A smoothie is a thick drink made from vegetables, fruits and berries crushed to a puree. Such cocktails are quite popular all over the world, as they are a real vitamin bomb, which also has a delicious taste. After reading this article, you can choose smoothie recipes that are suitable for breakfast and dinner, and some of them can even be offered to children.
The smoothie drink turns out to be quite thick and more like a puree in its consistency. It is usually served chilled; ice is often used for this purpose. You can make smoothies using milk and kefir, yogurt and cream, ice cream and fruit juice. Additional ingredients are often nuts or herbs.
What is the benefit?
Freshly prepared smoothies are much healthier than juices because they are made from whole foods. Along with vitamins and microelements, the body receives valuable fiber, which helps improve intestinal function.
A smoothie is a multi-component cocktail, so when consumed, the effect of each ingredient is enhanced. Thanks to its structure, it is digested very quickly, and all valuable substances can be easily absorbed, and this, in turn, greatly facilitates the work of the stomach and improves the basic functions of the body.
The calorie content of a smoothie will directly depend on the components of which it consists. For those who want to lose weight, we can advise using more vegetables, natural yogurt or mineral + flaxseed water as a base, as well as berries and herbs.
Important! Remember that the presence of nuts, heavy cream and banana will contribute to weight gain.
Smoothie recipes in a blender for lunch
- Carrot smoothie
Before making a smoothie at home in a blender, peel the carrots and cut them into large pieces. Beat carrots (1 small piece) in a blender, add carrot juice (120 ml), 120 ml low-fat sour cream and a quarter of a lime, beat everything again, add water, salt and pepper if necessary.
It is useful to make such a smoothie before sun treatments, as carrots promote the appearance of a tan. It is not advisable to exclude sour cream from the recipe, since the presence of fat is necessary for the absorption of carotene from carrots.
- Refreshing smoothie
Mix the following ingredients in a blender: 100 ml of tomato juice, hot or sweet red pepper according to preference, 50 g of fresh cucumber, 10 drops of lemon juice, green onion, soy sauce, pepper.
- Smoothie with cottage cheese
The benefits of such smoothies are due to the fact that you saturate your stomach for a long time, and also get a huge useful treasure for building muscles, which is especially important if you exercise in parallel with losing weight.
You can even add vegetables to cottage cheese for lunch. For example, mix equal amounts of basil, dill, celery, cilantro, 1 cucumber, kefir and low-fat cottage cheese, beat and garnish with herbs on top. This smoothie will give a head start to a protein shake, because it contains everything an athlete needs.
Another unusual version of the diet smoothie recipe with cottage cheese includes grapefruit and pumpkin.
Beat 100 g of pre-peeled seedless pumpkin pulp in a blender along with half a grapefruit, 50 g of cottage cheese and a small amount of honey. For cinnamon lovers, we recommend decorating the surface with cinnamon; it is excellent for burning fat during a diet.
What harm could there be?
But remember that by eating only smoothies, you will do more harm to your body than good. Quite often, this is done by those who want to lose excess weight in a short period of time. But this is fraught with unpleasant consequences for a number of reasons:
- The fiber contained in this drink is not enough to fully load the stomach. Prolonged absence of solid food will lead to constipation, as intestinal motility will be weakened;
- Dental health also requires a certain amount of exercise. When chewing food, saliva is released, which is a natural antiseptic and takes an active part in processing food. Liquid food reduces the process of salivation, which can lead to caries, plaque and digestive disorders.
What is a smoothie and what are its benefits?
From English smoothie – pleasant, gentle, homogeneous. This is a "healthy" version of the classic milkshake. The main components are fruits, berries, vegetables. Various fruit/vegetable juices, milk, natural yogurt, and soy milk can also be added. You can sweeten the dessert with sugar or honey.
The consistency of the dish resembles mashed potatoes, but they drink it from straws. The drink is prepared from fresh or frozen berries, fruits, and vegetables. Therefore, such a drink retains useful vitamins, trace elements and minerals. It not only has a beneficial effect on health, but even has anti-stress properties (as doctors say).
In addition to all this, this cocktail is used in weight loss diets. After all, if you drink it, the feeling of hunger does not come for a long time. In addition, due to its components, the dish has a low calorie content, since no or very little is added to it:
- sugar;
- milk chocolate;
- ice cream;
- a large number of nuts;
- full-fat yogurt, cream or milk.
