It’s that time of year when all the cold and flu bugs are circulating. This cold and flu busting coconut and orange smoothie will stop your cold or flu in it’s tracks in no time.
Since I started drinking smoothies every day 3 years ago, I’ve only had 2 flu type bugs. Both of those bugs surfaced when I was suffering from extreme baby related sleep deprivation. I used to get one cold after another all the way through each winter and spent a lot of my childhood in bed with the flu so I’m still amazed that a change in my diet can have such a positive impact on my health.
If you drink smoothies like this one every day, you’ll do wonders for your immune system. If you already have a cold or the flu, this smoothie contains ingredients that will reduce the length of your cold, plus give you an easy to digest energy source that you will find easy to stomach.
Coconut and Orange Smoothie Flu busting ingredients
This smoothie contains the following ingredients that have shown to be beneficial for colds and flu:
- Oranges: If you have been exposed to a lot of stress lately, it has been shown that an increase of vitamin C can reduce your likelihood of coming down with a cold or flu by up to half.
- Clementines: Just one clementine contains half the amount of Vitamin C required daily. One serving of this recipe contains 3 clementines.
- Coconut: Bruce Fife says in his convincing book that he always prescribes coconut oil for reducing the length of a cold or flu and he has seen some amazing results. Bruce Fife recommends that you take 4 tablespoons of coconut oil a day while you’ve got a cold. I now buy my coconut oil in bulk here or here as it’s half the price of buying it locally.
- Ginger: Ginger has been used for thousands of years for the treatment of colds and flu. You can either add it to your smoothies or steep it in boiling water throughout the day.
- Lemons: Lemons can reduce the severity of your cold and flu symptoms as well as being great for treating congestion and sore throats. Whenever my husband starts to get a sore throat, I make him a hot honey and lemon tea with ginger and he always feels immediate relief.
- Chia Seeds: Chia seeds are a great addition to your drinks when you are feeling run down as they help to hydrate you which is what you need when you’re feeling run down. They also help you feel energised all day and keep your blood sugars stable. I can’t yet find chia seeds locally so I have to buy them online.
- Echinacea: Echinacea can halve your risk of catching a cold and reduce the severity of the symptoms once you’ve got your cold. You can find a great source of echinacea here or here that can easily be added to your smoothies.
- Honey/ Sweetener: If you are able to eat honey it would be worth adding some honey to your smoothie to sweeten it up and also provide some amazing healing benefits. I would recommend you use a raw manuka honey as they can be especially good for many aspects of your health and healing. If you don’t use honey, you can use your favourite healthy sweetener instead to give you an energy boost. You can also buy your honey or maple syrup here.
[tweetherder]This gorgeous coconut and orange smoothie will melt away your cold in no time.[/tweetherder]
What is your favourite natural remedy for colds and flu?
PrintCold and Flu Busting Coconut and Orange Smoothie (With 4 Options)
This cold and flu busting coconut and orange smoothie will melt away your cold in no time. It will also give you sustained natural energy to keep you going all day,
- Prep Time: 5 Minutes
- Total Time: 5 Minutes
- Yield: 2 Servings
- Category: Smoothie
- Method: Blender
- Cuisine: Drink
Ingredients
FRUIT SMOOTHIE INGREDIENTS:
- 1 Cup Orange Juice
- 1 and a half Cups Coconut Milk (or one can)
- 6 Clementines (3 cups)
- 2 teaspoons of Ginger (raw root ginger, or dried)
- Juice of 2 Lemons
OPTIONAL TO BOOST YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM AND QUICKLY RELIEVE YOUR COLD:
- 2 Tablespoons Chia Seeds
- 4 Tablespoons of Raw Manuka Honey
- 20 drops of Echinacea
- 4 Tablespoons of melted Coconut Oil
- 1 Cup Spinach, tightly packed or 2 cups loosely packed (or any other mild greens) OR if you run out of fresh greens, add 2 scoops of Amazing Green Powder for an extra healthy green boost.
