As you may know, I have been trying the Keto diet lately. It is recommended that you eat about 7 to 10 cups (depends a bit on your size of course) of salad a day on keto to get all the necessary nutrients like vitamins and trace minerals and especially sufficient potassium. Now, this is not really anything new. I have always eaten a lot of vegetables. But it was easier when I was sort of grazing all day. When you try to eat only two meals a day (intermittent fasting) it becomes more difficult. Although salad is easy to digest, 7 to 10 cups is a lot. Some people eat their salad between the two meals since it doesn’t spike insulin too much and that way they can fit it in better.
As for types of salad, spinach and kale are great as they are nutritionally dense, compared to iceberg lettuce or cabbage for example. I also like those spring salads that are a mix of different leaves: romaine lettuce, arugula, beet leaves, swiss chard etc.
In order to make sure I consume enough greens on a daily basis, I have a simple trick: I blend them! A green smoothie is easy to drink, and I can easily carry it around and consume wherever it’s convenient – sometimes in the car, when shopping, on the school run, after my workout at the gym. It’s so delicious and I’m craving it the way I used to crave biscuits.
Here are the ingredients for a great green smoothie, full of goodness – vitamins, nutrients, potassium, even protein and fat if required. My blender is 1.5 litres big, so if yours is smaller, just adjust the amount accordingly:
1 cup of ice cold water
Kale (organic), which I shred and I fill the blender pretty much up to the rim
2 cups of spinach (organic; I add this after blending the kale with the water otherwise it wouldn’t fit)
1 spoon of potassium citrate
1 spoon of matcha powder
1 handful of frozen blueberries (organic – if you have fresh berries you could add some ice cubes to make the smoothie nice and cold)
1 stick of stevia powder
If I only have this green smoothie and not any lunch with it, I also add some plant based protein powder and raw organic virgin coconut oil (the fat is necessary to absorb the vitamins) to make it a meal.
Let me know if you enjoy this as much as I do. Or maybe you have suggestions on how to make it even better? Let me know….
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