How To Ease Your Tastebuds Into Drinking Green Smoothies

When it comes to food, most green items are shunned, pushed aside on the dinner plate, and marginalized. Not everyone can stomach broccoli unless it is dripping in cheese, and many can't nibble on a garden salad unless it is covered in ranch dressing. Still, leafy greens are an important part of any diet. Harvard Health notes that the optimal amount of fruits and veggies — including greens — you should consume in a day is five servings. If that amount sounds overwhelming, consider drinking them in a cool and refreshing summer green smoothie. And to ease your taste buds into the flavor, you can start with a ratio of 10% more fruit than veggies.

While your goal should be to have equal parts fruit and veggies in a green smoothie, sometimes that extra sweetness from fruit can take the edge off any bitter tastes, making downing this drink in the morning or afternoon a little more palatable. What are the best greens and fruits to start with? Baby spinach is probably the most obvious choice. It's mild and won't overwhelm your taste buds. It's also a nice bridge as you work your way to other greens like Swiss chard, endive, broccoli, and kale (which has a distinctive flavor). Just be sure to remove the stems. Kale stems tend to be kind of fat and fibrous, and they don't always do well in the blender. 

What other green vegetables should you add to your smoothie to create a 60% veggie to 40% fruit balance? Avocados, cucumbers, and zucchini taste delicious in a smoothie. You can also toss in a pinch of greens from your herb garden to spice things up. A little mint adds a cool, refreshing taste, while basil will add sweet, peppery notes. Just remember to add around one full cup of liquid, be it water, unsweetened almond milk, or even green tea, to whatever greens you choose. This will help your blender to better do its job.

Blending your green foods with apples, bananas, berries, or even citrus fruit will add natural sweetness without reaching for any added sugars. For a better green smoothie texture, you can freeze both the veggies and fruits, creating a creamier sip. This allows you to enjoy that thick taste, forgo additional calories, and save the yogurt, milk, and other dairy alternatives for other meals. As your green smoothie turns from effort to habit, you can gradually increase the amount of greens you use to reach your 50/50 veggie-to-fruit ratio.