- 1 Filler (Click here to choose a filler)
Instructions
Blend the ingredients in the following order:
- Blend the dry ingredients and liquid first for a short time
- Blend the greens next for a short time (if using)
- Blend the fruit and the rest of the ingredients until smooth (or as smooth as your blender will allow. High speed blenders may need 2 minutes for a Green Thickie, less powerful blenders may need a lot more, sometimes 5-10 minutes)
More tips:
- Blending this way allows the dry ingredients to be blended for longest, it means the greens will fit in your blender and your fruit gets less blending so it doesn’t become too hot.
- Add more water if required to thin it out.
- Substitute any of the ingredients for whatever you already have.
- If your smoothie is too warm, you can cool it down in the fridge or freeze some of your ingredients before blending.
- You can also replace half of the liquids with ice. Add the ice at the end.
- It is better to add frozen ingredients at the end to cool the smoothie down.
Notes
How much should I drink to replace a meal?
- Only use a meal replacement if you’ve added the oats/quinoa.
- This Green Thickie serves 2 so you should DRINK HALF OF THIS RECIPE. But if you have higher calorie requirements you may need to drink more.
Suitable for Special Diets:
- Gluten free (Use GF Oats or Quinoa)
- Raw (Use raw oats/quinoa)
- Vegetarian, vegan, dairy free, egg free, refined sugar free, wheat free, soya free (don’t use soya milk or tofu)
- Salt free (don’t add salt)
- Nut free (replace nuts with sunflower or pumpkin seeds. This doesn’t include coconuts)
More information about making the perfect Green Thickie:
If you are new to Green Thickies and have more questions about making the perfect green thickie, please read this guide on How to make a Green Thickie
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 500 ml/ 1 pint/ 20 oz
I know you may not have time to digest all this right now, so I wanted to give you a handy print out of this blog post so you can stick it on your fridge to help you on your journey to optimal health.
Click here to download your FREE PDF of this blog post now.
Katherine Kyle @ Green Thickies
Read Katherine's inspiring comeback story, From Fat and Fatigued To Lean and Loving Life In 4 Months.
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Latest posts by Katherine Kyle @ Green Thickies (see all)
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Hi, I'm Katherine. I lost 56 pounds and recovered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome by replacing meals with Green Thickies - my original green smoothie concept.
Read my inspiring comeback story, 
Hi, I’m Katherine. I lost 56 pounds and recovered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome by replacing meals with Green Thickies – my original smoothie concept.
This smoothie looks so good. Thank you for sharing it. I found your page from the Hey what’s fro dinner mom? link party. I am glad I did.
Thank you. It is a gorgeous smoothie, hard to believe it’s so good for you!
Hi Katherine, I’m Anne from Life on the Funny Farm (http://annesfunnyfarm.blogspot.com), and I’m visiting from Natural Living Mondays.
I haven’t really gotten into the “healthfood smoothie” thing yet, but if I’m going to start, this would be the one. My kids (and I) love oranges AND coconut, so this would be perfect.
Anyway, thanks for posting this. If you’ve never visited yet, I hope you can pop by my blog sometime to say hi…
I mainly drink smoothies as they save so much time with kids. If I had my way though I’d sit down to a long relaxing breakfast. Ah well maybe later in life! I’d love to pop over and say hi. Heading off to your blog now. Thanks for visiting.
Great information. I read a lot about natural remedies and on my blog, since I’m a nurse, I write an article on Wednesdays about natural remedies. I am going to feature this article. Thank you for the info.
We have met by chance…but we become friends by choice.
http://simpleesue.com/honduras-missions-making-bread-in-a-mud-oven
Your blog sounds great. I’m heading over there now to have a look. Thank you so much for featuring my article. I’m so glad you can get some use out of it.
This looks delicious… do I have to have a cold to make it? ;-) I’d love for you to share this at Tuesday’s Table for the Holidays – http://zentmrs.blogspot.com/2012/12/tuesdays-table-countdown-to-christmas.html!
