Green Smoothies

I've been thinking about vegetable smoothies.  I have many delicious greens in the garden.  While I can enjoy most of them raw, some are not that appealing.  Take radish tops, for example.  They're a little hairy and tough, but they're loaded with vitamin C.  In fact, radish greens contain almost six times the amount of vitamin C found in their root and are also a good source of calcium. It seems a shame to throw all that goodness to the chickens!

I went on-line to read how other people use their veggies to make smoothies.  The prevailing advice seems to be this:  Use equal amounts of greens (packed) and fruit; add banana or avocado for creaminess; plus juice and/or water to aid with the mixing and to make it all the right consistency.  There was an emphasis on using fruit to cover up the taste of the greens.  What's wrong with the taste of greens?

For my first attempt I followed the advice.  I collected and cleaned an assortment of greens from the garden, including several varieties of leaf lettuce, spinach, beet greens, and radish tops.  I measured two cups, firmly packed, into my blender.  Then I added one small apple - sliced with skin intact, 1/2 cup frozen unsweetened blueberries, and 1/2 avocado, along with 1/2 cup orange juice and 1 cup water.  I processed it until it was nice and smooth ... and brown!  It looked like sludge, but I have to say it was pretty tasty, albeit on the sweet side.  So I added 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and called it "done".  I'm sure noone else would have touched it.  The color was very off-putting.  I put it in an opaque plastic cup.  Problem solved!

The next day I decided to forget all that fruit.  Too sweet.  Plus, I like the taste of greens!  I basically put together a salad in the blender. 

I started with 2 cups (packed) of the same greens mix from the garden, with the addition of parsley.
I added:

• 1 carrot, grated
• 1/4 small bell pepper, chopped
• 1/8 small onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup cottage cheese (for creaminess)
• 1/2 cup prepared vegetable (V-8) juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 1/2 cup water
• 6 ice cubes
• a few twists of fresh ground black pepper

I zinged it all up in the blender.  Now that's what I'm talkin' about!  Bright green, nutritious AND delicious!