My Go-To Green Smoothie

Say goodbye to bitter green smoothies, forever.

I've went ways to get my morning smoothie taste good; adding tons of sugary fruits, blending with lots of ice and putting all kinds of plant-based milk to fresh fruit juices as a base, but nothing works better than these superfoods; maca and lucuma powder.

These smoothie add-ons works wooondeers and completely masks any bitter taste. I've found many sites that refers to maca and lucuma along with other superfoods to add into smoothies merely for its nutritional value, without mentioning what magic these would do to your smoothie.

Maca has been used in many traditional chinese medicines to improve energy, immune system, fertility and other tons of benefits. Even without all the benefits, I would never have my smoothie without maca. it has this earthy, nutty flavor that's almost like a bitter caramel. I don't know how, but a little pinch of maca powder just clears away any bitter veggie flavour! Although...you go too much and it ends up having an odd spicy kinda kick to it, especially when paired with pineapples (but a little maca goes completely fine with pineapples, just don't go overboard with it). With maca, you just have to remember: a little goes along the way.

While maca magically gets rid of any veggie flavors you're afraid of, lucuma powder is more of a natural sweetener to make your smoothie super delicious. The powder is basically the pulp of lucuma fruit that has been dried up to a flour-like consistency. I don't always put lucuma in my smoothie (although I do it really often), but it's a great addition of flavor and sweetness when you don't want (or have) much fruit to put in your smoothie. What I know that though fruits are great and has millions of nutritional benefits, it still has sugar. If you want to get the best out of a green smoothie, you should keep the fruit ratio to a minimum and pack more greens, but...my experience tells me too much greens doesn't taste very nice, and I like my smoothies to be delicious. So I skipped the high-sugar fruits and add in lucuma instead; lower in calories and just as effective to sweeten smoothies.

If you don't have maca or lucuma, you can simply use citrus fruits in your smoothies. It's relatively lower in sugar and calories than other fruits like apples but (I think) works best with the greens. I personally love grapefruits and lemons for its taste and nutritional benefits, but you could use any type of citruses you want; mandarins, sunkist to even blood oranges. The strong acidity of citrus fruits perfectly cuts through the smell of greens and gives a fresh flavor, perfect to start off your day.

Go-to Green Smoothie

Makes one 16-ox glass

Ingredients

2 cups organic leafy greens*

1 small to medium banana

1 grapefruit or lemon

3 stalks organic celery

1/4 cup distilled water

1 tbsp lucuma powder

1 tbsp chia seed

1/2 tsp maca powder

1 tsp hemp seeds (optional- for extra protein)