Smoothie Recipe

Learn how to make quick and easy smoothies that are healthy, delicious and wont curdle with the following tips and instructions. All you need is fruit, a food processor, a blender or a smoothie maker and lots of creativity.

What are smoothies?

The word smoothie was first used for a refreshing drink originally made from fresh pureed fruit that is "thickened" with ice-shavings and banana without yogurt.

History of smoothies

So where do smoothies come from? Smoothies originated from warm countries like India, Malaysia, the Mediterranean and the Middle Eastern countries, where refreshing drinks are made with fruit, honey and yogurt. Mango Lassi is a well known traditional and delicious smoothie from India.

Smoothie drinks are healthy, quick, easy and cool refreshments on a hot day. When you have a strong blender, using frozen fruits will speed up the preparation of smoothies.

When you add cream, your smoothies will resemble ice-cream, and when you only use water as extra liquid, you will end up with diet recipes.

What do you need to make a smoothie?

You need a blender, a food processor, fruits and lots of creativity: anybody can make his or her own delicious smoothie recipe with what’s available in the kitchen following the tips and instructions below.

How to make a smoothie

There are an enormous amount of smoothie recipes out there, but in order to make a perfect smoothie, you need to follow the following tips and instructions:

• use frozen fruit: in stead of using fresh fruit, frozen fruit will make your smoothie thicker and keep it cool longer. It’s also cheaper to use frozen fruits as you can freeze them in when they are seasonal and use them later. Always make sure to cut your fruit in ice cube sizes, otherwise your blender wont be able to process the fruits and the blade could break easily. Big fruits that you can’t finish at once, like a bunch of overripe bananas or a big melon, are ideal to freeze in and make smoothies with later on.
• keep an eye on the fat content: adding (ice)cream is an easy way to make any smoothie more tasty, but to keep your smoothies and yourself healthy, you can use many alternatives like soy milk, frozen yogurt or supplements such as wheat germ or protein powder.
• how to make a thicker smoothie: when you followed a recipe to the dot and your drink turns out to be very thin, simply add a few extra ice cubes or frozen fruit pieces to the mixture and blend again
• bananas – the best of all smoothie ingredients : both fresh and frozen, cut into pieces – are ideal to thicken your smoothie
• grapes are ideal to make a sweet smoothie without using sugar
• stevia is ideal to make any sour drink deliciously sweet without adding extra sugar
• help: my smoothie curdles: once you have made a perfect smoothie, you could notice that half an hour later, it starts to curdle. If that happens, you simple put all back into the blender, add some extra ice and mix again.

How to use a smoothie blender

You can use a ‘normal’ food processor or magic bullet blender, but do know that chances are big that the blade will brake due to too big ice cubes and a very cold and more fragile blade. For all blenders it is recommended:

• add first the liquid in the blender so the blade will be able to mix all the ingredients easier
• for small blender without a powerful engine, it is recommended to add your ingredients one at a time
• clean your blender immediately after each use

We do recommend that you consume your smoothies immediately after blending them, so they will keep their smooth consistency and their vitamins.

Like ice cream, you can freeze your smoothies and drink them later
when you don’t have the time to start cutting fruits. Do make sure to make e.g. ice-cube sized portions, so you can blend them easily once you want to defrost them. Add a bit of milk or yogurt and you have a smoothie ready in seconds!