Welcome folks to a juice and smoothie extravaganza. Hubby and I have been juicing and blending all year long and have developed a number of recipes that we love and wanted to share. Given the huge amount of beautiful fruit and vegetables available I’d do a rainbow juice and smoothie post to show off something for everyone!
Fun right!?
Fun indeed. I had a lot of the basic ingredients and picked up a few extras on my way home. Now obviously depending on your fruit and vegetable requirements and budget, you’re probably not going to have them all on hand at once. Choose a favourite and start there. I’ve added some tips below each {some will keep, some won’t, blend times etc} to keep you going. But when in doubt add a little more water to thin it out or blend longer to get that smooth delicious texture.
To create this impressive rainbow of fruit and vegetable goodness I turned to my Thermomix. There are plenty of great blenders and juicing systems other there that will work for this too. I like to blend up my fruit and vegetables to keep all the good stuff in my glass. A pet hate of mine was how much pulp etc you had to throw away with juicers. No waste here if you blend. Win. Ready? Let’s do this thing.
RED
13 x strawberries
2 x cups spinach
1 x sprigs of mint {or to taste}
1 x sm red apple
1 x sm lemon
1 x cup water
This crisp and delicious juice is perfect morning, noon or night. It’s GREAT. I add spinach to pretty much everything, so you can reduce that if you’d like to keep a ruby-red colour to the drink. Maybe even add some watermelon instead of water. Whatever you do, this one will blend pretty quickly. Serve with strawberries and over ice. It’s the best. YUM. Serves 2.
YELLOW
1 x banana
1/2 cup oats
1 x tbsp honey
1/4 cup yoghurt
1 x cup water
Blend this baby together with some ice and serve immediately. If you’d rather not add more liquid {it may need it anyway, don’t stress} just freeze the banana and it’ll add a frosty deliciousness. The oats will thicken if being left overnight, so keep that in mind. I’ve done it, I don’t really recommend it. It’s almost impossible to drink unless you blend again with more water or milk. Whatever works for you. Serves 1.
PINK
1 cup raspberries
5 x strawberries
2 x sm red apples
1 x cup coconut milk
1/2 cup ice
This raspberry coconut smoothie was inspired by an ice cream recipe I found once. It’s delicious and to me, tastes pretty rich and decadent. The raspberries are a little like that too. So this is my treat smoothie. Something delicious and beautifully coloured. Best served cold and fairly quickly. Add more water if the texture is too thick. Or add a straw, bonus hipster points. It’s like a thick shake you can feel all virtuous about. Haha. Serves 2.
GREEN
4 x sm green apples
1 x mango
1 x lemon {don’t use rind or white}
3 x stalks kale {do not use stem}
3 x cups spinach
2 x cups water
The green machine. Yum. This is my go-to, everyday juice. Kale and Spinach are something we run through a fair bit of around here. I buy them both buy the box direct from the farmers. What can I say, we’re the mean green team. Usually, I use pineapple instead of mango. You can also reduce the number of apples by using celery. This one will keep for up to 5 days when refrigerated in a sealed container. Serves 2.
PURPLE
1 x cup blueberries
1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 cup strawberries
1 x tbsp honey {or to taste}
1 x tbsp chia seeds
1/4 cup yoghurt
1 x cup water
1 x cup ice
Mmmm purple. One of the best colours and one of my favourite smoothie flavours. The sharpness of berries is balanced beautifully with the yoghurt and honey. I don’t add a lot of honey to things but sometimes with berries, you will need to balance out the tartness. If your yoghurt is vanilla or flavoured in any way, taste the smoothie before blending in the honey, you might not need it. If using chia seeds serve and drink immediately as it will thicken. If you’d like to be able to store, omit the chia seeds for the same reason. Serves 2.
ORANGE
2 x med oranges
3 x medium carrots
1 x lemon
1 x 10c coin size of ginger {or to taste}
1 x cup water
This one is often called upon in our house when we are feeling a little run down and generally ick. It’s our vitamin c kicker. Add ALL the citrus. Grapefruit will give it that sour, tarty flavour and mandarins offer a softer, lighter, sweeter flavour when they are in season. This drink is easy to drink, refreshing when it’s hot and amazing served over ice with your favourite spirit, just quietly. It’s a glass of sunshine. We like to claim you’ll never get a cold or flu again with this baby under your belt. Serves 1 generously.
BLUE
1 x cup blueberries
1 x banana
1/2 cup yoghurt
1/2 cup of water {coconut or regular milk}
The banana gives this blue {okay, more purple but blue’ish} smoothie a hearty, thickness that will keep you full all morning long. Freeze the banana and berries on those warm summer days for added yumminess. Depending on the consistency you may need more or less water in this one, so it’s worth pouring in half of the quantity mentioned and blending. Adding more if required.
So there you go folks. A rainbow of smoothies and juices to keep you going. With measurements and everything Rach. You’re welcome. Haha. For the sake of colours, I omitted the spinach and kale for all but two of the juices. If you’re making them at home, just for health and aren’t too worried about the colour, adding a cup or two of spinach to any of these will give you a great all-rounder in my books. That’s what we do here. Everything is green, a shade of green or brown usually.
