How to Make the Perfect Smoothie?

How to Make the Perfect Smoothie 

We don’t have any smoothie recipes to start making yet but to start with, that isn’t going to matter. Instead, we’re going to look at the basics that apply to any smoothie. 

Because really, you don’t necessarily need a recipe. There’s nothing wrong with just experimenting with different combinations of fruits and vegetables and tweaking the ratios to find things you like. Elsewhere in this book, you’ll find a guide to the different health benefits of various fruits and vegetables, as well as the benefits of different nutrients – that can serve as a good starting point. 

But to get creative, you need to know the basic rules that will apply regardless of your ingredients. How do you make sure that your smoothie is ‘basically tasty’ and doesn’t leave you cold? 

The Basics 

The first thing to do is to choose the fruits and vegetables that you’re going to add to your smoothie. As mentioned, you should choose the fruits and vegetables based on the goals you want to achieve and the nutrients that you’re interested in. Of course, you should aim for a balance but ask what your primary goal is too. Is this a fat burning smoothie? An energy smoothie? Or a fiber-packed smoothie? 

Think too about the sugar content and the acidity. Something like a banana or an avocado will be much less sugary than something like an orange or a mango. If you have one or two ingredients that pack a lot of sugar, then consider adding a few less sweet ingredients to try and even the score. 

What’s also very important, is to make sure that you get your ratios correct and we’ll come to this in a moment. 

Liquid 

The first thing to add to your contain before you start making your smoothie is some form of liquid. This of course is going to be what keeps your drink a drink and not a mush! What’s also important though, is that you think about how much liquid you want and want type of liquid you’re going to use. The most common choice of liquid will be water. However, it’s also fairly common to use milk (which comes packed with its own nutrients) or to use fruit juices. 

It’s also normal to use 1 to 2 cups for one person’s worth of smoothie. Note though that your smoothie’s consistency is very much dependent on what you do now. If you want the drink to be very runny, then adding a lot of water and juice is fine. If you prefer a thicker consistency though, then you’ll want to add a little less and/or choose something that is thicker to begin with such as milk or even yogurt. Whether you prefer your drink to be runny or thick is entirely a matter of preference and might also vary depending on the recipe and the goal! 

Common liquids you can use for delicious smoothies include: 

Common liquids you can use for delicious smoothies include:  Water, Almond milk, Milk, Coconut milk, Coconut water, Organic fruit juice, Freshly squeezed juice, Kefir, Tea, Yogurt

Have fun and experiment! 

Base 

The next thing to think about is your base texture (often just referred to as the bsae). This is what is going to provide the body of your smoothie and give it that thick consistency so that it is a smoothie and not a juice. 

The aim here is to pick something that has a thicker consistency itself then and that means something along the lines of bananas, mangos, pears, peaches or avocados. Yogurt also works well, as do nut butters (like peanut butter), coconut meat, chia seeds, ice, frozen fruit or even ice cream (though this last option is not so healthy!). 

Good bases include: Bananas  Mangos  Pears  Peanut butter  Avocado  Yogurt  Frozen fruit  Peaches  Apples  Plums  Melon 

The Ratios 

The next thing to do is to insert the additional fruits and/or vegetables in the necessary ratios. You’ve already set them aside, now you need to choose the specific quantities and add them in. 

For instance, if you’re going to make a green smoothie, then you’ll probably be adding spinach, kale, beet greens, dandelions, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower etc. For juicy ones, you’ll likely have things like berries, oranges, apples etc. 

You already have your base and this is going to give the most flavor to begin with. Choosing fruits from here then is a matter of choosing what goes well with that base and you can work this out by thinking about what works well on a plate together! For example, a great dessert is to have berries with yoghurt and for that reason, you can get the same delicious effect by adding berries to a yogurt base. This will give you a ton of antioxidants, while the yogurt in particular will help you to get digestive benefits.nu

Conversely, strawberries are known to go very well with banana. Likewise, mango and orange is a great mix! 

And Blend! 

With all that done, add your fruits into the blender (de-seeded and stones) and then blend them up into a pulp. You can always add more water at this point if you decide it needs it. Remember to keep your hand over the lid! 

Tips for Getting More From Your Smoothies 

These instructions will help you to start experimenting with your own smoothies and feeling the health benefits of getting more vitamins and minerals for yourself. 

But there are also a number of other things you can do to make your meals that much tastier, to make them more fun or to save yourself time.

Here are some tips: 

Add Garnishes 

There are numerous garnishes you can add to a smoothie if you want to give them a more impressive look and flavor. For example, you can sprinkle some granola or chopped nuts on top and this will help to fill you up. Nuts are also a great choice if you are going to be using peanut butter as a base! Sweeteners If you feel like your smoothie isn’t sweet enough, then you might be tempted to add some sugar or a sweetener/syrup. This isn’t a particularly good idea. Adding sugar to your smoothie is of course only going to exacerbate the issues already associated with the high sugar content in these drinks. Meanwhile, sweeteners actually ‘fool’ the body into thinking it has consumed sugar and trigger an insulin response – which in turn causes us to feel tired and may be bad for our health. There are some options ttasat people prefer (such as stevia) but on the whole, it’s better to stick with natural ingredients: just add more of the sweeter fruits and maybe consider using some honey. Honey actually has a ton of benefits and is great just before bed!