Blending fabulous smoothies is not hard to do. This guide shares with you many wonderful tips that you can use to create smoothies that are so yummy that they will make you weep!
If you are desiring to make healthy, scrumptious, yummy smoothies then you will love this guide. It covers practically everything you’ll need to know about mastering the art of blending fabulous smoothies.
Blending Fabulous Smoothies Instructions
Step 1: You will first need to select a recipe.
When choosing a recipe, you will need to consider a few things first. What are your intentions? Are you simply wanting to enjoy a plethora of yummy fruits, or are you seeking to make a healthy concoction of detox ingredients?
I personally love the sweetness of fruits, so I prefer recipes that are a bit sweet. Yet I also want something that provides detoxification benefits, so I lean towards those recipes that include fruits that help to detoxify the body.
If you wish to lose weight, then you’d also need to consider choosing a recipe that is low in calories.
Step 2: Now, you will need to select the ingredients.
Yes, I know that recipes already provide the ingredients, but what I am referring to, is selecting the actual quality of the ingredients.
We’ll consider the banana since it makes fabulous tasting smoothies. The image to the left shows the various stages a banana goes through as it ripens.
Stage 1 shows a lot of green, this is a very unripe banana which has a very very bitter taste. When a banana is at this stage, it’s good for some recipes (like banana fries) but it’s certainly not good for smoothies. A bitter banana can make a yummy recipe absolutely horrendous!
Stage 5 shows a lot of brown, this stage is for a banana that has become extremely ripe. A banana is still edible at this stage, but the yummy banana flavor is overpowered by too much sweetness. This sweetness is great for recipes like banana bread, but not necessarily great for smoothies either.
Stages 2, 3 and 4 are the ideal stages that a banana should be in, if you wish to use it for smoothies, with stage 3 being the most ideal. 2 may impart a slight bitter taste, but this can be easily offset with yogurt. 4 may be a bit mushy, but this can be easily fixed by freezing the banana before use.
You should consider things like this, for every ingredient that you plan to use to make your smoothie.
The Bitter Truth About Leafy Greens
Is spinach one of the ingredients? Then you’d of course want to use fresh spinach, and certainly not canned (Ewww yuck!).
Does the recipe call for frozen fruit? That’s great! The best frozen fruit is that which you freeze yourself! So grab some fresh fruits, prepare them, slice them, dice them, cut them into chunks. Put them in a freezer bag and store them in your freezer! You can even go ahead and freeze all of the fruit or vegetable ingredients in a single bag, so when it comes time to make the smoothie, you can just grab the bag and blend!
Does the recipe include a lot of leafy greens? Did you know that some parts of greens are also bitter? If you are blending greens, then you should discard the stems because they can impart a very bitter aftertaste.
If lettuce is part of your recipe, then you should only use the leafiest, greenest parts of the lettuce. You do not wish to use the middle section of lettuce (the core). The core is not suited for smoothies at all. The flavor of the core is absolutely atrocious when blended with most other ingredients. Especially when blended with flavorful ingredients such as berries, melons and other ingredients with a sweet flavor.
If the smoothie does result into something with a bit of a bitter taste, then add a dash of lemon or lime to help improve the flavor. This will not only help offset the bitterness but also add a zingy flavor that is absolutely delicious!
Mastering The Art Of Blending Fabulous Smoothies Is More Than Toss In A Blender And Blend
Step 3: Let’s Get ready To Blend!
Blending a fabulous smoothie is not as easy as tossing everything into a blender and blending until a smoothie emerges, no, it’s much more than this. You should consider blending smoothies as an art, that requires one to take certain steps to produce the most flavorful masterpiece imaginable.
You should always add your liquids first, this produces a wonderful base to help ensure that the blending goes smoothly.
If your recipe calls for greens, then these should be added next. When you add the greens, then you should blend them fully using the slow speed on your blender until they are chopped and blended well with your liquid.
This helps to ensure that your greens are mixed and chopped thoroughly. This step is important because you certainly do not wish to have big pieces of greens floating in your smoothie once it’s completed.
Next you will want to blend in your base. Your base usually consists of something that will produce the creamy yummy goodness that one expects to find in a smoothie. This could be yogurt, bananas, mangoes or even protein powder.
Finally, you will want to blend in your final ingredients. This is usually where you add most of the frozen fruits or vegetables that are to be added to your smoothie.
Once you have added all of the ingredients, blend them for about 1 minute on the lowest speed possible. Then increase the speed to high and blend until the smoothie is creamy and smooth.
Once you have completed the blending of the ingredients, turn off the blender and let it sit for about 30 seconds. This allows all of the ingredients flow into the bottom of the blender.
Serve in chilled glasses and enjoy!
Free Printable Perfect Smoothie Guide
Click here to download the Perfect Smoothie Guide. This one-page guide can be printed and placed in a predominant location in your kitchen, to help inspire you when you are making smoothies.
To follow the guide, simply work down the list, choosing various ingredients of your choosing. Using this guide, you can easily formulate your own fabulous smoothie recipes!