This was fun! I’m going to go out of my way to make more colourful juices in the future. Now for goodness sake, go and make yourself an amazing smoothie or juice. Let me know how you go and if you have a favourite recipe or post you’d like to share, please do!
The end.
Hi! I’m Melissa Walker Horn. Around here, they call me Suger. I’m the Chief Blogger and doer of all the things here at Suger Coat It. Blogging since 1901; I love a casual ootd, taking photos, and writing about things that irk or inspire me. I love wine and cheese, long days at the beach and spending time with my family. I make stuff for the internet over at Chalkboard Digital. You know, living the sweet life.
Hi Melissa, your juices look amazing! I’ve tried to make carrot ginger & apple juice with some (as I’ve read that you shouldn’t blend fruit without ice in the thermomix), but it came out thick like a smoothie rather than a juice. Adding water just diluted the flavour. What are your thoughts on this? any way to get juice out if your thermomix?
Thank you! I hadn’t heard that, about the ice, so I don’t add it (if I am, I prepare some ahead of time and therefore don’t need ice then) until the fruit is well and truly blended. All I can think though is decrease your carrot and increase the citrus to try and make it a little less thick.
Hi Melissa,
How long do you blend it for in your thermomix? Wanting to try ASAP! Thanks xxx
Hi Diana, it’ll depend on the ingredients how long, but I pulse on turbo for a few seconds at a time until I can hear the chunks even out {technical term, right? HA}, then I add a little more liquid if it needs it and blend for 1-2 minutes on high, almost max. I’ve never left one for longer than 2, it’s pretty much done before that.
If it doesn’t blend to smooth and starts to just slosh around the sides, it may be overfull, move half of it out and blend for 30 seconds and then do the other half. Good luck!
Between you and Lucy I’ve totally discovered the joy of dairy-free smoothies. It’s a salad in a cup! As a rule, all the non dairy ones can be kept overnight?
ALSO ANOTHER QUESTION: frozen fruit instead of ice– can you still keep the smoothie overnight in the fridge?
Sometimes I make a juice for a few days if there’s no dairy. Not often but it works. I find if the colours start to change somethings going on so I don’t drink it. Brown especially. 😉
Someone said the enzymes start to break down, but I don’t know anything about that… Sooooo maybe try Google? Haha.
I often blend frozen mango etc into my smoothies {at the moment, we have a freezer full} and find overnight is no problem at all. Even the day after. Easy.
Planned to experiment tonight on leaving a smoothie in the fridge but that experiment was concluded early because of deliciousness.
Ha. Yup. Been there. Now I make an entire Thermomix jug, even if I drink some, there’s usually enough for Hubby and I the next day.
Hahahahaha – thank you for the mention AND for the measurements, the,y are GREATLY appreciated! I’ve decided that for the month of February, every Monday is going to be a juice/cleanse/detox day, just to feel less bloated and more on top of my game as I work out this new lifestyle of mine – read not eating crap, focusing on eating whole healthy food – so this post will definitely come in handy!
I’m thinking a version of the “Yellow” might be a go to for breakfast 🙂
You’re welcome. Haha. The whole time I counted strawberries and measured into cups {scribbling it down on a notepad} I was chuckling thinking about you and how long you’ve waited. Feeding yourself well is such an important part of getting so much of life in order {IMO!} so I love this.
And yes! Kel had consumed the yellow within minutes of him getting home. It’s his favourite. I can’t really handle bananas some days. The smell or something. Weird. Be prepared to have to add a little more liquid with that one {yoghurt is fine too}.
Love love smoothies! But I pretty much stick to my favourites, namely anything with strawberry, banana or citrus. Not ventured into the green smoothies yet. I’m going to get a nutribullet, or similar, over the weekend. I’ve got a blender but it’s just to big and bulky to take apart and wash for the small size smoothies I have now!
Enjoy! And yes, I do too. The same old, same old version of things. Haha. Let me know how you go with the bullet, a lot of people ask about my experience with different things like that, I’d love to have a review from a friend to share. 🙂
Love this! My favourite Green Smoothie is 2 green apples, 1 large banana, 1 lemon, 4 dates and spinach. Sometimes I’ll throw some grapes or pineapple in there, but that’s my go too.
Ooooh yum!! Sounds great L-A. I’ll give it a try.
I’d always like to have the occasional smoothie but the grittiness bugs me – perhaps I don’t blend enough?
Yeah I’d say a longer blend. And sometimes if the blender {or Thermomix jug} is overloaded it just whirls it around and around. Halve the batch and blend both halves for another minute or two. If it’s still too gritty, a little more liquid or it could be one of the ingredients {carrot, some of the hard kales and berries will sometimes add a grit texture}.
Thank you for the awesome ideas for smoothies. As a smoothie virgin I was just wondering if you add in the whole lemon rind and all ( except the green smoothie where it says no rind)?
You’re welcome! I never use the rind/white of the lemon, I find it too bitter. That said, someone the other juiced an entire lime, so maybe it’s different for limes. I haven’t given it a shot though.
Thank you!!!!