How to make a smoothie

A smoothie is essentially a blended fruit drink and is made using a food blender or smoothie maker (a smoothie maker is just a blender with a tap on the front). Smoothies have rocketed in popularity in the last 10 years and are now a common and regular part in the diets of millions of households. In this article we will look at the basics of how to make a smoothie.

Smoothies benefit us in a different way from juices because smoothies contain the whole fruit, not just the juice. This means that smoothies contain the fibrous matter of the fruit and as such are good sources for our required dietary intake of fibre. Fibre helps aid digestion.

In order for the smoothie to have a liquid like form that is drinkable (rather than chewable) the smoothie must have a liquid base. Common liquid bases include various fruit juices such as apple or pineapple juice. Dairy products such as milk, yoghurt and ice cream can also be used as the smoothies liquid base. For those wishing to avoid dairy products there are alternatives such as Soy milk or Rice. You can also use water (prefereablly filtered or purified) as the liquid base.

Pour the liquid base into your blender jug and next add the fruit.

Feel free to use whatever fruits you feel like. Banana and strawberry smoothies are popular but you can use any combination of soft fruits that you have available (fruits of the forest anyone?). Some harder fruits such as apple will take longer to break down and may leave your smoothie lumpy so you may wish to juice these fruits and add the juice and/or pulp into the smoothie mixture.

If necessary peel the fruit (i.e. citrus fruits, bananas, mangoes etc) and then add the fruit at a steady rate whilst blending and blend until the mixture has a smooth consistency. You can also add ice into the smoothie mixture if you wish. Another alternative is to use frozen fruit, this helps to naturally chill the drink as well as giving the drink a thicker consistency.

Check the thickness of the smoothie and add more of the liquid base if necessary (this will depend on your own personal taste of how thick you like your drink to be). If the smoothie looks to thin then add more fruit or ice and this should thicken it up.

This is where most how to make a smoothie guides would end but there is great potential for adding a massive amount of extra healthy goodness into your smoothie. There are many extra food types that can be added to your smoothie to give you that extra lift, be it a power smoothie, energy smoothie, immune system boosting smoothie etc.

Some commonly used and great ideas for healthy smoothie ingredients include:

• Wheatgerm - this is high in fibre and a good source of vitamin E and Folic acid
• Spirulina tablets - a good source of
• Wheatgrass powder - a great source of chlorophyll.
• Tahini - A sesasme seed paste
• Royal Jelly - produced by bees and contains a wide variety of nutritional bounty

For maximum health benefit drink the smoothie straight away. If you have made too much then you can freeze the smoothie (leave some space in the storage container as the mixture will expand slightly when it freezes). A frozen smoothie should be removed from the freezer about an hour before you wish to drink it.

Smoothie Recipes

View our list of smoothie recipes.