Cool! I am so happy to share something! I don’t have any raw foodies around here to try stuff on, so this is great!

I’m so excited because I just bought fresh pineapple last night! For those of you who don’t know how to tell a fresh ripe pineapple, you simply do the following: In the store, try to pick the pineapple up gently by “1” of the green leaves. If it pulls right out, then VOILA! you have a ripe pineapple. If it doesn’t, don’t buy it. Pineapple will NOT continue to ripen after it’s picked.

This sounds perfect to drink before and after my workout today! I don’t have mint so I’m going to put in some cilantro instead. I believe Raw Food Real World has a drink where they use pineapple and cilantro, so that’s where I got the idea. With the ginger, this will be dynamite!!!

hey christine, this sounds RAWsome! i will try it on my wife & daughter, as i have been doin phase #1 – gabriel cousens for 4 + months. have u checked out http://rawfood.meet.com our group in seattle is /213. it’s a great way to find others of like mind. hugs, dave hooser.

green smoothies are my favorite – I make one every morning with water from 1 young coconut & 300g spinach – just sooooo great :-)

This is one of the first recipes I tried after coming to the site and I absolutely loved it. I’ve also heard that exposing Kale to a frost (such as the freezer) gives it a sweeter taste. Has anyone tried this?

I’m so excited about trying this – It’s been too long since I had a green drink.

Made this today using half a mango instead of the pineapple and it is really tasty! You’d never think it had kale in it!

I made this recipe and substituted apples instead of bananas and it was really good!

This was fantastic. My kids even loved it even though it was green. You cannot even tell that it has kale in it!!

Yummy. I had for breakfast and lunch. So darn good.

If you have a bad blender like me, it helps to blend up the kale in a little bit of water before adding the rest of the ingredients. Otherwise, you may be chewing your smoothie instead of drinking it.

Any suggestion for replacing the pineapple with something else? (I’m allergic.)

OK I have to be honest, I made this and it tasted horrible to me. It was very thick and chunky. It was my first try at juicing kale and i’m wondering if i did something wrong. I really need to find a green smoothie that I love quick. I need to break my habit of fruit smoothies very soon.

Realize I said juicing kale but I meant blending – sorry.

Try add the kale ‘dry’ and add a little bit of water at a time through the blender lid while blending. Stop adding water once things start moving and let it go for a bit, until well blended up. Add remaining ingredients and more water. Also, removing the hard stalk and veins from the leaves of kale helps a lot. Kale took me a while to get the hang of but worth it as there is no Vita Mix in my future…Good luck!

i tried this smoothie this morning and it was absolutely delicious! yummy!

okay i tried this yesterday and it tasted really good except i probably put in too much ginger and the pineapple started to itch my skin. It seems i maybe allergic.. Any other substitue ideas.also, can you make it and store or should you do i fresh every day. ir eally dont have the time to do it fresh every morning due to works schedule and family.

I would recommend plenty of raspberries as a substitute for pineapple. Raspberries go well with kale drinks. With kale, I chop the fresh leaves up well (deveined) into tiny pieces and fill a gallon freezer bag with the leaves. Push out any air before you seal. After frozen, QUICKLY grab handfuls of kale and then you can literally crumble with your hands the frozen kale into your blender. Crumble it with your hand, but work fast before the kale thaws (or it won’t crumble). This makes for a smoother overall smoothie. I just store the kale in the freezer. I would also recommend juicing some of these ingredients for those who cannot stand extremely thick smoothies. Kale also goes very well with pears and rasberries and bananas, all in one drink.

Also a good substitute for pineapple- a whole peeled orange. Just peel and throw it in. If you have a super-powerful blender (K-Tec or Vitamix), it won’t matter if a few seeds get in. You’ll never be able to tell.

Great comment about freezing the kale lauraj!

newbie here. Is,nt this a conflict with food combining? fruit and kale.

No, Logan, there’s no problem with this. Victoria Boutenko explains this seeming conflict in “Green for Life”, and as the person who started the green smoothie revolution, she is very research based. Basically, she says that green leafs (lettuces, kale, collard, dandelion greens, lamb’s quarter, purslane, stinging nettle, etc.) are not actually vegetables (with regard to food combining) and can be combined with fruit with no problem at all. I personally go by food combining rules as much as possible and have found that green smoothies pose no problem at all.

Blend away!!

Oops! Sorry for the misspelling! I meant “leaves” NOT “leafs”! My bad.

I made this for the first time and its wonderful. It’s deffinatley a keeper. Thanx for sharing!

I cant thank you enuff for posting this…I make it almost everyday, and I always look forward to it. Its my absolute favorite smoothie EVER!!!

THIS IS fabulous. Delicious, sweet and green!!!!! I LOVE IT!!! Thanks a million!!! Blessings!

