5 Herbal Smoothie Recipes for Radiant Skin

What makes an herb an herb and not just a plant? Botanists will tell you that an herb is a plant that bears seeds and has a fleshy (rather than woody) stem.

But when an herbalist is talking about herbs, they’re usually talking about plants that have particular benefits to us humans because of their fragrant, medicinal, or flavor qualities. Often, these qualities come from their volatile oils (aka essential oils), which have special properties.

Lately, I’ve been getting my daily herbal magic by adding them to my green smoothies.

You’ve probably heard us talk about how amazing green smoothies are for your health, or maybe you even saw a video of me making one of my favorites. Green smoothies are a really easy way to add vitamins, minerals, and fiber to your diet. This is the first step to healthy, glowing skin.

Besides adding unique benefits to your green smoothie, adding herbs gives it a gourmet flavor dimension, without adding sugar or other ‘bad stuff.’

I spent a day in my kitchen perfecting some of my favorite herbal smoothie recipes. Each one has amazing skin benefits, tastes really good, and makes enough to fill 2 pint-sized mason jars—perfect for breakfast for two or saving one for later.

1—Parsley Pear

Parsley contains the flavanoid luteolin, which acts as a powerful antioxidant. Its essential oils, particularly one called myristicin, is amazing.

Not only that, but a mere half cup of parsley gives you 500% of your daily vitamin K—great for tightening and firming the appearance of your skin—and 50% of vitamin C—which can have a light plumping affect.

To balance out parsley’s strong flavor, I put two ripe, sweet pears in this recipe. Plus lemon for more vitamin C and ginger.

The two cups of spinach give you a good dose of Folate, Manganese, and vitamins A, C, and K.

It’s the most green-tasting of all of these recipes, so if you’re new to green smoothies, you might start somewhere else down this list.

Ingredients

½ cup parsley
1 tbsp fresh ginger
2 ripe pears
1 teaspoon honey
Juice from ½ lemon
2 cups of spinach, packed
1.5 – 2 cups water

Directions

Assemble ingredients in blender, fruit first. Blend together and enjoy.

2—Pineapple Cilantro

One of cilantro’s unique benefits is that it helps remove heavy metals from the body, such as mercury and lead, the accumulation of which can contribute to chronic disease. Using cilantro in your smoothies, salsas, and other dishes can help your body get rid of these heavy metals, which you can be exposed to from eating fish, wearing lipstick, and many other sources.

While cilantro helps you detoxify, pineapple provides enzymes that help you digest your food. And when your gut is happy, everyone’s happy (including your skin).

Coconut water in this keeps you hydrated and keeps this smoothie light. With a good two cups of greens in here, your skin gets a ton of vitamins A and C, supporting the appearance of good skin tone and texture.

This smoothie is flavorful, refreshing, and vibrant. Cilantro may be most popular in savory foods, but trust me that it blends seamlessly into this subtlety sweet recipe. (The reason you see some difference in color in the photo is I had frozen this for an hour before I took the photo.)

Ingredients

2 cups of greens, packed (I recommend spinach, lettuce, or 1 cup of each)
2 cups frozen pineapple
Juice from ½ orange
½ cup cilantro (about 10 sprigs, including stem)
1.5 – 2 cups coconut water

Directions

Assemble ingredients in blender, fruit first. Blend together and enjoy.

3—Berry Basil

Not to play favorites, but this one is my favorite. It’s thick, creamy, and just sweet enough.

Basil is an unexpected smoothie addition that has some serious skin and health benefits. It contains unique flavanoids called orientin and vicenin, which protect against environmental stressors.

Add to this, antioxidants from blueberries, vitamin C from strawberries and vitamin A from spinach, and you have a recipe for super healthy skin.

Ingredients

10 frozen strawberries
2 heaping cups frozen blueberries
16-20 fresh basil leaves
2 cups of spinach, packed
3 cups of coconut milk
Optional: a few leaves of lemon verbena

Directions

Assemble ingredients in blender, fruit first. Blend together and enjoy.

4—Honeydew Mint

Mint contains rosmarinic acid, which is an antioxidant. It’s also naturally cooling.

This herb can be tricky in smoothies because its texture is a little… noticeable. After taking all of these photos, I had the idea to add seedy blueberries to round out the texture (since honeydew has practically no fiber) and that worked really well.

Another special ingredient in this recipe is the matcha green tea powder. This type of green tea is especially rich in chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is rich in magnesium, a mineral involved in the activation of many enzymes in your body.

Honeydew provides potassium, which helps with fluid balance and blood pressure.

Cooling, hydrating, and full of antioxidants, this smoothie is a good choice for the summer months.

Ingredients

3 heaping cups frozen honeydew chunks (I cut up a fresh honeydew and froze it for a few hours)
1 heaping cup frozen blueberries
1 tsp matcha green tea powder
1 tsp honey
6 mint leaves
1.5 cups of coconut milk or water

Directions

Assemble ingredients in blender, fruit first. Blend together and enjoy.

5—Dandelion Root Latte Smoothie

This recipe is the odd one out for a few reasons. For one, it has zero greens in it. It also has zero fresh herbs.

The herbs in this one are powdered (and not pictured because I just couldn’t get the packages to look attractive), and I swear this tastes as good as an iced latte.

Roasted dandelion root is a common coffee alternative because the taste is pretty similar and it lends itself well to pairings with milk, chocolate, and honey. We use Dandyblend in the office, which has roasted barley, rye, and chicory root in addition to the dandelion. Not only is dandelion great for your liver, but drinking it instead of coffee can save your skin from dehydration and extra oil production that can result from caffeine.

Don’t feel like you can skip the coffee? Ashwagandha is the second ingredient in here, and its main benefits are stamina, stress reduction, and fighting fatigue. It’s what we call an adaptogenic herb, one that supports and balances the endocrine and hormone systems.

Holy basil is the final herb in this recipe, and also an adaptogen. Here is the brand we use in the office.

Adding protein powder to this makes it more balanced and filling. We love Sun Warrior Protein Powder because it’s plant-based and sweetened with natural stevia.

The two adaptogenic herbs in this smoothie recipe make it helpful for combatting stress. Chronic stress can exacerbate countless conditions. So if it’s been wearing on you lately, consider making this smoothie your morning brew.

Ingredients

½ tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp Dandyblend (roasted dandelion root also would work)
1 tsp Ashwagandha root powder
1 tsp Holy Basil powder (Tulsi)
2 cups nut milk
5-7 ice cubs
Optional: protein powder (we love Sun Warrior)

Directions

Assemble ingredients in blender, fruit first. Blend together and enjoy.

Sources:

Superfood Profiles – Parsley
Self Nutrition Data – Spinach
Organic Facts – Health Benefits of Potassim
Renegade Health – Holy Basil: My Number One, Ace-in-the-hand Herb
The World’s Healthiest Foods – Peppermint
NCBI – Rosmarinic acid.
Self Nutrition Data – Honeydew Melon
Chelation – Harnessing and Enhancing Heavy Metal Detoxification—A Review
The World’s Healthiest Foods – Parsley