Like smoothies? It's a delicious drink that's easy to make and adds fruitand vegetables to your diet! Don't spend $7 on something you can make at homewith whatever ingredients you have on hand in your kitchen! This is the perfectquick and healthy breakfast option to give you energy all day long. Throweverything together and take it on-the-go. Or put things out for the kids afterschool hours.
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This basic perfect smoothie recipe provides a great base for you to addprotein and fiber, as well as whatever flavors you like. We've tested thisrecipe and explain the physics of how it works so you'll get something thatblends perfectly every time.
Five simple steps make the perfect smoothie recipe:
- First, add your liquids. Start with water, milk, yogurt, or fruit juice.
- Second, add any frozen ingredients, whether ice, juice, or fruit.
- Third, add large ingredients, including chopped or sliced fruit orvegetables.
- Fourth, add smaller, optional extras such as spices, peanut butter, orprotein or vitamin powder.
- Finally, start blending at low speed. Gradually increase speed and blend toyour desired consistency. Blend until smooth.
You can throw everything in a cheap blender and get pretty goodresults, but you'll get the best and most consistent results by following thistemplate. Why? Physics!
The high velocity of fluids swirling in the blender breaks down large chunksof ingredients. It's not just the blades that chop things up! The shearforces of high velocity liquid break down and smooth out big chunks ofingredients. For more information on the physics of blending, see howblenders cut down food and howcavitation works in a blender.
Liquid Smoothie Ingredients
Most smoothie recipes use at least one liquid. We prefer a ratio of 1/4 to1/3 cup of liquid per cup of solid ingredients.
If you try to make a smoothie without any liquid ingredients, you'll beblending for a while. Make sure at least one of your other ingredients isalready pretty juicy, like a peach, pineapple, or frozen strawberries. Bepatient while blending. The end result will be super thick, so get a sturdyspatula ready to dish it out and a thick straw to drink it up.
Yogurt is a staple in our smoothie recipes. We find Greek yogurt to have thebest texture, (and lowersugar and higher protein than regular yogurt)—but sometimes a fewcubes of ice or a couple of tablespoons of other liquid work well. We tend toprefer vanilla yogurt, but honey or unflavored are also popular. Fruit yogurtcan be too sweet (with too much sugar and not enough texture), but it works ina pinch.
While a traditional smoothie might use yogurt or milk, a non-dairy smoothiecan use juice, water, soy, nut milk, or almond milk (our favorite). If you usewater, spice it up with coconut water or green tea to add more flavor. Thiseven goes for ice; frozen juice cubes or flavored ice cubes work great!
Our favorite smoothies use at least one frozen ingredient. While ice adds anice cooling touch plus a little bit of liquid in the blender as it melts, butfrozen fruit (tasty grapes, smooth bananas, refreshing strawberries) or juicecubes (cranberry, orange) add the same cooling without watering down theflavor. Get creative! We especially love grapes—see our amazing spinach pear grapesmoothie!
Why add the liquid first? To avoid blender logjams! Spinning blades forcelarger chunks to the top of the mix because they don't fit in the small spaces.Unless you have liquid around the blades, you'll form an air bubble witheverything pushed up and away from the blades to the sides of the container,like a strawberry banana mush you have to dig out with a spatula. With enoughliquid around the blades, you'll get currents so that larger chunks will reachthe blades to mix together.
Be Patient and Diligent while Blending, Resting, and Storing
Start with a high quality blender. We proudly use Vitamix blenders, so our drinks always come outgreat! Even though fancy smoothie shops use the professional Vitamix andBlendtec models, any decent blender will work (Ninja, Oster). Even a good foodprocessor may handle ice better than a really cheap blender.
Start blending at a low speed. Work up momentum to move the larger chunks offruit to the blades so that they get chopped finely. Gradually increase speedto high. This is especially true when using frozen fruits or nuts; the sloweryou go, the more blending power you have at the start.
If you start too fast or speed up too quickly, you risk making an airbubble. That makes for a chunky smoothie you'll have to dig out with aspatula—not bad if you like something like a thick strawberrybanana smoothie, but that's not always what you want.
Clean Up Immediately
Immediately after pouring your drink, clean your container with warm water.The remnants of your delicious drink can quickly dry in your container, makingit hard to clean. Our Vitamix is super easy to clean (especially with theautomatic cleaning cycle), but if you're diligent about rinsing immediately,you'll be fine.
Should You Rest Your Smoothies?
Letting a smoothie sit tends to make it less frothy, but some smoothies willseparate quickly. For example, almost every green smoothie (see our spinach apple bananasmoothie recipe) separates into a layer of green juice atop a chunky greenmixture after a few minutes.
Others fare better from resting. Anything with a lot of light or frothyingredients, or a lot of air whipped up into them, applies. (Our strawberrybanana smoothie falls in this category.)
If you're in a rush, prepare the ingredients beforehand by chopping andmeasuring them. Start only when you're ready to eat! You can store ingredientsor even storesmoothies overnight in the fridge, if you're preparing for an earlymorning!
A thick smoothie can last in the fridge up to 24 hours while retaining itsflavor and texture. Thinner smoothies may separate before then. We prefer todrink immediately, though grabbing a drink prepared the night before is almostas good. To store a smoothie in the fridge, pour it into a tightly sealedcontainer such as a Mason jar. Unless you have a tight, screw-on lid for yourblender bottle, don't bother—you'll get better flavor and have an easiertime cleaning up if you store it in something else.
In a pinch, you can put plastic wrap over the top of a glass.
Choosing the Right Ingredients
Our standard fruit smoothie recipe starts with a banana or apple and yogurt,but anything you can imagine can work. We've made delicious treats with peanutbutter, pineapple, carrots, spinach and kale, and more. We've even added celeryto the spinach peargrape smoothie. If you're going for complete nutrition, adding protein powder tosmoothies puts power in your day without changing the flavor.
You don't have to break the bank by paying out the nose for little bags ofwashed, chopped, and frozen fruit at the store. Freezingyour own fresh fruit takes less time than you think, and you can make yourown mixture of ingredients—ready to dump a little baggie in yourblender!
The amount of ice affects how smooth or chunky your smoothie is (assumingyour blender's motor is powerful enough to handle everything you put in it).The more ice, generally the chunkier the end result given the same amount ofblending time. Too much ice or too much frozen fruit and you'll end up with asorbet—delicious, but harder to drink through a straw.
What does all of this deliciousness mean for your calorie needs? Nutrientinformation depends on the ingredients. If you're not careful, you can make adrink that eats up most of your recommended calorie daily values! A quarter-cupof low-fat Greek yogurt per recipe will add tang and texture without ruiningyour diet. A single serving of an 8 ounce smoothie can run over 800 caloriesor 300 or lower depending on the calorie count of individual ingredients. Usingunsweetened milk or fruit to add taste cuts down on the expense, while throwingin a spoon full of maple syrup to taste will up the results.
For a very healthy, low-calorie smoothie load up with flavorful fruits (notjuice; whole or frozen fruit) and cut down on high calorie ingredients. Punchup your drink with spices, herbs, and other low-calorie flavors. Remember thata smoothie packed full of leafy greens will keep you full too without blowingyour calorie budget.
Now that you know how to make smoothies, rely on your own taste and style.Experiment. What's the worst that can happen? You get to eat your results!You'll discover which fruits and vegetables go well together. Look for flavorsand textures which complement each other. There's a wealth of fruits,vegetables, and herbs to enhance the basic yogurt ice banana smoothiecombination.
Now how about browsing our easy smoothierecipes for ideas, or see our frequently asked questionsabout smoothies.
