Superfood Smoothies: 100 Delicious, Energizing & Nutrient-dense Recipes - A Cookbook

by Julie Morris

Everyone loves smoothies—and this is the ultimate smoothie book, written by Julie Morris, author of Superfood Kitchen and a superfood expert! Morris whips up 100 nutrient-rich recipes using the world's most antioxidant-, vitamin- and mineral-packed foods, and offers innovative culinary methods for making your smoothies incredibly nutritious and delicious.

Whether you're looking for an energy boost, seeking a gentle cleanse, or just trying to get healthy, you'll be inspired to power up the blender!

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food, Health, Food and Drink, Vegan

198 pages, Hardcover

First published May 7, 2013

About the author

JULIE MORRIS is a passionate wellness advocate who believes we can build a better quality of life through what we put on our plate.
​
Considered a pioneer in the realm of superfood and nootropic cooking, Julie explores the world’s most powerful plants through her work as a natural food chef and New York Times bestselling author. Her in-depth expertise has been quoted by such diverse publications as The Wall Street Journal, GQ, and Women’s Health Magazine, and her recipes have been featured in numerous culinary publications. In addition to her six bestselling books, Julie is the founder and culinary director of the superfood education center, Luminberry, and is dedicated to empowering people with the rewards of cooking with nature’s most amazing foods.

Reviews

[Karen Owens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Copied from my amazon review: I borrowed this book from the library. The author clearly is a vegan since all dairy products were omitted and dismissed as unhealthy. I can accept that being vegan is someone's culinary point of view, but she never stated that outright anywhere in her book, and I feel she should have because her outright dismissal of dairy was off putting to me. Then I started researching how to get all the superfood additives and ingredients the author uses. Low and behold, all of these specialty ingredients can be purchased here on amazon from the Navitas Naturals company that the author works for according to the little bio on the back cover. So this book is really a subtle and slick way of promoting this company's products, not how to make a healthy and tasty smoothie with readily available foods. Personally, I refuse to spend $60/lb or more for a single ingredient, even if that ingredient would make many smoothies. It's not practical. $31.99 for 8 oz of acai berry powder, really? How about 6 1/2 pints of fresh, locally grown raspberries or blueberries instead? So the book is a disappointment. Glad I only borrowed it and didn't buy it.

[Tabitha Vohn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't help but glance at some other reviews as I prepared to write mine. I thought hey, maybe in my little podunk town in Maryland, we're just not hip enough to have specialty stores where one must go to find the ingredients required for pretty much ALL of these smoothie recipes. Maybe it's just me?

Turns out, it's not.

Sadly, I bought this book new from Amazon, thinking it would give me excellent ideas for diversifying my smoothies. Alas, unless you are filthy rich and can afford (much less pronounce) all of the exotic, hard-to-find ingredients that these recipes call for, you're in for a disappointment.

The "Oh She Glows" or "Detox: 100 Recipes" cookbooks have much better, easier, practical smoothie recipes.

Pretentious smoothie drinkers: this one's for you!
Health-conscious individuals who are also wallet and time-conscious, look elsewhere!

[Lisa Shafer · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the height of gustatory snobbery!

Are you a wealthy, lactose intolerant vegan living in New York City? This book may be for you!
On the other hand, if you're a middle-class, milk-loving resident of rural Montana whose budget has no room for weekly purchases of Thai coconuts ( Morris sniffs and condescends to mention there are other, oh-so-inferior types out there.), then I'd suggest you spend your money elsewhere.
Nearly every recipe in this book calls for specialty items such as camu powder, goji berries, and lucuma fruit. And Morris-the-Milk-Hater will go so far as to pair cauliflower with chocolate to get creaminess. *rolls eyes* She also pretends that tea is non-acidic and better for you than any animal product.
Thus, if you think it odd that some of us don't actually keep a supply of dried mulberries and coconut water on hand, and if you think that peanut butter is only fit for the smoothies you make your German Shepherd in order to get him to eat kale, then this book is probably a good choice for you. However, if you rather prefer mixed fruit and yogurt smoothies over a combination of apples and broccoli with dates, if you cannot afford to buy dozens of ingredients that cost over $10.00 a pound, or if you live in a place where a pomegranate is a bit exotic and nobody at the local grocery store gives a hoot in heck what maca powder is, then you should probably not bother with this book.
Personally, I received it as a gift, and I did find it made for very amusing reading; hence I gave it two stars instead of one.