I am new to raw and I loved this recipe! I did use less kale though. I am still scared of raw greens! LOL I am so use to them being cooked! It’s like eating grass or something! But I will slowly get over it as I jump in and try these scarier recipes! I thought I would start with this one b/c it had fruits in it that I love! Thanks for sharing!

I just gave this to my VERY SKEPTICAL preteen and she LIKED it! I covered it and fed her through a straw so she wouldn’t see it was green! ;) She thought it was bananas and apples! :)

Cheynems, yes freezing kale to me makes it sweeter. I do the same as above in freezing it and I can really tell its sweeter. This is a great breakfast smoothly to kick off the day! Thanks!!!

How many days will this keep. Only my husband and I will be eating it and I want to make sure that it will stay for 2-3 days. I hear talk about oxidation??? (forgive me, for I am extremely new to this.

Does freezing the kale do anything to it nutritionally – on the enzyme level? I eat loads of kale – it’s a new love – and I made my first green smoothie (ever! i usually juice my greens) today and I’m still sipping it at work right now. I have a high-powered blender (the KitchenTech), but there are still little shreds of kale in the smoothie. I did go heavy on the kale though, almost a full head, deveined, along with three mangoes, a lemon, and about two cups of water – made just over one full liter.

Hi there…I am so so stoked that this smootie was the first green one I tried…I just had this block with green smoothies for some reason and every time someone wanted me to try one I just sorta freaked… :) Don’t know what was going on there…. I think its the colour in a liquid form. Wheat grass scares me. I don’t know why I have such a major reaction against greens in liquid forms. Anyway…THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU for this smoothie…I am now a convert to green drinks and smoothies…its was an amazing tantilisation of the taste buds….

Lexi Loo x

Hi I made a kale smoothie this morning and it had lots of small bits that were hard to drink. It didn’t taste bad though. I used kale and honey dew. I like the idea above about freezing the kale and am going to try that next time!

This is great!!!! I made this today!!!! Wow!!! I’m hooked. This has been my first green smoothie!!! Thanks for sharing!!!

This is the first thing I had as a raw foodist and still have everyday I love it…

Green smoothies are what get me through the mornings! Glad to know there are more out there enjoying these delicious, nutritious breakfast smoothies! Beats the effects of coffee every time.

This recipe is great! I adapted it to suit my tastes. Now I’ve been playing with it and I’ve had it every morning for the last two weeks! I didn’t like the ginger, so I leave that out, and instead of banana (I don’t like bananas in smoothies), I use a kiwi. Also, so that I don’t have chunks of kale, I put the kale in the blender by itself. I add some apple juice or fresh squeezed orange juice, or whatever I have on hand. I blend that up until there aren’t any chunks left. Works every time! Oh, and instead of water, I use ice cubes so it gets nice and cold! Thanks for this recipe!

I LOVE this smoothie, but can anyone suggest how to add protein to it? I’m a protein metabolic type and need a high-pro breakfast every day. This makes a good snack for me, but not a first meal.

jenoz, are you refering to Dr. Mercola’s typing? He eats meat and doesn’t recommend a vegan diet for the protein type. Greens have protein as amino acids! Those are the building blocks of protein.

This recipe looks great and I would love to make it if I could get a ripe, fresh pineapple around here, or mint leaves! I’ll have to work on that.

Dagny, Freezing the Kale won’t diminish the nutrients too much, you should be good. It just puts everything on hold so to speak. It’s best fresh I’m sure like anything else but it’s not that big a difference that it matters to me. Now canned or cooked kale is a whole different story. LOL Nasty SAD food.

oops. My first green smoothie! Delightful.

Found this site while looking for a quick green smoothie recipe in order to use the food I have on hand. I used twice the kale, half the water and raspberries instead of pineapple. To answer a few questions brought up: I heard Victoria Boutenko speak the other night at The Living Temple in Huntington Beach, California, and subsequently bought all four of her books (made me an offer I couldn’t refuse!) She has studied chimpanzees and their eating habits (chimps are 99.4% humans) and they eat a diet of 50% fruit, 40% greens and 10% bark and insects, only because they are connected to the greens. They pick berries, roll them up in greens and voila! Chimps have NO incidence of cancer, AIDS, diabetes, etc.

If you read ONE book, make it her Green for Life! As far as protein, we only need 10% – 15% protein in our diets, even if we’re extremely active, such as athletes. Not only does plant life (vegs, fruits, greens, nuts, seeds, spirulin, chlorella, seaweed) have plenty of protein, it’s USEABLE, unlike animal flesh and products that lose all enzymes and vitamins after cooking. I won’t go off on a tangent here…..ha-ha….but the newest incarnation of her book 12 Steps to Raw Foods will (as Miss Swan used to say) tell you every ting!

