These green ice cubes are perfect for green smoothies! They are easy to make and a sustainable way to use kale that is close to expiring. I love to make a large batch of these frozen kale cubes to have on hand for my morning smoothie.
Smoothie Cubes Recipe
This easy recipe is a great way to preserve fresh kale for your breakfast smoothie. I started to make green ice cubes a few years ago after I realized that using just the kale leaf or spinach leaf resulted in a somewhat ‘chunky’ smoothie! My tastebuds didn’t care for that … and quite frankly my eyes did not either. I came up with this simple way to use my fresh kale for my smoothie – no leafy chunks needed!
Frozen greens really make your green smoothie pop with color and nutrition! For this recipe you need only two ingredients, a blender and an ice cube tray.
- Kale
- Water
If you don’t have kale, you can substitute spinach. I have tried beet greens before…I didn’t care for the taste that resulted in, but you might like it.
How Do You Freeze Kale in Ice Cube Trays?
If you love to have a morning smoothie everyday like I do, these frozen green cubes will really come in handy! They are a great way to achieve a super cold, thick smoothie without watering your smoothie down with regular ice cubes. They also make your smoothie easier to drink because no chunky kale leaves will get stuck in your straw (yuck!).
To make these vegetable smoothie cubes, fill your blender with destemmed kale leaves, add water and blend. You may need to scrape down your blender a few times to ensure all leaves are blended smoothly into a liquid!
When all kale is blended into liquid, you might notice that it is frothy on the top and watery on the bottom! That is normal, you can either pour directly into your cubes as is, or give it a quick stir then pour.
This kale cubes for smoothies recipe made 14 cubes for me. If your ice cube tray is smaller, you might get more cubes!
If you make these smoothie cubes, I would love to know! Tag @badtothebowl on social media.
Frozen Kale Cubes (for Green Smoothies)
Ingredients
- 4 cups kale leaves
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Place destemmed kale leaves in blender.
- Add water and blend. You may need to scrape down the sides of your blender a few times to ensure all leaves are puréed.
- After blending, if mixture looks separated (frothy on top, liquid on bottom), stir, then pour into
- Freeze in freezer. Pop out of ice cube trays, store in freezer safe container.
I just put fresh kale into the freezer in a large ziplock. Once it is frozen, I crunch it up in the bag. I put a scoop of the frozen kale into my smoothy. The advantage of freezing the kale is that the cell walls are ruptured, making it easier to access the nutrients. Kale is actually healthier raw than cooked, as opposed to spinach, broccoli or beet greens, which have high concentrations of oxalic acid and block nutrient absorption.
Great tips! Thanks for sharing!