If you don’t know how to make a smoothie then you are in the right place. Make a Smoothie with the correct ingredients and you have a wonderful, healthy addition to your diet.
Making a smoothie is in fact a simple, fun, and quick way to create a delicious, healthy snack or light meal. Here you will learn the basics of how to make a smoothie in order to set you on the path to the joys of smoothie making.
What is a Smoothie?
A smoothie is a drink made from blended fruit, often combined with other ingredients like yogurt, soy milk, ice, or fresh vegetables.
Juice or honey is sometimes added to change the texture or sweeten the smoothie. Some people also like to include protein powder or chocolate or liven up their smoothies with other creative additions.
There are no hard and fast rules to making a smoothie and the possible combinations of ingredients are virtually unlimited.
The benefits of drinking smoothies are numerous(1). A good smoothie is packed with nutrient-rich fresh fruits and vegetables.
Drinking smoothies provide important vitamins, antioxidants, fiber, and all the benefits of eating raw super-foods, without the hassle of chewing away over a massive bowl of veggies like some kind of trained farm animal.
In this article, you will learn how to make a smoothie that is mouthwatering, highly nutritious, and simple to create. You’ll soon find making smoothies to be a creative and fun process. Think of your blender as your canvas and yourself as a smoothie artist.
You can easily make the smoothie in 6 simple steps
- Step 1: Pick a Smoothie Recipe to Make
- Step 2: Add liquid ingredients
- Step 3: Add Your Base
- Step 4: Add Fruits and/or Vegetables
- Step 5: Add any optional extras
- Step 6: Blend It Up until smooth
First, you will need either a blender (mixer) or a food processor or a specially-made smoothie maker. I’ve even made great smoothies with small, inexpensive hand-held blenders.
Start by blending your fruit, add some ice if you are including it in your recipe, followed by your liquid base, and finally any extra ingredients.
Five Most Popular Smoothies Recipes
Five Popular Smoothies: Healthy, delicious, and easy to make, smoothies are beloved throughout the world.
Their simple nature makes them incredibly versatile, simply pop a handful of fruits in the blender with yogurt, ice cream, or milk and enjoy!
I’ve scoured popular scrapbooking site Pinterest to discover the smoothies everyone’s talking about.
Honeydew-Kiwifruit Smoothies:
This smoothie has been re-pinned thousands of times. Colorful and refreshing it’s made with honeydew melon, Granny Smith apples, kiwi fruit, lemon juice, and sugar.
Blend with ice and enjoy on a hot summer’s day!
Skin Saver:
A favorite among “pinners”, this Skin Saver smoothie from Girl Get strong features blueberries, cherries, strawberries, avocado, wheat germ, and ground flax seed.
Designed with an abundance of anti-oxidants to help fight wrinkles and other skin aging signs the added Omega 3 helps inflammation.
Blueberry Brain Boost Smoothie:
Recommended by Oprah so it’s got to be good! The smoothie is packed full of antioxidants in the form of blueberries.
The walnuts add a distinct flavor and contain essential fatty acids to support the development of brain cells.
Blueberry, Mulberry, and Strawberry Smoothie:
This delicious-looking smoothie from the popular blog Fuss Free Cooking is another favorite among “pinners”.
Blueberries, mulberries, and strawberries are blended with a combination of yogurt, milk, and fruit sorbet (gorgeous!) for a seriously tasty treat.
Quick Chiquita Banana Oatmeal Smoothie:
Like banana bread in a glass! This blend of bananas, yogurt, cooked oatmeal, and almonds is recommended as a pre-workout power breakfast. Ideal for those on the go or someone who just wants a quick power-up before their gym session.
Basic Smoothie Ingredients
Here’s a list of basic smoothie ingredients to help you creatively throw together a super smoothie! Although not a complete list, these ingredients will help you jump-start your creative thinking about what to use when you’re hungry for a delicious, healthy snack.
By the way, don’t cook any of these! They’re perfect in their raw, natural, fresh state.
Fruit – bananas, pineapple, oranges, strawberries, cherry meat, avocado, raspberries, blackberries, oranges, mango, peaches, apricots, papaya, lynch, dates, kiwi, raisins, currants, lemon juice, lime juice, grapes, etc. Fresh or frozen, depending on preference and availability.
Greens – kale (my personal favorite), spinach, lettuce (any variety), beet greens, watercress, parsley, wheatgrass juice, cabbage
Vegetables – beets, carrots, cucumber, celery, a fennel bulb
Protein – powder (what’s your favorite? Mine is Vega – Berry Flavor), yogurt, peanut butter, almond butter, silken tofu
Liquid base – yogurt, water, milk, soymilk, rice milk, almond milk, coconut milk, juice, herbal or green tea, ice cream, or frozen yogurt.
Extras – vanilla extract, mint, ground flax seeds, flax seed oil, coconut oil, soaked almonds, soaked seeds, cinnamon, ginger, honey, agave nectar, espresso shots
You may want to add ice to keep your smoothie cold on hot summer days, especially when using fresh as opposed to frozen fruit.
Liquid bases
Choose your liquid base according to your individual taste, digestion, and nutritional needs. The liquid base is also important depending on what kind of smoothie you are creating. Consider things like sweetness, consistency, temperature, nutrition, and how light or filling you’d like your smoothie to be.
If you’re in the mood for a refreshing, light smoothie, you might want to use water, herbal tea, or fruit juice as your liquid base.
For a high protein, post-workout recovery smoothie, try yogurt, soy, or almond milk. Some of my first smoothie experiments were more like milkshakes and contained frozen yogurt, whole milk, and ice cream, though these liquid bases are more suitable for the occasional desert smoothie.
Flavors and Other Ingredients
The last, but by no means least important part of how to make a smoothie is getting the right flavor. A great taste will keep your taste buds interested and help make smoothie making a fun and enjoyable part of your life.
Tips: Bananas are a mainstay of smoothie making because they have a nice, sweet, neutral flavor and help give smoothies a pleasant, thick consistency.
Apples and pears can also provide sweetness and texture, especially when used in combination with less palatable, but essential, greens.
As stated before, there are no limits or rules to smoothie making. Anything from coffee beans to ginger juice to spices like nutmeg can be a positive addition to the flavor of your smoothie.
While you learn how to make smoothies, I suggest starting by following some of our smoothie recipes without yogurt and then branching out on your own…and sharing your new recipes with us!
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