Basic cooking rules
How to make a smoothie at home? Very simple!
- Simply put the selected ingredients into a blender bowl and puree them until smooth.
- If you choose vegetables and fruits that contain little juice, it is recommended to dilute the cocktail with water, yogurt, kefir or milk.
- Hard vegetables should be cut into small pieces or grated.
- To make the drink as aromatic as possible, you should add fruits or berries with juicy pulp - mango, pear, banana, raspberry, black currant.
So, let's move on to smoothie recipes that are easy to prepare at home.
Recommendation! Try to give preference to seasonal products. This way you will not only save on preparing the drink, but will also be able to make your body as healthy as possible. In winter, you can use frozen berries, which will be no less healthy than fresh ones.
How to Make a Smoothie: 6 Easy Steps
As I mentioned above, learning how to make smoothies is very easy if you follow these simple instructions below.
Step 1: Choose the smoothie recipe you like
We will start, of course, from the very beginning, i.e. choosing a smoothie recipe. If you plan to drink smoothies regularly, then choose recipes not based on what you have in your refrigerator or on the shelf, but based on what you expect to get from this nutritious drink.
Of course, smoothies can be made from what you have, and this is a normal, temporary measure. However, remember that smoothies can be a very tasty “medicine” that can nourish your body with a lot of useful substances, so don’t be afraid to experiment and try to plan its preparation in advance. This way, you will always have the right ingredients at hand and you won’t get lost in thousands of possible recipes and combinations.
So, answer these important questions:
- Do you (or the person you want to share the smoothie with) follow a specific diet?
- Do you have allergies or hypersensitivity to any fruits, vegetables, nuts or additives commonly used in smoothies?
- Do you want to cleanse your body of toxins and lose weight?
- Do you want to saturate your body with protein before or after physical activity?
- Do you want to supplement your diet with more fresh fruits and greens?
- Do you want to use “smoothie therapy” to alleviate some disease or for prevention?
- Or maybe you just wanted to enjoy a healthy dessert in the form of a smoothie?
The answers to these simple questions will help you decide on the choice of ingredients for your future smoothie and you will know exactly what is right for you to achieve your goal.
If you don’t have any ideas for a suitable smoothie recipe popping into your head, then you can simply look for them on this site. I am sure that you will definitely be able to find something interesting!
Step 2: Add Liquid
The very first thing is to pour all the liquid or semi-liquid ingredients into the blender. Their total amount is usually about 1-2 glasses.
When making a smoothie, try to stick to the recipe provided and remember that the more liquid you use, the more watery your smoothie will be. Everyone likes a different consistency, so adjust according to your taste preferences. If you like your smoothies thinner, you can always add a little more liquid at the end of the smoothie preparation.
Here are some examples of liquids that I think are great for making delicious and healthy smoothies:
- filtered or spring water is suitable for those who count calories, want to lose weight or saturate the body with moisture. Pure water is an excellent base for green smoothies.
- Coconut water is an excellent tonic and contains tons of nutrients.
- "nut" milk : coconut milk, almond milk, cashew milk, hazelnut milk or other nut milk.
- cereal milk : rice, oatmeal, buckwheat, etc.
- soy yogurt : natural or flavored.
- milk and dairy products : whole milk, kefir, yogurt, cottage cheese, fermented baked milk, etc.
- natural fruit juice or fresh juice .
- some even add tea or coffee .
Step 3: Add a Base
When we talk about making a smoothie, the “base” is what gives the drink its creamy texture.
For good consistency, I like to add 1-2 bananas to my smoothies. Bananas (fresh or frozen) are a great base that makes smoothies so velvety and taste amazing.
Other fruits that can act as a base include mangoes, peaches, pears and apples. Although for variety you can also use avocado, coconut pulp, chia seed gel, various nut butters, frozen fruit and ice.
But watery fruits such as watermelon, melon and pineapple, on the contrary, thin out the smoothie and greatly affect the consistency, making it less creamy. If you suddenly overdo it, then a few ice cubes can always come to your rescue, which will quickly and easily help make the smoothie thicker. This, of course, is a temporary measure, since ice tends to melt quickly, so smoothies flavored with ice should be consumed as soon as possible
