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People who make smoothies, what are your favorite ingredient combinations or spices?
My husband just presented me with a cantelope based smoothie to which he added cardomom. I don't know what if any other ingrediants. It's pretty good. Looking forward to your discussion and ideas.
Fresh banana, frozen fruits (strawberries, mangoes, ananas, berries, etc. bought from the market), 2-3 big spoons of Greek yogurt, a touch of honey/maple syrup to sweeten, and water to fill. Blended and consumed in a Magic Bullet. Every morning.
This, but the banana is frozen too. Keeps better that way, otherwise I just end up with bananas that are only fit for banana bread.
Mmm, banana bread...
I have to start freezing them because the quality of fresh bananas has varied wildly this summer. Silly question but I guess you wait until they are ideal ripeness and put them in a freezer ziplock bag? So you chop them up and just toss them in the freezer and bring them out as needed.
I pre-ripen them to the ripeness I want, which is close to banana bread levels of mushiness :)
My SO likes their bananas green and crunchy though, so YMMV =)
I'm also interested in this inquiry
Frozen bananas. They are much sweeter than most people realize, so they are a pretty good base if you are trying to do a “dessert” style smoothie.
If you have a good blender just about everything can be turned into a smoothie, including (clean) veggie scraps. Once I made one with carrot greens, and it turned out pretty good.
Frozen bananas without anything else makes a great 'ice cream ' base too, if you want to make yourself some healthier desserts. I add a few strawberries and blend them in my blender and they're basically soft serve texture in about 30s
The best ingredient for smoothies that i have ever experienced is frozen watermelon. Cut up a fresh watermelon and freeze the chunks for your next smoothie.
My older son will say his fave ingredients are frozen blueberries and Nutella together.
Do you add anything else or is it just frozen watermelon?
You could just make watermelon juice, or I guess more of a slush at that point.
It's just one ingredient- so if you're making a smoothie with frozen fruits and some yogurt, you also add the watermelon. As for the blueberries and Nutella, those would be the main ingredients, supported by yogurt and maybe some frozen banana.
My breakfast smoothie every morning:
In correct fill order,
Coconut water, honey, plain greek yogurt, vanilla whey protein powder, old fashioned oats, spinach, frozen bluebs, frozen bananas, frozen strawberries.
Also, get a legit blender if you can afford it. I thought Vitamix blenders were overpriced until I finally caved and it’s a world of a difference. The oatmeal and spinach get blended so well I can’t even tell they’re in there at all. It’s definitely a “buy it for life” type product, so you’re paying for quality.
My standard fave is simple, but elevated with a splash of vanilla:
1 small banana + small handful each frozen blueberries & frozen strawberries + large dollop high-fat plain yoghurt + healthy splash of OJ + tiny dash of vanilla extract. Blend.
As a special treat, Vietnamese avocado smoothie:
1 ripe avocado + sweetened condensed milk + a bit of regular milk + ice. Blend. It's ungodly.
Another 'flavour' ingredient that I use in other foods and suspect would work amazingly in smoothies is orange blossom water.
I keep it simple (I am also having a smoothing as I type this). Frozen bananas, frozen strawberries, frozen blue berries, vanilla whey protein powder, peanut butter protein powder and almond milk (I am lactose intolerant). We used to add greens, but we get most veggies through our normal meals.
Forager yoghurt (it’s plant based), organic bananas, local honey and a sprinkle of salt.
It’ll blow your mind.
I use frozen bananas to make the smoothie cold instead of ice (and they last forever).
1 banana, dark chocolate chips, a scoop of peanut butter (look into making your own!), chia seeds, a handful of oatmeal, oat milk, and a scoop of pea protein powder.
I'm new to the smoothie lifestyle but my current favorite is:
Bananas, Oatmeal, Organic Peanut Butter, Low Sugar/ Low Calorie Blueberry Juice and Unsweetened Almond Milk.
Why the organic peanut butter? Do you mean the “natural” kind that separates easily or PB made from actual organically grown peanuts?
Hi there,
The only ingredient listed is Organic Dry Roasted Peanuts. Mixing the separated oil with the peanut butter is a bit of a challenge but I'm getting a bit better at it. I went with this particular peanut butter because it has very little sugar (1 gram per tbsp) and no added salt. Quit caffeine and sugared soda, so this is a nice alternative!
Not healthy but 1 medium banana, 1 cup chocolate milk, 2ish tbsp of peanut butter, 2 tsp of honey and a handful of cashews to make it chunky (it's like pulp almost, if you don't want that omit the cashews).
