Smoothies are convenient and nutritious refreshments or meals replacement snacks. They are easy to prepare and to carry around.
I mean, you only need to fetch the basic ingredients from your fringe, blend them together and there you go; you have yourself a delicious smoothie. Children and adults love this drink. In this article, we will discuss 6 super easy steps on how to make a smoothie.
Step 1: Choose Smoothie Recipe
Choose a smoothie recipe putting into consideration your purpose. Do you want to lose weight, replace your meal, make your snack tasty or are you looking to incorporate more greens into your diet?
If you are lost of ideas, go online and Google “smoothie recipes.” Alternatively, inquire from your friends about the best smoothie recipes.
Some of the best smoothie ingredients include peanut butter, fat-free milk, low fat vanilla yogurt, blue blueberries, pineapple-orange juice, raspberries, and more.
Step 2: Add Liquid
You should first add liquid into the blender. Note that if you add excessive liquid, your smoothie will be runnier or watery. Some people like it while others don’t. If you want a thicker smoothie, add less liquid.
Here are examples of liquids that you can use to make a smoothie: real spring or filtered water, organic fruit juices, almond milk, tea, coconut milk/water, and raw milk.
Step 3: Add Base
The “base” is the “body” of the smoothie. The “base” will provide your smoothie with a creamy texture. Bananas are the best base and they give the smoothie a sweet taste and nice creaminess.
Most smoothie recipes ask for a banana or two, but some people prefer using other fruits like pear, apple, peach and mango for the same purpose. Other options include chia seed gel, avocado, yorgurt, nut butters, coconut meat, ice and frozen fruit.
Quick tips:
- Fruit rich in water like pineapple and watermelon will never provide the creamy smoothie consistency.
- Adding ice to a smoothie full of watery fruits is the easiest and quickest way of thickening it.
Step 4: Add Fruits or Vegetables
Now that you have properly taken care of liquid and base, you can either add both vegetables and fruits or what your recipe advocates for.
This will be a great time for you to be creative, experiment and explore different vegetables and fruits combination. You never know what your taste buds may like. Fruits can either be used fresh or frozen; they are equal in terms of nutritional content.
If you want to make a green smoothie using kale, dandelion greens, arugula, spinach, lettuce, or beet greens, you should cut them into smaller or large pieces depending on your blender’s power. Add any optional add-ons before adding the greens.
Step 5: Incorporate add-ons
The optional Add-ons add to your smoothie a nice taste and nutrients. There is a large room to get creative here but just to give you a hint, the add-ons listed below are incorporated into many smoothie recipes. The list is meant to help you know what is available and possible, but not to overwhelm you: Feel free to experiment.
- Sweeteners: Most smoothie recipe calls for sweet fruit or a sweetener to enhance the taste. Examples of these sweeteners include: Honey, maple syrup, dates, and stevia.
- Salt: High quality salt improves your smoothie taste as well as increasing the minerals. You can either choose pink Himalayan salt or Celtic sea salt. There is a number of good salt you can choose, just avoid the non-nutritious white table salt.
- Spices: Adjust your smoothie taste and healthiness by simply using common spices like vanilla, ginger, cinnamon, cayenne and nutmeg. These are just but a few examples search for more.
- Protein Powder: If you want more protein in your diet or you are simply making smoothie after workout, add a good quality protein powder. Warrior Whey and Sun Warrior are examples of good protein powders. The powders come in different delicious flavors hence reducing the need to put a sweetener.
- Superfoods: There are various types of superfoods used to boost smoothie nutrition. Examples of the superfoods to use include: maca, goji berries, coconut oil/flakes/meat/shreds, hemp seeds, aloe vera, cacao (raw chocolate), flax seed, spirulina, bee pollen, aca (juice and powder) and colostrum.
There a list of nutritious green superfoods powders made for boosting the smoothie nutrition. These include: Boku Superfood, Vitamineral Green, and Ormus SuperGreens.
Step 6: Blend the Smoothie Up
After adding all the required ingredients into the blender, turn it on starting with a low or pulse setting, depending on your smoothie ingredients and your blender power. Most blenders have handy buttons which make it easy for you to prepare a smoothie.
The total blending time is around 30 seconds to 1 minute depending on your blender and ingredients. Serve the smoothie, and store the excess in fringe.
Conclusion
It is important to use a good blender to get the work done. Follow the above steps and have yourself the most delicious smoothie ever.