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 1 out of 5]

We love smoothies at our house, so when my husband brought me this book (free from the library's free book swap section) I was happy to have a source for new recipes.

Unfortunately, absolutely none of the recipes would work for our family. Why? Every single one calls for expensive purchased "superfoods" which are apparently sold by the author's company. She never says she works for the company, but other reviewers did the detective work to find that out and it was a bit of an aha moment for me.

I couldn't for the life of me figure out why every single recipe had to call for a "superfood" like a tablespoon of dried mulberries (and she warns not to leave any ingredients out!). Now I happen to be lucky and our family forages mulberries every summer, but the author points out that most people cannot find them locally and will need to purchase them online. For a ton of money. Why???? I love mulberries and they do have some great benefits (I didn't know about the anti-aging component, which is awesome), but if I didn't have local access I'd just use another ingredient. Come on now.

She also points out that one single serving of each smoothie will cost nearly $5 with the ingredients that she calls for, but she says that's a great price because it can easily be a meal substitute. WTH? Just no. You can be healthy and frugal. Smoothies and good health are not just for the super-rich.

For that matter, you can forage quite a few of the ingredients for free (mulberries, black raspberries, purslane, nettles, blueberries, clover, wild plums, watercress, highbush cranberries...). Maybe that should be my next foraging book.... ;)

[Rachel Newcomb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I make smoothies every day in the Vitamix blender I bought two years ago. Since starting that habit, I've seen tremendous improvements in my health, skin, etc, but I was getting a little tired of my standard recipes. I got this cookbook to amp up my smoothie game. Superfood Smoothies definitely delivers.

I decided I would pick a few recipes to start and just buy the ingredients to make those with a common ingredient, since many of them involve random powders that most people will have never heard of - maca root, for instance, or lucuma. Most of the recipes involve basic fruits, nuts and veggies with those additional superfoods. Once I had those initial recipes under my belt, I bought a few more ingredients. I can now make many of the recipes in this cookbook, and they are wonderful-- different, and refreshing. Favorites so far include Pomegranate Cherry, Cherry Pistachio, cookie dough, and pineapple maca, which is a great energy-boosting pre-workout shake that also has almond butter in it.

The only disadvantage is that these recipes do require a bit of an initial investment in ingredients you will have to get online or at specialty stores like Whole Foods. I bought mine to start at WF, but I will probably buy future ingredients online, because I think they're cheaper there. However. some of them add a really delicious element to these recipes - cacao nibs and hemp, for example. Others are used sparingly and will last a long time - like lucuma and maca. The cacao nibs and hemp seeds, though, are running out quickly.

[Judy Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love SUPERFOOD SMOOTHIES! I have the entire collection of Julie Morris books and this one is my favorite. I have tried many of the recipes and enjoy all of them. I have bookmarked many pages. Great to use with my Vitamix. I often need to substitute items due to being a vegan and my serious food allergies; however, a fabulous selection. I have purchased and tried many new items and ingredients, due to this great book. The hardcover is beautiful with high res images and easy to follow instructions and recipes. If you love smoothies and healthy living, this is the book.

I also recommend Julie Morris's collection: (The Superfood Smoothies, and these three: Superfood Juices, Superfood Soups, and Superfood Snacks are the same size. Superfood Kitchen is larger. I am pretty picky about cookbooks (photography and quality recipes). These books have it all!

[Jordan Lombard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t agree with the author’s stance on animal products, which she doesn’t back up with sources. If you’re vegan, you’ll love this book. Nothing wrong with being vegan, I just didn’t like her blanket statement that all animal products are acidic, and therefore are bad for you. I feel this is a personal choice you need to make.

She says leave sugar to the desserts, but lists “add sweetener to taste” to every recipe.

