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All right, so as you may or may not know,
your Vitamix is built commercial grade.
So when you use it correctly,
your drinks are going to be as
thick, luscious, and creamy as anything that you would
get in a juice bar.
And with the right technique you're going to have
green smoothies that have the perfect consistency
and texture every time.
They're going to be be easy to make
and require little to no manual intervention.
And you're not going to need recipes,
and really be able to make them
with any ingredients.
And so to accomplish these goals we're going to
discuss a few things.
First loading method.
The order in which ingredients should be
added to the container.
Then we're going to discuss "the ramp"
how to properly accelerate
and decelerate your machine
to get it to work most efficiently.
After that we'll discuss ratio.
How much of each ingredient should we use.
And finally we'll discuss the template.
The template for making perfect green smoothies every single time.
All right. First things first.
Order matters.
See what I did there? You should be adding
ingredients to your container as follows.
Liquid,
leafy greens,
soft watery fruit,
hard fresh items,
and then frozen stuff.
Basically it's the soft stuff
first and the hardest stuff last.
Why?
Because loading in this order,
your Vitamix is going to run much
more efficiently.
How so?
Will the liquid at the bottom helps pull
the ingredients down into the blade.
Also it helps the blade assembly
process all the ingredients when there's a little bit
of lubrication like water
or milk to mix all the ingredients.
And finally the hard stuff at top
helps push all the ingredients down into the blade.
Order is not the only thing that's important.
Let's talk about ratio.
Generally speaking you want about half
liquid and half solid ingredients.
Half and half.
Why?
Well think like Goldilocks and The Three Bears.
You don't want your drink too watery
and you don't want it too thick.
And if you use this ratio you shouldn't get any air bubbles
and you shouldn't have a need to use the tamper at all.
Certainly it depends on how you like your drinks.
And you're gonna get better with experience.
But if you have a drink
with a lot of liquids you're gonna
need some frozen fruit to balance it out.
And of course vice versa.
So now we know about order
and the proper ratio.
So let's discuss the ever important ramp.
Remember how we talked about the importance of
running your Vitamix on high speed?
Well let's modify that.
You want to get to high speed eventually.
Think about it like a sports car.
Sure, manual transmission cars are less common these days
but if you're familiar
with them there's one universal truth.
You can't start the car in the highest gear.
Why?
It'll stall.
The same thing goes for your Vitamix.
Now your Vitamix won't actually
stall if you started on high speed
but the blend itself might.
So to picture it imagine the blade going on high speed
with the ingredients not having a chance to catch up.
The blade is going high speed
but the ingredients are just sitting there idly.
So like a sports car,
you have to start in low gear
and slowly ramp up to high.
Now it depends on what you're making.
Some ramps can be less gradual than others.
But starting on variable speed 1 ramping up to 10 and then high is crucial
for getting your Vitamix to run most efficiently.
Starting your one cycle on low speed
allows the blades to pull the ingredients down into the center.
If you start at high speed, the ingredients might just sit there
while the blade spins by
preventing the vortex from ever being created.
Now the same goes for ramping down.
It's not as important as ramping up,
but it's going to put the finishing touches on the blend
to make for a better consistency and smoothness
but also it's going to prevent
any tiny little air bubbles from forming at the top.
Ramping it down also prevents any accidental explosions
the next time you use it.
Moral of the story,
start on low and slowly ramp up to high for the best results.
All right now let's discuss the template
to make perfect green smoothies every time.
Listen, using a recipe at first is helpful.
It's comforting.
But eventually you're going to want to be able to
use whatever is in the fridge.
Call it kitchen sink smoothie.
All right.
The Greens smoothie template.
The first thing you want to get is a green.
You can use kale
or spinach
or Chard
whatever that is.
Fresh or frozen it doesn't really matter.
They're all loaded with nutrients
and going to make you feel incredible.
The second piece of the template is a super
sweet fruit:
mango or grapes work great
but they're both going to provide a really nice consistency
and give your smoothie a great aftertaste.
OK.
The third part of the template is something creamy.
Banana works best.
But I know some people are allergic to banana
and a good substitute is raw cashews.
Aright, step four is to pick a milk.
Almond milk,
cashew milk,
soy milk,
is fine. Really anything that's dairy-free is going to be your best bet.
And the fifth step is a sweetener:
honey or a nectar.
Sometimes I like to use stevia extract.
Anything that's going to bring out the flavors in your smoothie
but does not need to be sugar.
Aright, so those are the basic five.
A green, a super sweet fruit,
something creamy,
milk, and a sweetener.
But if you want to bring your smoothie up to the next level,
add some seeds. Flax seeds are
a great way to add
cholesterol reducing properties
and dietary fiber without
affecting the flavor.
These are pre ground flaxseed
but you can definitely add full
unground flax seeds to the top
while it's blending.
All right now that we have the template for making the perfect
green smoothie, we're almost
ready to make one.
But first, here are three bonus tips.
Aright, bonus tip number one.
There's one ingredient that basically
guarantees you get the creamiest
most decadent smoothies
every time.
What is it?
Frozen mango.
Yes fresh mango is unbelievable.
So delicious.
Well there's something about frozen mango
that makes your smoothies literally unbeatable.
Aright, bonus tip number two.
Knowing when the blend is finished is key
to getting perfect tasting smoothies.
Think like when you were learning how to cross the street.
Stop, look, and listen.
It's just like with your Vitamix.
Stop.
Let the machine run for at least 45 seconds.
It's going to be tempting to stop it early
but don't.
Look!
Look for tiny pieces of produce.
When you can't see them,
it's probably good.
And listen.
Listen for the machine to stop working so hard
Aright, bonus tip number three.
Dealing with big air bubbles.
Now if you're doing a good job
with the ramp the ratio
and the loading order it shouldn't
be an issue.
But if it is try these three things.
One slow the speed down
so the blade can catch the ingredients.
If that doesn't work try using
the tamper to push the ingredients
down in the blade.
And if that doesn't work,
turn the machine off
and use a spatula to mix everything manually.
Phew.
Can you believe there's so much to know about making green smoothies?
I can't believe it either.
But now that we know everything,
let's go ahead and make one ourselves.
We're going to make a Caroline's green smoothie.
So when you're ready.
Mark this complete
and head on over to the next unit.
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