Ha ha, no just drinking this will really help you to prevent a cold! Thank you I’d love to share this on Tuesdays Table.
I just pinned this to keep on hand for the winter. Thanks for the helpful information and tasty idea.
Thank you. I’m glad you liked it!
This looks really good! I have never tried coconut milk or oil. Maybe I’ll make some room in the budget for it. I was just telling my husband, I have never been so sick in my life as I’ve been lately and I’m desperate to do something about it. Pinning this so I remember!
If you like the taste of coconut oil I’m sure you’ll love coconut milk and oil. Coconut milk is cheaper as coconut oil is quite expensive. I use so much now that I buy it in bulk which really helps. I think the cheapest way to eat coconut is to buy dried coconut. From that you can make coconut milk by blending it with water and straining it, or coconut butter (which is quite like coconut oil but nicer) by food processing it until creamy. Brown coconuts are also cheap where I live.
Wow, I never knew you could make it at home. I happened to see some coconut water and milk on sale at the store this weekend and grabbed some. Later today I plan on trying this smoothie. And I am sick again/still so I’m hoping it will give me a boost!
Is the nutritional information for one serving of the “plain” smoothie or is it for the green thickie?
Just for one serving of the plain smoothie yes. If you want to add the calories for the oats for one serving add about 150 calories.
My whole family totally needs this right now! My husband brought home a bad flu, and me and my two girls caught it, so we need a little immune boost! :-)
Yes this time of year is horrible for bugs isn’t it. I really hope this smoothie helps your family.
This sounds like your best yet! I would never think to add coconut oil to a smoothie, but that sounds genius! I will definitely try that, and this recipe in general! I always add quinoa to my smoothies now, thanks to you :) Thank for sharing at Meatless Monday!
Thank you. It was one of my favourite smoothies. It is much easier to eat coconut oil in a smoothie than straight out of the jar and so good for you. That’s great you are still adding quinoa. Quinoa is much more expensive where I live otherwise I’d add it all the time too.
This sounds like a really great smoothie! Thanks for linking up with me for Friday Favorites. I’m featuring you next week!
Thank you so much for featuring me!
This looks so yummy! This would be a great post to share at our Meal Plan Monday link-up at http://www.modernalternativekitchen.com! Hope to see you there tomorrow!
Thank you! I’ll head over there now.
This sounds like it would really recharge you! YUM! Thanks for linking up at our Gluten Free Fridays party! I have tweeted and pinned your entry to our Gluten Free Fridays board on Pinterest! :)
I hope to see you again this week!
Stop by this week to see if you were the winner of the Sugar and Spice Prize pack! We had a super great variety of recipes and entries this week!
Cindy from vegetarianmamma.com
Thank you. Yes it gives you so much energy and tastes amazing.
Hi Katherine,
I think I might need this awesome smoothie today. Hope you have a great week and thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen
I am not sick, but I’ve been so tired today and this sounds like the perfect pick-me-up!
Yes it’s a good energy boosting smoothie too. Thank you!
YUM love the flavours in this one! I have been getting lots of oranges from my new produce delivery service so this is perfect :)
Yes it’s one of my favourite smoothies. That’s great you’ve got a produce delivery service. I’ve recently gone back to mine too. It makes life so much easier but I find a lot of my fruit and veg isn’t the quality I would have chosen myself with it.
Such a good idea to put ginger in a smoothie! I’m going to try this when I make a smoothie next. :)
Ginger is lovely in smoothies. Most of my favourite smoothies have ginger in them. Let me know how it goes!
Excellent ingredients, Katherine! Love that you are sharing these great smoothies and thickies at Deep Roots on Wednesday!