Also not sure where/how I would source these ingredients on a budget I’m unfamiliar with, so for now I think I’ll stick to non-superfood ingredients that I know and know where to find at my local Stop & Shop. Otherwise, these recipes do look good. They just weren’t for me, a beginner at smoothies, and picky eater trying to eat healthy even though I don’t like veggies. Lol.

[Mike Kleine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was cool and all (actually found some really neat ideas for interesting smoothies) but sort of a shame that what this really is, at the end of the day, this book, it's a ploy to get you to buy certain products from a certain merchandiser. Ignore the fact that the real title of the book is secretly Superfood Smoothies: 100 Delicious, Energizing & Nutrient-dense Recipes: Sponsored by Navitas Naturals.

Definitely check it out (literally*), but don't be afraid to substitute ~60% of the ingredients for each recipe. You're gonna sort of have to. (*Don't buy the book; absolutely get it from the library).

(It's like if I was commissioned to write a book on training to run a half marathon, and I was being paid by Nike to write the book, and in the contract, Nike's stipulations included that for each chapter, I must mention or end with recommended Nike active-wear, as part of the training. This is that book. Except replace "half marathon" with "smoothies" and "Nike" with "Navitas Naturals" and no mention (except for a thank you in the acknowledgments) of the fact that Navitas Naturals is trying to get you to buy their products).

#tricky

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t wait to get started on these recipes. All of them look so wonderful!

[Tisha (IG: Bluestocking629) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was most pleased with this book. Some fantastic sounding recipes. The descriptions of each recipe make me want to try foods I've never had before. And I'm not a food adventuress!

[Elle LaMarca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm just getting into making smoothies daily and I love this. Superfoods are the real deal, but can be hard to incorporate into your diet on a daily basis without a plan. Things to note:
1. Yes, you will have to make a special effort to locate/buy several of the superfood powders and dried goods mentioned in the book. However, if you do a little internet digging, you do not need to spend $30+ dollars on each superfood ingredient. I found an amazing website that is all organic and allows you to purchase the superfoods in small quantities and was able to buy TWELVE different ingredients for $100. These powders will last me a good 6 months as not each is used everyday in every smoothie. (Check out: sunburstsuperfoods.com) So, you do NOT need to be rich or live in a big city to find this ingredients!

2. Julie Morris might be a vegan. Who cares? I'm a meat and diary lover, but that doesn't mean they should be in my healthy smoothies. Personally, I appreciate that Morris DOESN'T become didactic and preach about the horrors of meat and diary, but simply focuses on why fruit and veggie smoothies are healthy.

3. I've tried 8 of the 100 recipes thus far and all have been delicious!

4. I love how thorough Morris is in describing the benefits of smoothies and each of the "Super 15" superfood ingredients. I hate just throwing in chia seeds because "they" say they're good for you. Now, I understand the benefit of each type of superfood and how to integrate them.

5. Using a powerful blender will absolutely make a difference in your smoothie game! Try a powerful Ninja or the almighty Vitamix!

6. My only complaint is that the caloric/nutritional values for the smoothies are NOT listed. This seems like a serious oversight for a healthy living cookbook. Many of us count our calories, so it's rather annoying!

[Millie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will certainly purchase this book. Not only are the recipes in this book original and delicious, they are nutritionally dense and varied. It is a well designed book. She details the importance of various superfoods, lays out her recipes with information about their particular benefits to your health, gives you a range of tips on substitutions and how to layer the perfect smoothie so you too can design your own superfood recipes. The down side is that eating this well is due to privilege. All the recipes in this book contain ingredients that are inaccessible or unaffordable for many people: like lucuma, maca, camu berries, maqui berries, acai powder, and sea buckthorn berries. I think they are all worth an investment in, but it's unfortunate that many people will not be able to do the same thing and I wish she had written about this unfairness in our capitalist system which forces people into bad health.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been trying to learn more about superfoods, eating healthy, and smoothies recently and picked this book up from the library on a whim. Definitely found it super helpful, especially in breaking down a little bit more about some of the ingredients I've heard of, but didn't know much about. A great example was that other books had recommended flaxseeds to me, but this one told me I need to grind them because otherwise my body won't actually digest them! I was flabbergasted, as many other books had already assumed I had this knowledge. I also thought the recipes were a little more balanced than some, preferring to keep things healthy and tasty without just shoving in as much nutrition as possible. Definitely a great resource for those who are starting on a smoothie path and need some help getting started!

