add seeds (chia seeds are especially popular for smoothies) or nut butter into them.
Are Smoothies A Good Way To Get Vegetables?
Smoothies usually have more fruits, but adding vegetables to them can give them more thickness and a touch of freshness, and they also add an extra layer of flavor and give them more freshness. It’s also a great way to get some veggies into your diet if you’re not a big fan of them because mixing them with fruit in a smoothie can mask their flavor, but keep the nutrition and the good stuff.
All veggies can essentially be turned into smoothies (but not all will taste the best in them), and smoothies are a convenient way of consuming nutrients that may be otherwise missed during regular meals.
Benefits Of Drinking Vegetable Smoothies
They’re quick and easy to make
Smoothies take minimal time and effort to prepare, so they’re amazing as quick meals or snacks.
They’re good for weight loss
They’re low in calories, so they’re great for weight loss
They’re packed with dietary fiber
Dietary fiber is very important for your digestive health, gut health, and so on.
How To Make Vegetable Smoothies Taste Good?
Use tasty veggies
As I mentioned, while all veggies can be put into smoothies, not all of them will taste amazing - but there are many that are exceptionally great for smoothies.
Many people only put leafy greens into smoothies when it comes to veggies, but while they’re an amazing option and addition, they’re not the only vegetable you can use to make delicious and healthy smoothies.
Add fruit
Adding a frozen banana to your veggie smoothie can make it sweeter (and give it a creamy texture) and taste better. Some other fruit you can add are green apples, berries, etc.
Both fresh and frozen vegetables are great for smoothies!
Can Smoothies Be Frozen?
Yes, they definitely can! You can make your smoothies in advance, and freeze them for up to 3 months.
So in this post, I’m giving you the best vegetables for smoothies.
10 Best Vegetables For Smoothies
Here’s a list of the best vegetables to add to smoothies.
Broccoli
Broccoli is probably one of my favorite veggies to add to smoothies.
If you don’t like the taste of it, this is an amazing way to include it in your diet. If you pair it with bananas (which are sweet and have a strong taste) along with other good stuff, you won’t even be able to taste it, but you’ll get all of the nutrients it has.
It’s best to put frozen broccoli in smoothies vs raw, and frozen broccoli also makes the smoothie creamier and thicker.
Spinach
Leafy greens are definitely the most popular smoothie ingredients when it comes to veggies, and spinach is everyone’s favorite.
You don’t taste it usually at all, and it pairs well with everything. Both fresh baby spinach and frozen spinach work well for smoothies.
A smoothie always tastes good with spinach in it, because adding any fruit to it, masks its flavor.
Cucumber
Cucumber is pretty tasteless, so adding it to smoothies won’t change their flavor at all.
Cucumbers also have a high water content, so they will make the smoothie thinner (keep that in mind depending on what consistency you like - if you like thicker smoothies pair it with something not watery like bananas, and add a bit less liquid).
Sweet Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are a great food overall - they’re healthy carbs, they add sweetness with no added sugar as they’re naturally sweet, and they have a lot of nutrients.
When putting them in smoothies, it’d be better to cook them first - either boil them, cook them in the microwave, or bake them. Doing that will also make the smoothie super creamy!
Beets
Beets are very healthy and have a great bright red color.
They can be used raw in smoothies if you have a very strong blender, but I prefer cooking them first before adding them to the blender, or buying the pre-cooked ones, as raw ones can have an earthy flavor.
They will add an earthy tone to your smoothie, and a bit of sweetness.
Celery
Celery is an amazing addition to smoothies, because similar to cucumber, it doesn’t add much flavor to smoothies, but it makes it healthier.
Zucchini
Zucchini is maybe not a vegetable you’d think about putting in a smoothie, but it’s actually a great idea.
The taste isn’t strong at all, so you won’t be able to taste it. You can put raw zucchini, or you can put frozen ones, if you want an even better texture for your smoothie.
Cauliflower
Cauliflower is a very healthy vegetable, so it makes sense to put it into smoothies. I’d recommend putting frozen cauliflower in smoothies because it will make the texture amazing.
Cauliflower can add a bit of it’s flavor to smoothies, so if you want to avoid that, you can pair it with nut butter like peanut butter or almond butter (it can be a source of healthy fats), and some strong-tasting fruits to mask its flavor.
Carrots
Carrots have tons of vitamins and fiber, and are an amazing addition to smoothies.
They add a nice color, and they also add a nice taste to it. Carrots are amazing frozen in smoothies, but you can also use raw ones in smoothies (just make sure your blender is strong enough to blend them).
Kale
Kale is another leafy green that works so well in smoothies. Unlike spinach, many people don’t actually like the taste of kale, so this is an amazing way to eat some kale without tasting it!
It’s an amazing base for a green smoothie.
Smoothie recipes
You might be thinking “All of this is great, but can I get a veggie smoothie recipe?”, and yes, you can!
Here are three amazing vegetable smoothie recipes, that include a few of the veggies I mentioned!
These veggie smoothies can be altered to make them fit your taste - you can substitute any ingredient you don’t like or don’t have!
If you want to make them your own, here are some great smoothie ingredients:
Veggies we mentioned,
All fruit (some popular smoothie fruits are bananas, berries, mango, pineapple, apples, etc.)
Healthy fats (avocados, nut butter - peanut butter, almond butter, etc.)
Nuts and seeds (chia seeds, flax seeds, etc.)
Liquid (water, coconut water, regular milk, almond milk, oat milk, soy milk, greek yogurt, regular yogurt, etc.)
Honey (but if you use sweet fruits so make sure not to go overboard with honey so your smoothie doesn’t end up too sweet)
Now, here are the recipes!
Mango Spinach Smoothie
132 calories
Ingredients:
1 cup Leafy greens, spinach, raw - 7 calories
¼ Zucchini, medium - 8.25 calories
¼ cup Celery stalks, chopped in half - 4 calories
½ cup Mango, frozen, chunks - 45 calories
½ Banana - 52.5 calories
½ cup Almond milk - 15 calories
½ tsp Vanilla - 0 calories
Instructions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender with ice.
Blend until smooth.
Easy Green Smoothie
234 calories
Ingredients:
1 Banana - 105 calories
1 cup Leafy greens, spinach, raw - 7 calories
1 cup Milk, 2% (cups) - 122 calories
Instructions:
Blend all ingredients together in a blender (add ice cubes if needed)
If you’re plant-based, use plant-based milk (almond, soy, or oat)
Pineapple Smoothie
165 calories
Ingredients:
1 cup Pineapple, frozen chunks, unsweetened - 93 calories
1 cup Leafy greens, spinach, raw - 7 calories
1 cup Coconut water - 45 calories
1 Ginger - 20 calories
1 cup Water - 0 calories
Instructions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender with ice, and mix until smooth.