Easier and less wasteful than juicing, healthier and tastier than a protein shake, packed with chlorophyll and trace nutrients, green smoothies are a detox friend and they are delicious too!!

If you are looking to make a few positive changes with your diet and life style this year, then to include a green smoothie daily will support a lot of the detox pathways in the liver and make that all important detoxification process more efficient.

To make a green smoothie you need a green vegetable as a base (about 1/3) which is then balanced out with fruits that are soft and fleshy such as mango, banana, pear, water melon etc.

Typical green vegetables are spinach, watercress, lambs lettuce, broccoli, kale (green or purple), chard, beet tops, dandelion or stinging nettle leaves (harvested from a clean environment), basil, parsley, coriander, etc. Those can be used combined or on their own. Spinach, chard, beet tops and nettles are packed with chlorophyll but are also very high in oxalic acid and should not be eaten every day so they need to be rotated with kale, lamb’s lettuce, broccoli and watercress.

A green smoothie is a perfect base for adding all those other excellent super foods such as wheat grass powder and chlorella. It can be made more nutritious by adding hemp protein (very important if you are using your green smoothie as a meal replacement), ground flax, avocado etc
Finally certain ingredients are also useful to balance the taste of green smoothies such as celery, lime/lemon juice or berries (kiwis, raspberries, blueberries etc.)

If you like your muesli soft prepare it the night before:

• 1x level table spoon of barley flakes
• 1x level table spoon of porridge oats
• 2x heaped table spoon of ground flax
• 1x tea spoon of shelled hemp seeds
• 1x tea spoon of pumpkin seeds
• 3x brazil nuts or 10x almonds
• 1x tea apoon of raisins or chopped apricots
• 1/4 tsp of cinnamon
• Cover with water, soya or almond milk; leave to stand over night
• In the morning add grated or chopped fruits of your choice and plain bio yogurth to taste
  

• X1 ripe chopped tomato
• ½ a cup of sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in water over night or oil preserved
• ½ chopped red bell pepper
• X2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil
• X1 teaspoon of dried oregano
• 10 leaves of fresh basil or x1 teaspoon of dried basil
• X1 clove of crushed garlic (optional)
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• Dash of cayenne pepper

Put all the ingredients through a food processor or blender. It will keep for up to 3 days in fridge in sealed container. Can be served on rye bread or spiralated courgettes or pasta

Variations:
Puttanesca sauce: increase the cayenne to 1/8 of a teaspoon and stir in x2 tablespoons of thinly sliced black olives Middle Eastern marinara sauce: add black pepper, ground cardamom and ground cumin
Provides a lot of lycopene and a raw alternative to tomato sauce

• ½ a celery head (make sure it is organic as non organic celery has been shown to have dangerously high levels of pesticides
• X2 carrots
• ½ cucumber
• ½ lime
• Fresh ginger
• X1 apple

Put all the ingredients through a juicer. For additional protein use spirulina or hemp protein. Consume within 40 minutes of finishing your work out.
Provides a lot of organic potassium and fast absorbing sugars to replace the potassium, lost through sweat, and help reconstitute glycogen reserves.