For something healthier I do 1 cup skim milk, 1 banana, 1 tsp honey, large handful of spinach, 1/2 cup mixed berries, 1/2 of a beet (again makes it chunky, can be omited)
fresh ginger and frozen mango, maybe a banana, handful of spinach. splash of water or juice. the ginger adds a delightful zing.
Oh I usually do spinach, frozen pineapple, mashed ginger and coconut milk, but I will def try your recipe next!
sounds great!
I’m just getting into smoothies so my go to recipe is pretty basic at the moment.
2 bananas, 1 avocado, 1 tsp peanut butter, 1/2 cup milk, ice cubes
Dang. That reads like the smoothest smoothie ever.
I'm sure it was at a VitaMix demo I got the advice that a smoothie may have multiple ingredients, but make the smoothie about one of them. Rather than equal parts of everything, pick one ingredient and make it prominent. This tip has never failed me, even in some weird ones.
That's good advice! I mainly started with this because I only had bananas and avocados at home. It ended up working out well so I didn't try messing with it. But now I'm going to try recipes in these comments!
How thick is this? Whenever I have bananas and avocado it becomes a super thick sludge. Half a cup of milk doesn’t seem like much in comparison, but maybe you add a lot of ice?
It's not bad! Maybe I'm wrong about it being half a cup of milk? I started off by following a recipe and measuring it but now I just eyeball it.
I use the True Orange packets to amp up smoothies when my other ingredients are too, I don't know, mellow. Even when there's already fresh oranges in the blender, the orange flavor can get feel diminished after everything else is added, especially in the presence of dairy or coconut milk.
This is not a tip, but I had a question for smoothie drinkers. I love smoothies but some casual research told me that you remove a lot of the nutritional benefit from blending stuff down, especially fruits, to the point where its not really much healthier for you than a milkshake because of all the sugar.
Is this just crap health blogs push or is it actually true? I like a smoothie as a way to get more fruits and stuff in my diet but if its not actually helpful then what's the point?
Also did some quick, casual research but I found the opposite information. Curious where you read the contrary, though my own searches were definitely not exhaustive either.
“If most or all of the whole fruit and/or vegetable is blended into the beverage (skin, pulp, and flesh), then the nutrients and fiber are preserved, making it nutritionally comparable to eating the ingredients in whole form. In some cases, these “smoothies” may offer high quality nutrition if very fresh produce is used. They may also be easier to digest in a blended texture. However, consuming these same foods in whole form will provide longer term satiety and make it easier to avoid excessive caloric intake.“
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/common-questions-fruits-vegetables/
Fibrous cell structures are retained in smoothies
https://www.longdom.org/open-access/fibrous-cellular-structures-are-found-in-a-commercial-fruit-smoothie-and--remain-intact-during-simulated-digestion-2155-9600-1000576.pdf
https://www.longdom.org/open-access/where-are-we-with-smoothies-a-review-of-the-latest-guidelines-nutritionalgaps-and-evidence-2155-9600-1000632.pdf
Smoothies may contribute to daily fiber intake requirements
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29889581/
This is a good point to take note of. You can cram a lot into a single smoothie serving that you can still finish. It’s important to think to think about how big of a meal all of those whole components would make and the calorie total.
I think it's more that your stomach doesn't need to work hard when it's blended. Chewed food is still pretty solid and has to be broken up. That time in the stomach means a longer "stomach full" signal being sent. Not an issue for someone with good self control but problematic for people that are feel the need to fulfill hunger cues immediately.
Well thats good to read! I can enjoy them with a little less guilt now haha, this was a while ago so I probably can't pull up my sources but I definitely remember reading something about smoothies "healthwashing" just drinking a bunch of sugar basically, but I'm glad to hear that's not the case.
I haven't scientifically researched any of this so my apologies if I'm off base but I once read that you should aim to have at least one green thing in a smoothie to make it healthier. As you said, a lot of fruits gives you a lot of sugar. Replacing a fruit with kale or avocado or something like that can give you nutrients while lessening the total amount of sugar per smoothie.
-equal parts dry oats, blueberries, and soy milk (berries can be fresh or frozen, depends on how cold you want it; substitute with strawberries if you like)
-cinnamon
-tablespoon of Greek yogurt
-tablespoon of natural peanut butter (only ingredient peanuts, nothing else)
-your choice of protein powder (I use pea protein)
I’ve tried a few variations over the years but have landed on:
Frozen strawberries, fresh banana, berry Greek yogurt that I’ve frozen into bars (frozen for texture), cream or milk (helps it taste less watered down), and either vanilla + water or unsweetened vanilla almond milk for a bit of extra flavour.
Good with or without protein powder too.