How To Make A Fruit Smoothie?

posted in Recipes on 3/13/2014

Is there any better food than a smoothie? It's fruity, cool, and delicious, and it's healthy, packed full of vitamins and fiber. It's a great way to get raw fruit and vegetables in your diet.

There are four basic steps to make a simple easy smoothie...

1 Add liquid, This can be water, milk, yogurt, or fruit juice. 2 Add something frozen whether ice, frozen juice, or frozen fruit. 3 Add fresh or canned fruit or vegetables to taste. 4 Add any extras like spices, peanut butter, protein powder, powdered vitamins, or whatever your heart desires

1. Add the Liquids First This will collect around the blades of your blender and help move around the other ingredients so that everything gets blended. Liquids can be milk, water, fruit juices or Yogurt (if you use it) doesn't quite count as a liquid, but it's still better to add it near the end

The rule of thumb I use for my smoothie recipes is 1/4 to 1/3 cup of liquid per each cup of solid ingredients. Feel free to experiment!

Be Patient When you start to blend, use a low speed. It takes time to swirl everything around. Let your blender work up momentum to move the larger chunks of fruit to the blades to chop them up as finely as you want them. Gradually increase speed to high as this happens.

If you start too fast or turn up the speed too quickly, you risk making a big air bubble around the blades and everything will stick to the sides of the container and not blend.

2. Add anything frozen You don't need ice to make a smoothie, if one of your ingredients is frozen, add it at this stage, This can be ice, but be creative. Water will dilute your smoothie. You can use frozen fruit or juices.

Even though you use ice or frozen fruit, you may need a little bit of liquid. Be aware that the amount of ice affects how smooth or chunky your smoothie is. The more ice, generally the chunkier the end result, though that depends on blending time. Too much ice & you'll end up with a sorbet.

Can you make smoothies in a food processor? You bet! It's probably better for crushing ice than a cheap blender, or you can by a good quality blender.

Clean Up Immediately As with any blender concoction, clean up your blender container with warm water immediately. The smooth blended goodness which makes a smoothie delicious also makes it sticky and, when it dries making it hard to clean

Drink Immediately Some smoothies have the tendency to separate. If you're in a rush, prepare the ingredients beforehand—chopping fresh ingredients and measuring the others. Only when you're ready to enjoy your smoothie should you start it.

Good smoothies ingredients; generally some combination of fruit (frozen or fresh), dairy (milk, yogurt, or milk substitute), and some veggie. Ice is optional.

How to make a good smoothie: It's all about the taste. Experiment, You'll discover which fruits and vegetables go well together & works best for you. (hint: look for flavors and textures which complement each other).