This is indeed delicious! Thanks for bringing it to Tuesday’s Table – hope you come back next week!
thank you for sharing with us at the wednesday fresh foods link up! i’m looking forward to seeing what seasonal & real/whole food posts you have this week. hope to see you there! xo, kristy
This recipe was AMAZING! I got incredibly sick last week and this totally saved me – I just HAD to include it in my Links You’ll Love round up this week. Keep up the great work!
http://moicontrelavie.com/2012/12/23/links-youll-love-58/
That’s great Caity, I’m so glad this smoothie helped you so much! Thank you for sharing that and hope you recovered in time to have a great Christmas!
If you are using coconut oil instead of coconut milk, do you still use 1 1/2 cups? Also, can you clarify the type of coconut milk you are using. Is it the one like soy milk but coconut our the coconut milk from the can? Thanks a bunch…I have the flu right now and running a fever of 101 and need help.
No, don’t use coconut oil instead of coconut milk, use it as well as. For this recipe I used coconut milk from a can as it’s more creamy (but I’m working on some homemade recipes). Sorry to hear you’ve got the flu. I really hope this smoothie helps you and you recover soon!
Gotcha, thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I bought a large tub of coconut oil from Costco the other day and wanted to see what your thoughts are on how and when to use it. Thank you.
As I’ve said before, there are no words about how much I love this site! There isn’t much that I haven’t tried! Peanut and almond with banana and cocoa is my favourite.
I do have one question about this smoothie.. The orange/coconut smoothie… The mixture is separating alot, even before I put the oil in… What am I doing wrong? This ones not for saving for later on in the day is it?
Cheers
Kim :)
Aww thank you, that’s so kind of you! Peanut and almond with banana and cocoa sounds amazing. I’ll have to give that a try with carob!
That’s a shame your smoothie is separating. I didn’t have that problem and did store mine in the fridge for about 24 hours too. Are you following the ingredients list exactly or making some substitutions? Do you include the oats? I’ve never had any of my thickies separate before but might possibly be a climate thing, coconut can react differently depending on the temperature, not sure if it’s that?
I want to to thank you for this wonderful read!! I absolutely loved
every little bit of it. I have got you bookmarked to look at new stuff you post…
Thanks for sharing this amazing Cold and Flu Busting smoothie at Smoothie OTW. With such potent immune-supporting ingredients we shouldn’t ever have to suffer from the winter lurgies ever again :)
Hope you’ll come and share again in the future, I love your work!
Thank you Ally – that’s very kind of you!
Thanks for the recipe. I think pineapple would be a good addition as well. I am wondering if the coconut oil solidifies with all the cold ingredients? Going to make this for my son with the spinach added.
Good morning! Love the look/sound of this smoothie and with the cold season here I can sure use all the protection I can get ….. I found your site thru Weed ‘Em and Reap – love what I am seeing and look forward to really digging into all your posts!
I have a lot of weight to lose – 150lbs and really think that smoothies could be the answer to staying on an eating plan and finally getting the weight off!
Thank you again & Merry Christmas!
Do you peel the clementines first or toss them in skin and all?
I peel them and then throw them in!
Peel them and throw them in!
About how much lemon juice do you get from the 2 lemons juiced in case I don’t have fresh lemons on hand?
About 4 tablespoons I think :)
This looks great…thank you for sharing! But, I’m finding this site very frustrating (even though I’ve shared it around numerous times). I can’t print off the recipe (am i missing where there is a, “Print” option?). There are too many ads embedded in the content to get the bulk of the information, not considerate to viewers. I can’t figure out how to quickly print recipes which is very frustrating.
Hi Kat, I’m sorry I can’t really help with that, other than copying the text. However, were you aware of the Green Thickies books? They come with easy to print recipes. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1?ie=UTF8&text=Katherine+Kyle&search-alias=digital-text&field-author=Katherine+Kyle&sort=relevancerank
I hardly ever get sick. In fact, I usually only get a cold every several years. I don’t remember getting the flu. That said, we can always use an immune system boost. How often do you recommend having one of these smoothies to give a general immune boost?
Yummy!!!I will try this. I always love to do different recipes.
Thanks for the smoothie!!!
Clementines or just the juice from them?
Whole clementine pieces :o)
Amazing article, thank you so much