It’s January, people! Which means….
Fat pants – you’re on the bench. Skinny jeans – suit up. ? ? ?
Had a little too much high carb fun the last few weeks?
Panicking now because bathing suit season is only 4 months away? ? ? ?
I feel your pain! (Like REALLY, I do.) ? ? ?
If you’re like me and have been eating carbs like it was your job lately, then you’re probably feeling pretty lousy right now. Bad news is, it gets worse before it gets better. I’m on day 3 of the 3 Day Keto Kickstart Plan and I have no energy and a headache from detoxing all the carbs and gluten I’ve been eating for the past few weeks.
I’ve lost four pounds already though so there’s that at least! AND I know that the detox phase only lasts a couple of days, so I’m ready to gut it out and get back to work! ? ? ?
This low carb green smoothie isn’t on any of my existing Keto Weekly Menu Plans (yet) because I’ve only just FINALLY come up with a healthy green smoothie that isn’t loaded with carb heavy fruits to make it palatable!
Seriously, I’ve been trying to accomplish this for quite awhile with a variety of healthy greens, veggies, and a minimum amount of fruits. I’ve had some major fails – at least in the flavor department, but I’ve soldiered on.
I’m excited to say that this low carb green smoothie that I’m sharing today is everything you’d want a green smoothie to be! It’s creamy, refreshing, and has just enough sweetness to make it perfectly balanced.
So why should you even care? Should you be drinking green smoothies on a low carb diet?
Absolutely YES! ?
One of the downfalls of a low carb diet if you aren’t careful is a lack of Vitamin C and other important nutrients that you get from veggies and the occasional fruit.
You can supplement some things in pill form, but the best way to get vitamins and antioxidants is directly from a food source – and preferably raw. There are many enzymes in raw foods that help your body perform necessary functions – also the fiber is essential to keeping your micro biome of healthy bacteria alive and thriving.
I personally believe that low carb stopped working as well for me a couple of years ago because I wasn’t paying attention and ensuring that I was getting plenty of fiber and vitamins from raw veggies. I think my good gut bacteria died off and I ended up with leaky gut and adult onset food allergies as a result.
Since then, I’ve been focusing on rebuilding my micro biome with lots of healthy fermented foods, and ensuring that the little beasties have plenty to eat in the form of fibrous veggies and leafy greens.
I’m not a huge salad person, so in the past while eating low carb I would tend to eat most of my veggies cooked, and rarely ate leafy greens. A smoothie like this one is perfect for those of us who don’t enjoy a big bowl of salad every day – you get lots of micronutrients and antioxidants, in a tasty format that is easy to slug down with breakfast (or anytime.)
Another benefit of going the smoothie route rather than simply eating the same ingredients in salad form, is that blending them breaks down the cell walls better than chewing them ever could, releasing all of those nutrients into an easy to digest format.
I bought a Vitamix blender years ago and love it for all the many tasks it can perform with ease, but for this particular smoothie it’s not necessary. Any blender or even a magic bullet will be able to make this smoothie, because the romaine and other ingredients break down pretty easily – as opposed to kale which needs the more powerful blender to truly break down.
If you’re using a lower powered blender just be sure to mince your ginger well and cut your pineapple into smaller chunks so that it breaks down nicely and doesn’t leave you with stringy pieces in your smoothie.
If you’ve got family members (especially kids) who aren’t big on vegetables, a smoothie like this one is a great way to get some healthy greens and hydrating fruits and veggies into them without a big fight. Hungry Jr. has been drinking green smoothies since he was a toddler and he loves them!
For your non-low carb family members, feel free to add a little extra fruit to make it even sweeter – whatever it takes to get them to drink it!
I boosted the sweetness slightly in this version with some erythritol but you may not need to. It really depends on how sweet your batch of fruits and veggies is and it varies widely depending the season and the ripeness of what you’re using.
As you get used to drinking green smoothies, I also find that your tolerance for the green flavor will grow, and the need for sweetness to offset it will lessen. But to get you started, feel free to sweeten it with a low carb sweetener to taste!
This low carb green smoothie recipe is also dairy free – it gets healthy fats and a creamy, rich texture from the avocado, which also tones down the greens flavor that some people find hard to get used to.
This healthy and refreshing green smoothie will be a staple for me moving forward, and at only 3g net carbs per cup, I can easily fit it into my carb budget every day! And so can you!
Notes: This recipe makes six 1 cup servings, but you can drink 2 cups per day if you make room in your carb budget, giving you three days worth for one person. If you only want to drink 1 cup per day and don’t have anyone to share it with, I recommend making it in smaller batches as the flavor and health benefits deteriorate the longer you keep it in the fridge.
IBIH Low Carb Green Smoothie – Dairy Free
- Yield: 6 one cup servings 1x
Description
This low carb green smoothie is healthy and refreshing, without all of the sugar and carbs of a traditional green smoothie! Keto and Paleo friendly!
Ingredients
- 4 cups filtered water
- 1 cup romaine lettuce
- 1/3 cup chopped fresh pineapple
- 2 Tbsp fresh parsley
- 1 Tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
- 1 cup raw cucumber, peeled and sliced
- 1/2 cup kiwi fruit, peeled and chopped
- 1/2 Hass avocado (remove pit and scoop flesh out of shell)
- 1 Tbsp granulated sugar substitute (I used Swerve)
Instructions
- Combine all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Serve cold. Leftovers will keep several days in the fridge, shake well before serving.