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad that it was dairy free. So many recipes contain yogurt in them. However, I had to order several ingredients online because I couldn't find them in my local store.
Most of the recipes were not that tasty.

[Elizabeth Good · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful photos, interesting ideas, good information. However nearly every single recipe has one same and essential ingredient that is about as unhealthy an addition as you can get.

So here's the deal. This book has some great ideas to make healthy chock-full-of-nutirent smoothies taste like everything from mint chip ice cream to red velvet cake! And with wonderfully healthy additions like cauliflower or greens that one would not even notice. What could be better? Most of the ingredients are super healthy.

HOWEVER---almost every recipe uses ice (or if not ice, frozen fruit or veggies). Now it's winter as I write this, and icy drinks sure do not appeal (yes it gets cold enough in Northern California...and in my house). But even in warmer times, ice is not good for anyone's digestion. During hot weather we may gravitate to cold drinks and foods for sure, and with the heat in the air, our bodies digest cold better. But this is not in general at all good for health, since digestion is one of the key bases of good health.

She also has the brilliant idea of throwing in packs of frozen vegetables to some of these smoothies. I do think that is genius. But, again, I would not eat this cold, even though she insists the iciness is what makes these so yummy.

I hesitated to even try any of these recipes without frozen ingredients or ice, as they seem like they would not be the same, or even do-able in most cases. She emphasizes how good the ice or frozen ingredients makes them work for texture (and taste), & I know from past experiences how different ice makes such drinks.

On the plus side, she has some good initial chapters where I learned gems like that maqui berries are the highest in antioxidants of any fruit ever tested. And again, beauiful photos and some great ideas. Maybe someone better in the kitchen could figure out how to make these warmer or room tempterature and have them still be delicious. Hiding a ton of veggies in a smoothie is one of my favorite health tricks, and she has worked to make some very nutrient-packed yummies. Her ideas are tempting (I mean, red velvet cake smoothies!), but perhaps there is a better book out there where such ideas don't need to be reworked for healing benefits.

[Rev · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is only getting two stars cause I miraculously found a recipe or two out the dozens provided that actually seemed appealing or worth the money to make. I hate that all smoothie cookbooks are trying to insist on health and eating healthy and losing weight. This book is no exception and the author outright *lies* about various things. She states that various artificial sweetners are carcinogens, but I googled and the very first thing to pop up in my search was the government cancer website that stated the FDA tested for that before they were put on the market and found no links.

You Think Someone Would Do That? Write A Health Book And Tell Lies???

I also question the complete dismissal of all animal products and soy. There are no sources within the book to back up any of the information put forth, and everything described as "bad" is done so in the vaguest of terms. I assume because it'd be very easy to see through the marketing ploy if she had to explain herself better.

Whatever, I guess I'll just try my own recipes via trial and error.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 This is an awesome book of nutritional smoothies however, I cannot find most of the ingredients in my town. I will coordinate a list of ingredients needed for some of the recipes and plan a shopping visit into the city and see if I can gather some of these awesome superfoods.

This book is well laid out with nice pictures. It deconstructs a smoothie and explains what works and why. The nutritional information about the superfoods is inspiring and motivational although the foods are not easily accessible. Tips on making amazing smoothies are indispensable as well as tips on what forms of certain ingredients are better (fresh, frozen, dried, etc.).

These recipes will take some planning but I think they will be worth the investment.

[Amanda Himes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to this cookbook I bought $40 of superfoods (dried goji berries, lucuma powder, etc) from Amazon that I probably didn't need. And shaming people who might want to add yogurt or gasp! white sugar to their smoothie? Not cool, man.

The raspberry pineapple smoothie was a 4.5/5 stars.
The Mayan Chocolate, a 1/5 ( .25 teaspoon of cayenne powder is far too much).
The cookie dough smoothie was a solid 3 stars (pear kinda works to give a cookie -like flavor).

