A green drink is basically a smoothie made with fruit juice, fruit, various nutritious green leaves and other food supplements. I had never heard of them until I came to America and read about them in a fairly nondescript (but it influenced me) little book called Natures Healing Grasses by E. M. Kirschner. They immediately struck me as a great idea and I have been making them intermittently ever since. They give you a simple and inexpensive way to enhance your health without buying high priced food supplements. This is also a better way, as the nutrients are fresher, in easily digestible forms and come with all of their valuable fiber. You can now buy similar drinks ready-made, but they are fairly expensive and mostly created to taste good rather than for plant power packed punch.
I have found the green drink to be the best way to consume some of those highly nutritious plants that don’t taste very good (or are even downright nasty), but are good to eat for their undisputed health benefits. Making your own green drink is pretty simple and only takes a few minutes, in fact the most time consuming part is gathering the leaves and that can be part of a pleasant garden walk.
Preparing the drink
I don’t have a specific recipe for a green drink, because it varies according to what I have available. I just cruise around the garden picking a leaf here and there of whatever is available. The combination of ingredients changes through the year so you will always be creating something new. So long as you don’t overwhelm the sweet juice and fruit with too many bitter leaves, the whole thing will usually taste pretty good. Obviously this depends upon your palate, some people make a fruit smoothie with a few green leaves added. Others make a hardcore drink of greens and use water instead of fruit juice, so it isn’t sweet at all. I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to very strong flavors (though I prefer to think I have a more refined sense of taste) and prefer to keep my drinks fairly mildly flavored, which means I usually use fruit juice and bananas as a base. It all depends upon your taste.
Making the drink is pretty simple and only takes a few minutes. I start by putting the seeds and/or nuts in the blender with a small amount of fruit juice, and blend them to a smooth puree. I then add more fruit juice and the green leaves and blend until smooth. Finally I add the Banana and the rest of the ingredients (I sometimes add a little water to stop it getting too thick). That’s it, a simple way your garden (or neighborhood) can enhance your health.
Ingredients
You can use a wide variety of garden products in a green drink and it is possible to make it entirely from the garden if you wish.
Fruit juice: I most often use orange juice, but any fairly sweet fruit juice will work (I sometimes get inexpensive juice cocktails). Fresh juice is nutritionally superior to pasteurized juice, but the latter is more convenient and cheaper. The ideal would be to use fresh juice from the garden, so you might try apple or watermelon juice (or simply water).
Green leaves: You can use any edible leaf, either wild or from the garden, so I usually just go for a walk and pick what is available (of course if you use wild leaves you need to know which ones are edible and how to identify them). The most commonly used leaves include Amaranth, Chicory (bitter), Chickweed, Dandelion (bitter), Dock, Kale (or other mild tasting Brassicas), Lambs Quarters, Mallows, Storksbill, Violet and Strawberry leaf.
Comfrey was the base of Kirschners green drink, but many people warn against using this plant because it contains toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids which can damage the liver (others argue that it is perfectly safe though).
I grow some plants especially for these drinks, including Gotu Kola, Echinacea (use in small amounts only) and Ashwaganda (so bitter that this is the only way I use it).
Seed sprouts: Alfalfa, Clover, Sunflower are all convenient, relatively mild tasting and add a lot of nutrients and fiber. They are particularly useful in winter when there may not be many green leaves available.
Fruit: This can also be used to make the drink more palatable and add valuable vitamins and various phytonutrients. I usually add a banana for its sweetening and thickening properties, but I might also add blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, blackcurrant, peach, plum or whatever is available. I also add miscellaneous berries from around the garden or foraged from the wild, aronia, viburnum, amelanchier, goji elderberries, rose hips (flesh only). This is a good way to use some any berries that don’t taste that great but contain special nutrients. You could freeze a surplus of berries in the summer for making drinks in the winter.
Sweetener: Using one of these enables you to add more bitter ingredients, though they are by no means essential. The banana works best, but raisins and stevia can also be used (of course you could also use various other sweeteners).
Seeds: These add protein and minerals to the drink. Blending them thoroughly can help to make them more digestible. I most often use sunflower seed, but have also used pumpkin, sesame, evening primrose, flax and walnuts.
Other ingredients: These may be added for their unique nutritional properties and could include kelp (not too much as it has a strong flavor), brewers yeast, bee pollen, lecithin, spirulina, dried barley greens, vitamin C powder (makes it quite tart) and more. Most of these are fairly expensive though.
Gathering the plants
To make a green drink you need a variety of weeds or other greens (and maybe fruits and seeds). To get them might require a walk around the neighborhood, though be careful where you gather in urban areas and clean the plants thoroughly. If you have to go some distance to gather then you will probably want to pick enough leaves in one go for several drinks. They will keep in the fridge in a plastic bag for several days. You can also grow many plants yourself and if you have a vegetable garden then you probably already have many useful weeds growing there. Don’t just grow plants for their leaves, you can also use fruits and seeds too.
Caution: Whenever you eat anything you face hazards and collecting and eating wild plants is not without its dangers. Foremost of course is picking a dangerously poisonous plant by mistake (though the danger of this is often overstated, not that many plants are dangerously toxic). Actually many edible wild (and some cultivated) plants can contain mild toxins, such as oxalic acid and saponins, though you don’t usually eat them in large enough quantities for them to be a problem (this is why I prefer to gather a variety of leaves when possible and only use a few of each).
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