Notes
Approx nutrition info per one cup serving: 37 calories, 2g fat, 3g net carbs, 1g protein
- Category: Low Carb Smoothie Recipes
- Cuisine: American
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Alison says
Could I freeze the leftovers in ice cube trays, to re-blend another time? Or, do you think it would change the color, taste, and texture? Im assuming the avocado fat will protect the veggies.
★★★★
Jennifer Ward says
Why the lettuce?! So curious!
Judith says
Lettuce like Romaine has a lot of nutrition for just a few calories so it is really great food to include in a smoothie.
★★★★★
Anne-Marie Hornseth says
Can the lettuce be replaced with Spinach? Do you think this would affect the taste
Mellissa Sevigny says
Yes, and yes it will affect the flavor but not necessarily in a bad way.
jenni says
I always thought most fruits are not allowed on keto diet. Won’t pineapple and kiwi spike insulin? Sorry, just an honest question. I love green juice and especially pineapple in mine so I always thought that if went keto I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it in my smoothies
Valerie says
I just tried this, very very good!
I added 1 tsp of hemp seeds, 1tsp of MCT Oil and 1/2 cup of unsweetedned almond milk.
Cheers!
★★★★★
Ashley says
Has anyone tried this without the Swerve? Maybe the fruit is enough to sweeten it?
Trying to cut carbs back anyway I can :)
This looks amazing though. Thank you so much for this blog and all your amazing recipes!!
Nic says
I had my reservations about buying so many ingredients I normally wouldn’t touch–but other than the pineapple, everything was very affordable. And, more importantly, I absolutely love it! I’d been searching for a smoothie recipe that had flavors similar to a Suja juice I love but can’t drink due to the high carb count, and this hit the spot better than I ever could’ve hoped for! Only small change I made was adding a splash of lemon juice for a little more tartness. Thank you so much!
★★★★★
Kristin says
I LOVE this smoothie. I hate most green veggies but try so hard to get them in. I used fresh spinach and tripled the amount. I also substituted 1/2 the water for no calorie apply flavored water and the result is absolutely amazing. It is so fresh and delicious. Thank you so much!!!!
★★★★★
Rhoadan says
Add me to the list of people wanting an alternative to cucumber. I’m not allergic; I just don’t care for them. Don’t care for pineapple either, but that’s much easier to substitute for.
Marietta says
Can you add unflavored protein powder to this recipe? Will the protein cause it to lose its detoxing effect?
★★★★★
Mellissa Sevigny says
That should be fine Marietta!
Jessika Rosenkild says
Mellissa – My BFF got me started 2 years ago on LC- i’ve been up and down – my weakness is good beer and Rye — SO to stay strong I started really looking for easy things–I had tried the Keto, but found myself just feeling always yucky- so I’m doing 30g– a few weeks ago I found this smoothie and i am in LOVE
I actually bag up all my ingredients and freeze them (no greens) so all I have to do is pull and blend
I put about 10oz in a shaker bottle with protein powder and Chia seeds. My work schedule changes a bit so i’ve decided to do the smoothie for breakfast and lunch and then salad for dinner with protein. Snacks are going to be exciting with celery and nut butter or egg salad. I need to make my diet simple for a while to kick my self in gear — then I’ll start playing around with your recipes again — I have quite the printed collection. It’s hard to care about dinner when you cook at juvenile hall from 12-8 3 days a week — but cooking is my passion – i just have to light the fire again — my real fav is the Cuban pot roast — I may be doing it with some pork this weekend
★★★★★
Cami Valenzuela says
Yumm. Sounds great. Love that it is dairy free. Dairy hurts my stomach. Thanks for this. I would probably replace the sugar as well.
Ashley says
Any suggestion on a cucumber alternative? I’m allergic to cucumbers so that is off limits for me.
Liz says
hi. This smothie looks great. I love pineapple, but I am allergic to bromelain…. Do you think mangos or oranges would work with the kiwi? Something decadent and citrusy? Or perhaps only a few pieces of pineapple would ruin the recipe? Oh I love pineapple so much I’ll probably down it and have a puffy tongue all day.
Why would you need sweetner? People putting sugar on fruit…. (shakes head)
★★★★★
Tashi says
Hello,
I came across this searching for low carb juices. I love this one but I would like to know where you get your measurements for fat and net carbs? I have imputed this recipe into 3 other apps and 3 other websites and it comes out to almost 35g of net carbs per cup. I might be doing something wrong here and if so I would like to know we’re I am going wrong. I really want this in my diet because I feel AMAZING when I wake up now but if it is that high in net carbs I will have no choice but to say no and I reallly don’t want to do that.
Thank you for your time,
Tashi
Mellissa Sevigny says
You must not be subtracting the insoluble fiber to get net carbs in your calculations!
Dodie says
on my fitness pal, I got 251 calories, 41 carbs, 11 g. fiber, 18 grams of sugar for the whole recipe. This recipe, she says, makes 6 servings that are one cup each, (41-11=30 30/6= 5) which is 5 net carbs per cup. Not low, but not too bad. I think I can boost this up by adding more fiber to it and maybe some gelatin to increase the protein. I think this is a good base, though the kiwi is out for me because I’m diabetic. It’s fine, there are other good choices, like strawberries, that I can have. Great recipe, thank you.
Mary Beth Elderton says
This sounds very refreshing. I love pineapple. I had not considered using lettuce!
★★★★★
Anne C says
I love the look of this low-card smoothie! Looks delicious and definitely healthy!
Kimberly Flickinger says
I love smoothies and this sounds ðelicious and healthy.
★★★★★