The summer season is upon us and the need to have refreshing, cool beverages has become the need. It is the time for iced teas, cold coffee, fruit shakes, curd-based drinks like lassi and of course, the favorite of all – smoothies. The highly nutritious drink is tasty and can be a substitute to a snack for mid-morning or early evening hunger-pangs.
The real USP of the drink, however, is its taste. Nutrition is indeed key, but if it wasn’t for the taste, it wouldn’t have such a huge fan base. Any good chef will tell you that to achieve impeccable taste, knowing which flavours work together and the raito is each is of high importance. You do not need to be a professional or world-class chef to make a yummilicious smoothie, and here are a few tips to help you make one like a pro.
Getting the ratios right
Ask any chef, they will tell you cooking is both an art and science. So, you need to start with the perfect ratios. To make one glass of smoothie, you need three-fourths glass of a liquid base. Now, the base can be regular milk or soya milk or almond milk to yogurt or fruit juice – even coconut water would do. The best smoothies combine yogurt and flavoured milk. Next add about one-fourth parts of the fruit. Bananas and mangoes are the most popular smoothie flavours but you can try plums, pear, berries, and melon smoothies as well. Remember to add some of your liquid base to a blender before adding the fruit to prevent damage to the blade. Blend, stop, remove the lid and add the remainder of the liquid and don’t forget the ice for the cool-cool flavour. Blend again till you have a creamy, frosty, smoothie!
Health tip – Since fruit has its own sweetness and flavour, avoid adding refined sugar or sugar syrup to your smoothie.
Taking it to the next level
Now that you have mastered the scientific part of making a smoothie, let’s move on to the artistic part. Add different flavours and textures to the smoothie you are preparing. How about some crushed walnuts to your banana smoothie or a bit of roasted almonds to a coconut water one. There are so many ingredients to experiment with – cinnamon. grated nutmeg, maple syrup, flavoured honey, cocoa powder, flax seeds, whole oats, mint leaves, the list is endless. Instead of adding all the fruit to the blender, keep some chopped fruit aside and use it as a garnish.
Experiment with the healthy options too!
You can even make vegetable smoothies with spinach, beetroot, carrot, tomatoes, avocados, and kale. All of them work well with coconut water as the liquid base. Add a spoonful of peanut butter to increase the protein content and of course, the tastiness.
Remember to experiment with the ingredients, mix and match to see which ones you and your family absolutely love. Buy some nice glasses to serve the smoothie, and don’t forget to blend well for a foamy layer on top! Buy a good blender to make smoothies like a seasoned chef.
