Greens powders can be incredibly beneficial, providing you with a variety of micronutrients from potent greens in just one simple serving.
There’s a huge variety of different greens ingredients out there on the market, but sometimes, people want to make their own!
So, if you’re one of these people and you want to give making your own greens powder a go, you’re in the right place.
In this article, we’re going to take a look at the benefits of greens powders, the different types of greens you should use to make a greens powder, and the exact rules you need to stick to when it comes to making your own.
Benefits of Greens Powders:
Greens Powders Last Longer
Fresh greens typically only last up to a week in the fridge, whereas a greens powder can last from 8 months – 1 year. Therefore, creating your own greens powder can help you to save money, since you’re not having to repeatedly buy fresh greens.
Produce Less Waste
Have you ever bought a tonne of greens just to have them sit in your fridge and waste away for several weeks? Well, most people have!
Whether you think you’re going to eat more greens than you buy, you forget about the greens in your fridge, or you simply didn’t couldn’t take the time to cook meals with a variety of greens in, greens often go to waste. When you create and use a greens powder, you are producing less waste!
Easy and Fast Way To Consume More Greens
Whether you don’t like the taste of greens, don’t have the time to go out and buy fresh greens, or you don’t have the energy after a long day to create a meal rich with greens, greens powders are the easiest way to get a big dose of essential nutrients in one spoonful!
Easy To Cook and Bake With
Unlike fresh greens that might be hard to add into meals and are differently difficult to bake with in a tasty way, greens powders are incredibly easy to cook and bake with.
Whether you create a pasta sauce with greens powder or you bake it into protein balls, they’re super easy to create yummy food with.
The Benefit of Making Your Own Greens Powder:
The number one benefit of making your own greens powder is that you know exactly what’s going into it.
Unless you choose to purchase a high-quality, fully disclosed, and transparent super greens powder, you may purchase a greens powder that is packed with fillers, sugar, or simply doesn’t contain sufficiently dosed ingredients.
Greens powders that are packed with filler ingredients, sugar, additives, and flavoring ingredients may actually be detrimental to your health rather than beneficial.
Therefore, when you create your own greens powder, you are completely in charge of what you add to it. This means that you know exactly what you’re consuming every time you use a serving of the powder and you can be sure that there are no nasty ingredients inside it.
Which Greens Should You Choose To Use?
It is completely up to you which greens you choose to add to your greens powder, but there are specific greens that are packed with micronutrients that you might want to add.
Greens that you may want to use include Kale, Spinach, Lettuce and Salad Greens, Broccoli, Cabbage, Barley Grass, Wheatgrass, and Alfalfa Grass.
You may also want to add already powdered greens, such as chlorella and spirulina, to add a little more nutrients to the mix!
If you’re still not sure which greens to use to make a greens powder, you may want to take a look at your favorite greens powders out there and use the greens that feature in those blends.
Supplements that contain some of these ingredients:
How To Make Your Own Greens Powder From Scratch
What You Will Need:
– A Selection of Fresh Greens
– Vegetable Wash
– A Dehydrator
– A Blender or Mortar and Pestle
– A Water-Tight Storage Container
1Select Your Greens
The first step to making a greens powder is obviously selecting and purchasing your greens!
As mentioned above, it’s completely up to you which greens you choose to use when creating your own powder. However, there are certain greens that are great to use, such as the ones mentioned above.
So, create a shopping list of greens and head to the supermarket! Once you’ve bought your greens, it’s time to get home and start turning these fresh ingredients into a powder!
2Wash Your Greens
Although certain greens that you purchase may be pre-washed, it’s always best to wash your greens before you consume them, even when you’re turning them into a powder!
Lots of fresh ingredients, especially greens, may be covered with mud, bugs, or bacteria. Therefore, you need to wash your greens properly before putting them in your dehydrator.
Although you could wash greens simply with water, the best thing you can do is properly wash your greens with a specific vegetable wash.
3Separate and Chop Your Greens
Once you’ve properly washed your greens, you need to separate the leaves (for instance, take each leaf from the head of a lettuce), and chop any stems or veiny areas from the vegetables.
These parts of vegetables don’t typically blend very well, and obviously, you want your powder to be as smooth as possible!
Additionally, if you’re using a vegetable that’s big and bulky, such as broccoli, you will obviously need to cut up the vegetable into smaller parts to fit into the dehydrator.
4Leave Your Greens To Dry
Although you might be tempted to put your greens straight into the dehydrator, you definitely shouldn’t! If you put damp greens into a dehydrator, it will take a lot longer for them to properly dry up!
So, once you have washed and chopped up your greens, lay them out onto your counter on clean kitchen towels or kitchen rolls to dry for a while.
Once you can both see and feel that the greens don’t contain much moisture, you’re ready to put them into the dehydrator.
5Put Them In A Dehydrator and Turn It On!
It’s time to dehydrate your greens!
Place your greens on the racks in your dehydrator. When you’re putting your greens into your dehydrator, it’s OK if they touch and overlap slightly, but make sure that you don’t stack them on top of one another as this will mean that uneven drying will occur.
Your dehydrator should be set to 110 degrees. Typically, greens take between 4-8 hours to dehydrate, but that obviously depends on the moisture of the greens and the power of your dehydrator.
Once your greens are crispy and dry, they’re ready to come out of the dehydrator and be turned into a greens powder!
If you don’t have a dehydrator and you still want to make your own greens powder, you can use your oven. If you want to use your oven, set it to its lowest temperature, and place your greens on the racks within the oven.
Keep the oven door open to ensure that there’s no moisture stuck within the oven, and keep an eye on your greens!
6Grind The Dehydrated Greens Up
Once you have your dehydrated greens, you can simply make them into a powder by blending them in a blender or grinding them in a mortar and pestle.
Obviously, a blender is best to ensure you get the smoothest blend, but grinding the greens yourself is fine too!
7Sieve The Powder and Store!
Once you have your powder, it’s time to store it so you can enjoy it whenever you want! Grab a water-tight, sealed, BPA-free container and pour your powder through a sieve into it!
Then, place it somewhere clean, cool, out of direct sunlight, and enjoy!
Have Fun Creating Your Own Greens Powder!
Although you can buy high-quality greens powder from a trusted supplement company, creating your own greens powder is incredibly fun and if you’ve never tried it before, you definitely should!
However, just because you’re consuming a greens powder daily doesn't mean you shouldn’t still prioritise consuming healthy, wholefoods in your diet.