Jason Manheim

The first six chapters contain a wealth of useful information, such as: a morning smoothie should not be part of a meal. You should “wait at least an hour before eating any solid foods”. There are tips on detoxing, weight loss, protein sources, variety suggestions, and ways to get kids to drink green smoothies.

The recipes start on page 80 of 180, leaving 100 pages for recipes but with only one recipe every other page, there are only 50 recipes (not more as the title indicates). The smoothies are categorized into five types: Beauty, Greens Lover, Post Work-out, Kids/Beginner and Savory. Each recipe shows icons that indicate which category it falls into.

A lot of page space is taken up by full color photographs of lush green ingredients. Full page and two-page spreads are common. Frankly, I have an ebook with no photos that is of more use to me; instead of one recipe every other page, the ebook has multiple recipes on every page.

When the recipe section starts, there is a full page photo of each smoothie. In this case, it’s nice to see how the drink should look because the recipes don’t tell you exactly how to make any of them. I should explain, I’m not a good cook. Cooking is not intuitive for me. I cannot tell by tasting a soup whether it needs salt, pepper, oregano or apple pie spice. I need a recipe to tell me how much of each ingredient to at least start with. So the fact that every recipe in this book has the same directions—“Blend with water and ice to desired consistency.”—really leaves me stranded. How much water and ice should I start with? Give me a hint. My blender and I are not friends. I don’t trust it not to explode and my cat is terrified of it. So I want to use it as little and as fast as possible, not add a little water and a little ice, run it, stop, maybe add more. Run. Stop. Add. Ooops! Too much. Start over.

And another thing! He doesn’t tell you how much each recipe yields because “that all depends on the amount of water/ice you use to achieve your desired consistency. The amount you drink in one sitting is up to you...Experimentation is your friend. Enjoy.” I make smoothies for two people in the morning in a rush. I don’t have time to experiment. That’s why I buy recipe books. The least I expect is for a recipe to tell me if it serves one person or three.

Can you tell where I’m going with this review? It’s a beautifully illustrated book with a lot of interesting facts but unless you’re comfortable with experimentation or already have a good sense of how much water and ice a smoothie, or smoothies, should contain, I would look for another green smoothie book. I never review a cookbook without trying at least one recipe but this book has been the exception. I’m too daunted by the prospect of experimenting that I can’t bring myself to begin. I’m sticking to smoothie recipes from other books.… (más)