Making the Perfect Smoothie

Making the perfect smoothie

We’ll get to making the perfect smoothie recipes later in this post, but to start with we’ll look at the basics. It’s part art and part science. 

You don’t really need recipes

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 results to find the smoothies you really like. 

Elsewhere in this series of posts, you’ll find a guide to the different health benefits of various fruits and vegetables, and the different nutrients they contain.

Making the perfect smoothie – basics 

But before you get creative, you need to know the basic rules regardless of your ingredients. Treat these rules as a starting point. You can play around with them as you gain experience and confidence.

Choosing fruits and vegetables

In the first place, you need to choose the fruits and vegetables you are going to add to your smoothie. 

You should aim for a balance but first, ask what your primary goal is too. Is this a fat-burning smoothie? An energy smoothie? A fiber-packed smoothie? 

You should also think about the sugar content and acidity. We discussed sugar in an earlier post.

For example, 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 compensate for this.  

Liquid

The first thing you add to your blender is some form of liquid. This keeps the smoothie a drink and not a mush. 

Water will likely be your usual choice of liquid. But it is also common practice to use milk or fruit juice, or something more exotic like coconut water. 

For a very runny smoothie, add a lot of water – and juice is fine. If you prefer a thicker consistency, then you’ll want to add less water. Or choose something thicker to start with, such as milk or even yogurt. 

Some of the liquids you can use for delicious smoothies include water, almond milk, dairy milk, coconut milk, coconut water, organic fruit juice, freshly squeezed juice, kefir (a fermented milk), tea, and yogurt. Have fun and experiment! 

Base for texture

This is often just referred to as “the base.” And it is what provides the body or texture of your smoothie. It is what makes it a smoothie and not a juice. 

The plan here is to pick something that itself has a thicker consistency. This would be the likes of bananas, mangos, pears, peaches or avocados. Yogurt is also a good choice, as are nut butters, such as peanut butter. You can also use chia seeds, coconut meat, frozen fruit, ice, or even cream. 

The ratios

So, you next insert additional fruits or vegetables in the necessary ratios or proportions. Determine the quantities and add them in. 

The ratios are key to making the perfect smoothie. And the basic smoothie formula ratios are:

• 2 to 3 parts (cups) vegetables or fruit
• 1 to 1 ½ parts (cups) liquid 
• 1/2 part (cup) yogurt or another thickener

Green smoothies

For green smoothies, you will add, for example, spinach, kale, beet greens, dandelions, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. 

Fruit smoothies

For fruit smoothies, you will likely add strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, oranges, apples, pears, and so on. 

Blending

Next, you de-seed and de-stone and add everything into the blender. And then blend it all up into a pulp. If you think it needs it at this point, you can always add more water or other liquid.

Protein add-ons

It’s pretty much always a good idea to add protein to your smoothies.

You can do this in two ways, either by adding a protein powder or by adding a natural protein. There are many. Here is a random selection of foods containing natural protein:

Chia seeds; oats; seaweed (who’d a thunk!); flax seeds; coconut milk; peanut butter; dairy milk; almond milk; almond butter; quinoa; yogurt; soy milk; walnuts; cacao nibs; hemp seeds; sunflower seeds; raw egg.

But, as a short cut, you can also get protein in a convenient powder form, such as this whey protein. Many athletes like to do this.

Bear in mind that some people suffer whey protein side effects. But it seems that this is only if they are lactose intolerant. 

Mixing & Matching

The base you choose is likely to be what gives your smoothie the most flavor to start with. Choosing fruits from there is a matter of working out what goes well with that base. One way to decide this is to remember the combinations that work well on a regular plate.

For example, everyone knows that yogurt and berries go together really well on a dessert plate. So, for the same reason, you can make a great smoothie by adding berries to a yogurt base. 

This will provide a whole lot of antioxidants from the berries. And the yogurt will deliver digestive benefits.

Conversely, strawberries are known to go very well with bananas. Likewise, mango and orange go great together

Smoothies with a purpose

In other posts, we will recommend smoothies for specific purposes. But in the meantime, go ahead and experiment with mix and match flavor combinations. Get adventurous. 

Mix and match for making the perfect smoothie

This amazing infographic illustrates perfectly that the sky’s the limit in the wonderful and creative world of smoothie making, both for nutrition and taste sensation. Thanks to Prevention.