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Don’t let those nutritious carrot tops go to waste! By adding them to your smoothies, you can enjoy a delicious and healthy way to boost your nutrient intake. So, next time you’re prepping carrots, remember to save those carrot tops and blend this Carrot Greens Smoothie recipe. Your body (and your taste buds) will thank you.
I’m no stranger to trying new things. Check out my Sauerkraut Juice Smoothie if you need evidence! Carrots are an easy vegetable to add to smoothies since they carry some natural sweetness, and pair well with other ingredients like in my Pineapple Smoothie Bowl and Strawberry Carrot Smoothie.
Why This Smoothie Rawks
We’ve all been there: peeling carrots, chopping off the leafy green carrot tops, and tossing them straight into the compost bin. But what if I told you those seemingly useless greens are actually a nutritional powerhouse? That’s right, carrot tops are edible, delicious, and perfect for blending into a vibrant, healthy smoothie.
- Nutrient-Dense: Carrot tops are packed with vitamins A, C, and K, as well as calcium, iron, and potassium. They even contain more vitamin C than the carrot root itself!
- Antioxidant Powerhouse: They’re rich in antioxidants, which help protect your cells from damage caused by free radicals.
- Fiber-Rich: Adding carrot greens to your smoothie boosts its fiber content, promoting healthy digestion.
- Unique Flavor: They have a slightly bitter, herbaceous flavor, similar to parsley, which adds a delightful complexity to your smoothies.
Carrot Greens Smoothie Ingredients
Since these leafy tops are more flavorful than spinach, I didn’t fill the whole smoothie with them and added some other sweet ingredients to help keep a good balance. If you’re ready to just go for it, try using a whole cup of carrot tops instead of spinach! Here’s what I’m blending:
- Spinach: This leafy green has a super mild flavor and is easy to use for the beginner smoothie maker.
- Carrot (including the leafy tops): Be sure to scrub the outside of the carrot well yet there’s no need to peel it to add to a smoothie.
- Water: An easy liquid to use that requires no prep! Feel free to swap with coconut water if you want an electrolyte boost.
- Pineapple: The tang from the pineapple helps to balance out the sharpness of the carrot greens.
- Mango: I love how mild mango is in a smoothie. I blend it in almost every smoothie I make!
- Banana: A sweet ‘n creamy addition. If you want to lower the natural fruit sugar in this smoothie, swap this out with frozen cauliflower or avocado.
- If you want to bulk this smoothie up a bit then add in 1/2 cup yogurt or homemade protein powder (plus a little more liquid since both these options will make it super thick).
Blending Tip
To make sure you have a refreshingly cool smoothie, use at least 1 frozen fruit in your blend. Learn how to freeze bananas so you always have some on hand or grab a bag of frozen pineapple/mango at the store.
How to Store Carrot Tops
Whether growing your own carrots in the kitchen garden or getting them from a market or grocery, save the tops! Now that you know they are edible, you can easily freeze them to toss into recipes as you want to. After removing the greens from the carrots themselves, wash and dry well. Roughly chop and place in a silicone freezer bag. You can store carrot tops frozen for up to six months.
How to Make Carrot Greens Smoothie
Since this is a green smoothie, we’re going to use my no-fail two-blend method for a creamy, not chunky smoothie. Even if you’re using a high-powered blender like a Vitamix, blending in two steps can help you make the best smoothie every time.
- Blend the spinach, carrot tops and water until smooth. You may need to stop and scrape down the sides of the blender container to ensure you get every leafy green part.
- Add the remaining ingredients and blend again until smooth. If you’re using frozen ingredients, set them out to thaw for 15-30 minutes before you start blending so they are still super cold yet easier to blend.
Since this recipe has both fruits and vegetables, there are a lot of different textures. Take your time and let your blender do its job in creating a creamy result.
Common Questions
Carrot greens are edible and tasty! You can jazz up a recipe with carrot tops easily. Simply wash them well, chop them up and toss in to a soup, smoothie or salad. They have a very carrot-like flavor and the texture is a bit like parsley.
You can juice the whole carrot from tip to leafy green. Just know that you will lose the fiber in them by juicing. If you want to focus on adding more fiber to your diet, then try blending the carrot greens into a smoothie instead.
I love adding leafy greens to my smoothies. They add fiber and other nutrients with little added flavor, depending on the type of greens you use. Just make sure you try a variety of leafy greens in smoothie recipes so that you are overloading on one type.
More Tips for Using Produce Scraps
I love fruits and vegetables, and buying them fresh gets me the most nutrients. I always seem to be tossing wilted greens, fuzzy berries and soft carrots by the end of the week. I decided to take action to eliminate food waste in creative ways.
- Compost: I have a small kitchen compost bin trash just for food scraps. Any produce I can’t salvage (or chopped ends of produce, rinds, etc.) goes in. A few times a week I take this bin to the backyard compost bin. I then use this compost for the garden. With these great carrot top recipes, you’ll never toss those greens again!
- Smoothie prep: I find that prepping my smoothies for the week or month helps me keep up the daily green smoothie habit, as well as keeps me from wasting fresh leafy greens and produce.
- Freezing individual ingredients: When I don’t have time to prep full smoothies, yet the bananas are one spot away from getting ugly, I learned how to freeze bananas individually. This applies to that wilted spinach too! Freezing spinach really helps give it a longer shelf life. Simply get out a cookie sheet and line with parchment. Peel, dice, or chop whatever fruits/veggies you’re trying to save, then lay them out in a single layer on the sheet. Freeze for a few hours, then toss in a freezer-safe storage bag.
Will you let me know how this carrot greens smoothie turns out for you by leaving a rating + review? I love getting your feedback!
Carrot Greens Smoothie
Ingredients
- ¾ cup spinach
- 1 carrot include leafy tops
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup pineapple frozen
- ½ cup mango frozen
- ½ banana
- 1 serving homemade protein powder optional
Instructions
- Blend spinach, carrot top leaves and water until smooth.
- Add the remaining fruits and blend again.
Equipment
Notes
- You can grate your carrots with a cheese grater, or steam them to soften them before blending if you aren’t using a high-speed blender.
- Use at least one frozen fruit to make the smoothie cold.
- Feel free to swap the carrot tops with the leafy greens of your choice.
- Swap water with coconut water, green tea or any dairy-free milk.
When your recipes call for frozen cauliflower and carrots can these be from the freezer section or do you recommend fresh veggies that I will then freeze? Thank you!
Hi Dawn! I’d recommend from the freezer section, as that is easier!
Excellent smoothie! However I didn’t have regular spinach but did have Malabar spinach growing in the garden so I used that. Which was perfect cuz I don’t care for the mucilage in Malabar leaves but in a smoothie you can’t tell! I also added a tiny bit of fresh ginger for a little kick.
I’m always looking for ways to use veggies that are freshly harvested to get the most nutrients. This recipe is definitely a keeper!
These are helpful recipes for carrot tops! I am starting to harvest my winter carrots and hate throwing out the gorgeous tops.
Such a great way to use those fluffy green beauties, Olivia! Way to be resourceful!
I’ve been doing more and more with food waste and this is a great idea. I know I’d find a tasty recipe from ya’ll. Way to save my carrot tops!
Such an awesome way to use what we typically think of as waste – totally agree Dani! Not everything needs to be composted. 🙂
I loved adding the carrot tops to this smoothie. Tastes great & I was able to use every part of the carrot.
I love Beginner’s Luck, so I had to try this version. The addition of the carrots is perfect! Delicious and the right amount of sweetness.
I really like the twist of adding carrot tops along with the carrots themselves. 🙂
Where is the fat to help the fat soluble vitamins? thanks for sharing these recipes.
Hi Janet,
Looking to add an healthy fat to your green smoothie! I’ve got you covered! Some of my favorites are coconut oil, flaxseed oil + avocado. Learn more here…
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/healthy-fats
I’m new to the site and super excited to try these. Problem is, I can’t eat spinach bc my body likes to form it into kidney stones. On your substitution guide, I saw romaine and kale—are there other leafy greens I should be thinking about?
Hi Deb,
Yes! Learn more about our favorite leafy greens here…
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/leafy-greens
This smoothie is great… Simple and effective. However I made one on Sunday night from ingredients I’d frozen the previous week and a fresh banana. I had half one day then saved half for the following day. Decanted it from the jug in the fridge into my flask, took it to work and 4 hours later it exploded! Queue mass work hysteria….
What did I do? And how does one avoid this happening again?
Hi Heggs,
Oh no! We hope your office has recovered from mass green smoothie hysteria! Sometimes when we use extra ripe fruit and leave our smoothie at room temperature, the fruit can actually begin to ferment creating gas inside the container…sometimes leading to explosion or leaking! For that reason, it’s best to keep your smoothie chilled as long as possible when storing.
Hope this helps!