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent blends of unique flavors, using atypical ingredients for true nourishment. These are smoothies that heal, nourish and taste great. I also like that she gives tips on how to not waste anything, where to find ingredients and equipment, etc.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The specific recipes were not so important to me but has good info otherwise.

[Jolie Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice description of the superfoods and good mix of smoothie recipes. Can't wait to try them!

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author introduced quite a few different superfoods & powders that intrigued me. I'm definitely glad checked this book out.

[Anna]

Don’t think I’ll pursue açaí, chia, lucuma, buckthorn, goji, algae, maca, or hemp at this time. Might harvest some local mulberries if the the opportunity arises I guess.

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ordered all the super foods on amazon and now have tons of possibilities for quick healthy and incredibly delicious snacks/ light meals on the run. LOVE this book!!! Initial investment on the superfoods and stocking pantry and freezer was significant but many last a long time. I price shopped around-for now, amazon is cheapest although Costco is now stocking hemp and chia seeds. This is the only cookbook where I will have made every single recipe. I hope she writes another book with more recipes as I'm now making about 5-6 smoothies per week. I would have liked to see a thorough cross referencing of fresh ingredients that are needed but I wrote my own in the margins. As a result, this is a quick easy way to use up fresh fruit, veggies etc that would otherwise go bad.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This author has personality and her smoothie recipes are loaded with it, too! There are special ingredients--the "superfoods"--and I couldn't read the details about all 15 of them... it was just too dull. I probably wouldn't make any of these, although it was fun to read the recipes and look at the pictures. She has a great graphic on how to build the smoothie layers in the blender, and another good idea is to freeze green tea in covered ice cube trays. I didn't know there were covered ice trays, but they keep other freezer food tastes out of the ice cubes. Marion is the smoothie maker at our house, and he likes his recipe just fine! He'll might be pleased to know that the ground chia seeds he adds are confirmed in this book.

[Tess Masters · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love this book. It is such an easy, digestible guide to superfoods and how to add them into tasty smoothies to add more nutritional density to your shakes. There is a quick write up on each superfood ingredient - nutritional benefits, serving size, flavor profile and suggested pairings. So, you can go off and create your own smoothies with the ingredients. There is also a great section on building healthy nutrient-dense smoothies.
I have made many of the recipes and they are delicious. There are substitution suggestions and you can really make the blends your own. This is my favourite smoothie book.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I generally don't follow recipes for my smoothies, just throwing in whatever fruits and veggies, spices and potions I have on hand. But this author offers a few unique ones that sound worth getting specific for--Red Velvet Cake, Coconut Spice, Caramelized Banana, Raspberry Jalapeno. She also offers a recipe for making a chia gel to keep on hand to thicken things, a la those tapioca teas, and has advice for soaking nuts, large seeds and dried fruits. I might even have to look for some of her "super 15" that I currently don't use, like camu berries, goji and maca.

[Donna Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book about healthy smoothies, and the ones I have made so far have all been good. The focus of the book, however, is incorporating super foods into smoothies. Some of these super foods are quite expensive, so I made the decision to start with just a few. I found quite a few of the foods at the Vitamin Shoppe, and many are also available online. I now have several smoothie books, and of all the books I have purchased, this one is my favorite!

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kind of recipe book: great photos and yummy recipes for one of my favorite foods! I appreciate that Morris includes veggies to include in your smoothie that are indiscernible when drinking your new concoction.

If you need a real boost try the superfood shots (which I still do not have ingredients for yet :\ )starting on page 177.

Many great tips and tricks for making your blender work well with a multitude of textures.

My favorites are:

Apple Arugula … must like arugula
Sweet Almond

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

As others have noted, this is a vegan recipe book so there are no milk or meat products used in any of the recipes. The recipes call for ingredients that the normal kitchen does not have such as acai powder, sea buckthorn juice, etc. However, the author lists everyday substitutions for most of the ingredients and lists online sources for all of the unusual products. I found the recipes different and interesting-not sure I would make all of these recipes but worth the read.