A few more tips, my friends. Be sure to “chew” your smoothies. That is, digestion begins in the mouth, so you’ll want to drink slowly, by the mouthful, swishing it around to get the salivary glands going. Also, if you don’t want to spend $350-$400 on a blender (who does?) get a Jack LaLanne Health Master 100 for around $150. It has a 2-horsepower motor. Remember, it’s not the sharpness of the blades, but the power of the motor. I don’t even need to cut up kale and collards; just throw them in! As far as freshness of the juice and refrigerator shelf-life, it is always best to drink it soon after blending, but if necessary, it will keep for about two days. Of course, losing nutrients all the while. But still…

I love this smoothie! This recipe calls for too much water, I add only about a cup. Also more mint. It’s really good!!! This is a keeper.

Delicious. Different but I’ll definitely make it again. I added some agave nectar since I had a sweet tooth this morning. The green colour rocks! Thanks for posting this!

I am excited that so many folks are enjoying this! It is obvious we all have individual tastes and needs. This recipe is a starting point! I was so happy that folks that were “afraid ” of greens were able to break through that by trying this! I think that was the greatest thing for me…the fact that I could take in 2 or 3 servings of a dense vegatable and not have any strong strange tastes to deal with! I have a really hard time with food in the AM and this is a great breakfast for me. Many folks have a hard time with the flavors of greens… That is how this recipe came into being…making something green that tasted tropical, refreshing and fruity. The main comments I have noticed are regarding the “chunkyness” of of the kale. My response is this…make sure you deveine the leaves and add barely enough water to get the blender moving. Then let it cream real good…only adding liquid in small amounts to keep it from binding. **I definitely would NOT recommend freezing the kale, in my experience freezing makes the flavor incredibly strong and very undesirable ( I did it for a trip…it was awefull… IMO) On the other hand, most folks don’t know that you can freeze pineapple very successfully. You can even toss it in bit of agave syrup if you know you like it sweeter. It ends up creating a wonderful ingredient for smoothies. Glad to read all the feedback! Take care! Christine

OMG! This gives me so much energy! I don’t know what to compare it with! Thank you so much! I’ve had two already today!

Hey 1Christine, I put this picture of your smoothie on my blog (as I tried it that day). Hope you don’t mind. I credited it to you and the Gone Raw site.

www.rawroyalty.blogspot.com (my blog)

It was different, but good. I slurped it all down.

tried this for the first time today. I was really surprised how refreshing it was. I used a handfull of baby spinach, (didn’t have any kale) very mild tasting. I upped the mint tho. I love mint. thanks for the recipe.

Hi every one, just wanted to add that kale is my favorite; and my favorite kale smoothie is very similar to this one. I use mango, pineapple, one or two grinded flax seed, half banana and water. I LOVE IT.

I also wanted to remind you all that we need to rotate the greens, to void accumulation of alkaloids and as Victoria said if you continue to use the same greens, you can expect to to lose your desire for green smoothies.

sorry I mean to say one or two tbs flax seeds

Can I ask a dumb question? I have never liked raw greens, but I know I need them in my diet. Can you just juice the greens,so you don’t have chunkiness in the drink? I can deal with green juice, it’s the chunkiness that I can’t drink well.

I made it the way it says above and it was good… but the consistency was too thick. Water made it worse so I added about 2/3 cup vanilla soymilk (i know, not raw… but it was in my fridge and i didn’t want to waste all the things I put in the blender!) and now it tastes like a green milkshake smoothie, which my tastesbuds approve of! I think it was too thick because it was “thin” at first and I added another banana… that made it too thick.

Also this is the VERY first green smoothie I have ever made and I do like it :D

I made this green smoothie again for breakfast today! I made it all with soymilk (no water) and one banana instead of two. Can I just say, “WOWOWOWOWOW! I LOVE IT!” I love the ginger-minty-ness of it!! Thanks for providing me with my first green smoothie recipe :D!!

I live in Hawaii and had fresh pineapple, bananas, coconuts from my yard and the kale, ginger, mint from my mother in-laws garden, I used fresh coconut water in place of the water. This is a delicious healthy green drink. Thanks Christine! Great breakfast drink!!!

I have my whole non-raw family now indulging in this wonderful treat! Thanks!

What a great way to get your greens! This is so yummy. Thanks!

Holy crap, this is delicious. I am drinking as I type. I had to compromise a little based on what I had. I had canned pineapple (I know, I know, but I am still finishing off my non-raw foods). I also used the juice plus a little water. My mint leaves were small so I used 5. I also used dry ginger (1/2 tsp) – that’s the most I’d recommend, unless you’re a ginger fanatic. I was out of kale so I used two HUGE handfuls of spinach. I added a little Stevia as well. I know that sounds like a lot of changes, but I think it retained the basis of the original smoothie. It is so creatively delicious!!!

Oh yeah, and I added 2 Tbsp protein powder and 1 Tbsp flax meal, which I add to all my smoothies.