Jugo Verde Green Smoothie

This Jugo Verde Smoothie recipe combines fruits and veggies found in the traditional green juice but blends them to make a green smoothie. This smoothie is perfect for a New Years’ sugar detox or anytime you are looking for a flavorful, healthy breakfast smoothie! 

The New Year is a perfect time to start making healthy breakfast choices. This jugo verde smoothie is the perfect recipe to start with. It’s packed with veggies and fruits, but without the added sugar of most smoothies.

We have celebrated New Year’s in Cabo San Lucas a couple of times, where Jugo Verde is a staple breakfast choice. As our teenaged daughters were doing photoshoots of themselves, I was doing photoshoots of my green juice! 

Such were the adventures of a relaxing family holiday in Cabo San Lucas.  It was the 2nd time Bob and I celebrated New Year’s in Cabo and the first time doing it together as a family.  

the fresh-pressed daily juices were my daily indulgence as you can well see!

I was all about this green juice on our holiday.  Today I will be sharing OvenHug’s version of “Jugo Verde” (Spanish for “Green Juice”) recipe.  It is actually more of a green smoothie vs. a juice since I use a blender to make it, not a juicer.  At home, we use the Bella Personal Sized Rocket Blender.

What is the difference between a smoothie and a juice?

The first difference is in what type of machine is used. Smoothies will use a blender to blend up ingredients, whereas juicers will extract the juice from the fruits and veggies. 

When making smoothies,  the fiber of the fruits and veggies remains intact which is essential for helping our bodies to digest the natural sugars. 

Juicers strain the fiber out and leave you with just the natural sugars in the juice.

Ava and I toasting with the green juice! She loved it too.

Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach Resort, Skypool starring Jugo Verde photoshoot 😉

We had some fun making guesses at what could possibly be in that mysteriously bright green juice on the first day of our trip. 

The flavors of this jugo verde juice were mild and undetectable.  It tasted fresh and it tasted green but we had the hardest time discerning what was actually in this mystery juice.

Fruit and veggies in Jugo Verde (Mexican Green Juice):

• celery
• spinach
• pear (green)
• avocado
• green apple
• cactus
• cucumber
• orange juice

Wow – so many surprises!  One of the things I like about traveling is trying things that I would never normally prepare at home.

When we return home from trips our routine is to stock up the fridge and the kitchen island with an abundance of fresh fruit and veggies.  This helps us to get back to feeling balanced and healthy.  Once home, I picked the ingredients for my home version Cabo green juice/smoothie recipe with the exception of the cactus and the orange juice.

For the OvenHug recipe, our version of Cabo Jugo Verde, I make a few changes to maximize the health benefits.  I leave out the cactus and the orange juice for the following reasons:

• Goodbye Cactus – too hard to find in the stores in some demographics
• Goodbye Orange Juice – as previously mentioned, our bodies quickly convert juice into sugar…ok on vacation but at home let’s skip the OJ

Leaving out the orange juice creates a challenge – we still need to have a liquid to be able to blend the ingredients in a typical blender.  I tested a few things including lime juice (good but very tart!).  I settled on using water and fresh pineapple as my additions to the green juice/smoothie recipe.  The pineapple adds some sweetness lost from eliminating orange juice.

Tip for making this Jugo Verde Smoothie: 

• Use a small, personal sized blender (We love this one)
• To help the smoothie get well blended, chop the hard veggies and fruits to small pieces then microwave until soft. 
• To make sure the smoothie is cold (even with warm veggies added), add a few ice cubes or chill in the fridge until cold

Other Popular Green Smoothie Recipes:

• WinterGreen Smoothie Reset
• The Green Goddess Smoothie with Ginger and Lime (a favorite!)
• Green Blender Smoothies; A Health Coach’s Review

Relative to other green smoothie recipes on the site, Jugo Verde/green smoothies are not very sweet since they are heavier on the veggies.  I like it this way as part of my detox.  Also, all of the ingredients in this Mexican inspired version are fairly easy to find in the winter.  If you prefer a sweeter taste you can play with the ingredients – try adding more pineapples and less celery and cucumbers.  Mangoes and kiwi are also great additions.  The sky is the limit as long as your using whole, fresh produce.

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If you like this recipe, be sure to also try Winter Green Smoothie Detox!

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Hugs, Bita