A green and healthy homage to that fruity, sweet American confection, the Orange Julius. Kale, matcha green tea powder, optional hormone-balancing and immune-boosting maca powder, and a few other good-for-you foods are blended with the usual vanilla and orange. A 21st century interpretation of a 1920s drink easily made in your blender for a nutritious breakfast, snack or post-workout drink.
I remember as a teenager being very fond of Orange Julius. For those of you unfamiliar with this brand, the main product used to be a rather iconic milky orange drink called, wait for it, the Orange Julius. No trip to the mall was complete without a brimming cup of it – as well as a fat, soft pretzel for good measure. I was quite skinny so managed to get away with it! Back in the olden days (in the 1970s and 80s) I think it was just orange but, looking on their website, they have all kinds of new-fangled fruity flavours. But like all favourite things in youth there’s a sting in the tail. Or rather, a helluva lot of sugary calories. And egg white powder. Ugh.
The egg white in the original is to make the shake very frothy, but I use my Froothie (see what I did there?) to do the same thing and make it healthier and bang up to date with our new found love for all things brassica. If you don’t have an Optimum 9400 Froothie power blender, you can still get a good result, but just make sure everything is well-chopped first. It might not get quite as fluffy and aerated as mine, but it will taste great and fill you up nicely. If you fancy making this start with the amount of sweetness and vanilla I suggest, but you may wish to add more of both to suit your own unique and lovely tastebuds. I’m a bit of a sourpuss though. 🙂
I know smoothies are a kind of summery thing but as really good citrus is going to be coming in soon, this may just suit.
Enjoy any warm lingering sunshine with a frosty, frothy Mega-Green Julius. Sorry, but no soft pretzel for us today. xx
Mega-Green Julius Smoothie
A green and healthy homage to that fruity, sweet American confection, the Orange Julius. Kale, matcha green tea powder, optional hormone-balancing and immune-boosting maca powder, and a few other good-for-you foods are blended with the usual vanilla and orange. A 21st century interpretation of a 1920s drink easily made in your blender for a nutritious breakfast, snack or post-workout drink.
PS Maca may help with some of the the symptoms of perimenopause. It has also been used for centuries in what we now call South America for enhancing virility and fertility. You have been warned! See below the recipe for more about maca.
3 oranges or 4 clementines/tangerines, peeled
1/2 medium-sized ripe avocado (1/3 of larger ones) – frozen or not
1 cup kefir or milk/yogurt of choice – yogurt/kefir make the drink thicker
4 pitted Medjool or Deglet nour dates or 1 & 1/2 tbsp date or maple syrup – or to taste
2 tbsp maca powder – available at most health food stores
3/4 tsp matcha powder (ground Japanese green tea) – also available at most health food stores or online
40g chopped frozen kale
4 ice cubes if not using frozen kale or avocado
1 tsp pure vanilla extract OR seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod
Optional garnishes: orange slice and bee pollen (up to 1/2 tsp per serving)
Method:
Place the ingredients in your blender as recommended by your blender manufacturer and blend until smooth and lusciously creamy.
Maca Nutrition Facts:
- Over 20 amino acids, including 8 essential amino acids
- 20 free-form fatty acids (such as lauric, linolenic, palmitic acid, oleic , and steric acid) – these are good guys – fabulous for brain and heart health
- Vitamins B-1, B-2, C and E
- Calcium
- Magnesium
- Potassium
- Copper
- Zinc
- Manganese
- Phosphorus
- Selenium
- Sulphur
- Sodium
- Iron
Maca Potential Benefits and Actions:
- symptomatic relief for PMS, peri-menopause, PCOS
- female hormones, sexual health, fertility, libido (possibly due to effects on the hormone, serotonin)
- male testosterone levels and fertility (improving sperm quality and mobiity)
- mood, energy and memory
Contraindications:
- high blood pressure
- being treated for hormone related cancers – breast, endometrial, uterine, prostate as it may interfere with treatment effectiveness
- other serious illnesses, or pregnancy – check with your doctor
above adapted from draxe.com
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Disclosure: I am an ambassador for Australian health product brand Froothie, and some links in this article are affiliate links. However, as always, all product reviews and mentions are based on my honest opinion. If you’d like to know more about Froothie health products, or this machine in particular, please visit the Froothie website for more details. Right now there is a 15% off sale on the machine I use. It also comes with a 30-day money back guarantee, including return postage. If you decide to buy any product, I would love it if you clicked on one of the Froothie links to the right to place your order through the Froothie site. Thanks!
Check out my other Froothie recipes – for juicer and blender – by popping “froothie recipes” in the search bar to the right.
Looks amazing! Also, nice photos!
Thanks, James. It was a gloomy day for photography, so I appreciate that you like the images. 🙂
Clouds are nature’s soft box! The best way to capture true colors is with an overcast day. The results are perfect.
Yummy! The photos are so lovely! How do you add them into a gallery box of thumbnails in the word press reader feed? Any tips? Thanks!
No idea! But thanks for the kind feedback. 🙂
Love the food displayed in your photos
I do remember the original Orange Julius, but always found it a bit too sweet. Your Mega Green Smoothie sounds so much better! And a powerhouse of a breakfast too!
It is surprisingly nice, Deb but certainly not as sweet as the original (which I swear I can almost conjure up a taste memory of)!
Looks so yummy😄😄
Yum!!! I love Matcha!!!
Lennae xxx
You’ve hit not only my tastebuds but I am so ‘into’ this colour of green just now – can’t get enough of it in clothes or interiors so I will be able to drink it too now! 🙂
I know you are! Just add spinach to any smoothie and you will stay bang on trend 🙂
oh oh, im into blue now, might be harder to eat…
My new favorite smoothie!
🙂
Hello Kellies kitchen! nice that I found you out, lovely beverages and methods thanks a lot.
I am an expert in making drink now hehe … I am gonna try this one out love you guys, keep it up . I am following you.
Do let me know if you give it a try. You don’t need to be an expert – just have a good blender!
I was a huge Orange Julius fan back in the day. Love this update. It’s beautiful and looks delicious to boot!
Thanks so much, Christina. It is quite different to the original (as you can imagine!) but still has the froth and citrussy-vanilla hit. 🙂
Wow this sounds like the perfect smoothie for this time of the year and `i am all for preventing any bugs so I’ll be making this and love the idea of including maca powder which I have in an unopened jar in my cupboard!
thanks for this, forgot about Orange julius and how good it is, thanks also for the nutritious update and nutrition information
Oh this looks wonderful and very close to what I had for breakfast yesterday. I keep forgetting to use maca though, even though I have a big bag of it in the cupboard. I like your idea of adding matcha to it too. Must try that in my next kale smoothie.
Wow, your photos are beautiful. Thanks for the recipe. -Anna
No thank you, Anna. That’s very sweet of you. 🙂
This looks amazing!
Gorgeous!
So refreshing! I tried it and it’s wonderful! Thanks for sharing!