Enter: revisiting the idea of making a smoothie for breakfast!
Why make a kale shake for breakfast you ask? It’s faster than juicing, easier to clean up, and is a more substantial meal substitute (for me) than 30oz or so of fresh juice if I don’t eat for a few hours. (I feel like getting the fiber by blending vs juicing sustains me for a longer period of time… but this should NOT be confused with a highly concentrated dose of nutrition for healing, like you’d achieve with juicing multiple times per day. See my post here on why juicing is better for you)
The Original Recipe
Ingredients for kale shake:
- 4 large kale leafs
- 4 stalks of celery
- 1 cucumber
- 1 pager sized hunk of ginger
- 1 pear
Blending instructions:
Slice cucumber and blend, add kale leaves, add celery, chop pear and remove seeds, add ginger, blend until smooth.
Joe said he learned this recipe from Kevin James, who lost over 80lbs of weight on these kale smoothies. Personally I don’t use juicing or smoothies for weight loss, but I do for the other health benefits like mental clarity and keeping the body running smoothly. Joe also comments that by juicing, you’re not getting all of the plant (the fiber), so he likes blending the vegetables instead. Instead of you having to chew it and your body break it all down, you’re making the veggies more digestible by blending it all up and drinking it, so your body absorbs the nutrients better. Not to mention the large quantity of fruit and veggie servings you can consume vs eating them whole.
I see tons of people linking to his twitter post, but the recipe in that is different than what’s on the video. It includes 4 cloves of garlic, and 4 good size slices of pineapple.
Onnit also has Joe Rogan’s Hulking Kale shake recipe listed with even two more added ingredients on their Blendtec page, so I’d imagine this was a work in progress when the video was made, and altered/improved over time.
Onnit (modified version) Breakfast Smoothie Recipe
Ingredients:
- 4 stalks of kale
- 1 cucumber
- 4 stalks of celery
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 “thumb sized” chunk of ginger root
- 1/4 pineapple
- 4 tablespoons of extra virgin coconut oil
- 16oz water or coconut water
src: https://www.onnit.com/blendtec/
I don’t recall ever putting garlic in any of these during the videos, so I can’t comment on that. 3-4 cloves of garlic per smoothie seems like a lot of my personal taste. (plus I’d probably smell like a walking herb!)
My Modified Recipe: The Clever Kale Shake Recipe (to use in any blender, not just a Vitamix or Blendtec)
- Cucumber
- Kale
- Banana
- Celery
- Ginger
- Optional pear – I put more greens than extra fruit for less sugar and more nutrients
Joe uses a Vitamix blender to make these shakes, but I just wanted to try it for a couple weeks without spending $400 on a blender. (I already have 3 juicers, and I’m having a hard time using them consistently… doesn’t make sense to buy another appliance that may potentially just sit there) I ended up using the Magic Bullet to do small single servings, and see how I liked it compared to juicing. Trouble was, it didn’t really blend good enough to chop everything up into a fine pure’e that you’d enjoy drinking.
I found that by adding just one ingredient to the original recipe, you can make his kale shake in just about any blender. When I made the first two smoothies following his recipe, I was using a cheap little Magic Bullet and it wasn’t really grinding up the kale stalk and celery fibers enough. I could feel the texture (and some chunks) which made drinking this smoothie much less enjoyable. By adding banana to it, fit creates a much better consistency, and allows all the fibers to be ground up and recirculate through the blades better. (for whatever reason!)
I’ve also heard you can accomplish the same thing with using an avocado, but I personally don’t like the taste of them in smoothies, even though everyone says you can’t taste them and it make it creamier.
I’ve Been Drinking This Smoothie For Over A Week Now – Here’s What Happened
Video coming soon…
Joe Rogan’s “Hulk Loads” Green Kale Shake (step by step YouTube video)
I put a little water in mine so it’s not so thick (I don’t want to eat it with a spoon… I want to drink it!), but here is exactly how Joe makes his: