I don’t put green, yellow or red peppers in my smoothies or juices, as you can plainly see here: http://ow.ly/CgkNy.
I just don’t like the way they taste whirled with the other ingredients I require in a smoothie. If you slip me a smoothie with raw broccoli, I’ll buck like a wild ass. Peppers come in at an icky #2.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t add them to green smoothies, if you like them. Despite the feel of moist pith, peppers have massive amounts of vitamin C, more than oranges. Their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties – one cleans out the body from skin to cells and the other brings down internal swelling in joints and elsewhere – are huge. And these wonder nutrients are destroyed by high heat. Consume raw.
You want RIPE bell peppers. Oh, can do you tell? you howl. Their vitamin content is at its highest when ripe and that’s pretty high. The only veggie that can come near bell peppers in nutrition is a fruit – – Mr. Tomato. A ripe bell pepper may change from green to red. It may not. The color deepens, though, and the vegetable should feel heavy and dense in the hand. You can leave peppers ripening in a brown bag for up to 10 days after bringing home from the market.
Put chunks of ripe pepper in your next green smoothie. I’d slip it into avocado-based drinks. Don’t be like me; be smart and use this superfood. And if you garden, grow as many as you can.
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