Boutenko and Going Green
In her book Green for Life, Victoria Boutenko talks about how greens can restore your health, vitality and overall well-being. The raw food author/teacher is a big believer in the benefits of greens and mentions how she and her family, which includes son Sergei, daughter Valya and husband Vladimir, all of whom overcame significant health challenges by becoming raw foodists, took the next step by ‘going green’. Victoria delves deeply into the science behind greens and discusses how greens are indeed the perfect food for chimpanzees … and humans. However, for humans, she suggests that we blend them because our teeth just can’t handle breaking down the roots well enough to get to the nutrients.
The Smoothie Solution
After much research, Victoria comes to the surprising solution that smoothies are the best solution to make greens palatable to humans. She advocates a 60-40 mixture where there is 60 percent of a sweeter substance, usually fruit, combined with about 40% of fruit mixed together to create a truly delightfully tasting and nutritious drink. The smoothies may not look great, but looks can be (and really are) deceiving.
A Few Worlds About Blenders
Now that you know the formula, the truth is you can mix pretty much anything together and it will taste great. It’s that simple. However, it is probably a good idea for you to purchase a high-speed blender such as a Vita-Mix or BlendTec. They can get pretty pricy, but the Vita-Mix, for example, has a 10-year warranty and will most likely last longer than that. You’ll need a heavy-duty machine to handle the amount of produce you’ll be putting through it.
Recipes:
PAPAYA-MANGO-DELIGHT
Ingredients:
- 3 cups ripe papaya
- 2 ripe mangoes
- 1 head of kale, crudely chopped
- Ice (optional)
- Water (optional)
Directions:
- Place juiciest fruit in the blender first. (Probably the ripe papaya)
- Put setting on medium level.
- When it’s crushed to a pulp-y mixture, add the next fruit.
- Repeat process and increase speed if needed.
- Add in kale.
- Set speed to high.
- Blend to desired consistency.
- Add water and/or ice if using.
- Taste. If you want it sweeter, add more fruit. More savory, add more vegetable.
- Enjoy!
BANANA-STRAWBERRY SHAKE SURPRISE
Ingredients:
- 3 frozen bananas*
- 1 lb. ripe strawberries (not overripe, however)
- 2 hearts of romaine, chopped roughly
- 1 8oz glass of room temperature water (optional)
- 4-5 ice cubes (optional)
- Agave Nectar (optional)
Directions:
- Blend strawberries until they are jam-like on low-to-med setting.
- Add in hearts of romaine.
- Place 1/3 to 1/2 of the frozen bananas into the blender.
- Increase speed to high, slowly.
- Add more bananas through the top opening of the blender cover, slowly.
- Add water and/or ice as desired.
- Turn off blender to taste.
- If you need more sweetness and have no more fruit, you can add a tsp or two of agave nectar (available at most health food stores).
- Enjoy!
(*Note: frozen bananas will give this smoothie a shake-like consistency. Yum!)
VERY BERRY CELERY
- 1 lb. strawberries
- 1 ½ lb. raspberries
- 1 ½ lb. blackberries
- 1 bulb celery
- Water and/or ice (optional)
- Agave nectar (optional)
Directions:
- Remove celery stalks from the bulb. (There is no need to wash them as the wee bit of dirt that comes in organic veggies and fruits shouldn’t be harmful. If you are not buying organic, WASH them!)
- Rough chop celery all the way to the little leafy parts at the end.
- Place in blender first since celery has the most water content.
- Start with blender setting on low and increase slowly.
- Once celery is well-blended, begin adding in other fruits.
- As these become blended, stop blender and taste.
- If mixture seems too bitter or salty – celery has a salty taste – add agave nectar to it.
- Re-taste.
- Add water and or ice as needed.
- Enjoy!
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