The Ultimate Cheat Guide: How To Make A Healthy Smoothie At Home

Think You’re Cut Out To Make A Healthy Smoothie At Home?

Making a smoothie is very simple and you can reap many benefits from drinking them regularly. The benefits include improved digestion, hydration, consumption of more nutritious fruits and vegetables, weight loss, more energy just to name a few.

Blending liquefies and breaks food into very small particles. This makes it is easier for the body to absorb the nutrients and benefit from the essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber. The fiber in smoothies helps you feel fuller, improve digestion and promote regularity.

Blending extracts more nutrition from fruits and vegetables compared to chewing them. This is important since many of us do not chew our food well. Improper chewing can result in poor nutrient absorption in the gut, mood swings, weight gain, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, constipation, and acid reflux.

There are some very basic things to know before you start blending. Understand that a smoothie is not a milkshake or a sugary dessert, it is a meal replacement. The core ingredients of a milkshake are dairy, usually ice cream or milk containing added flavoring, topped with whipped cream, sugary syrups, and candy. We do not want to put those ingredients into our smoothies.

Are you trying to lose weight? Do you want to add more greens into your diet? Determine your goals then decide what recipes best suit that purpose. You can find plenty of smoothie recipes online to get you moving toward your goal.

To make a healthy smoothie, use a healthy liquid base, avoid using sugary drinks and other sugary liquids. You can use filtered water, nut milk (almond, coconut), oat milk, liquid from freshly juiced organic fruit or kefir.

Make your smoothie creamy by adding some nut butter, oatmeal, avocado or banana. Add additional ingredients such as fruits or vegetables, protein powder, superfoods, like flax, chia, hemp seeds, or as the recipe requires.

Stick to the recipe and don’t add more liquid or ingredients than recommended, or you risk your smoothie being too watery or too thick.

What to do when blending goes wrong?

Here are some tips that may help:

• If your smoothie is too watery, add more fruit such as bananas or frozen fruit, nut butter or oats.
• If your smoothie is too thick, try adding non-dairy milk, such as oatmeal milk, nut milk, coconut water, or kefir.
• If your smoothie lacks creaminess, try adding some nut butter, oatmeal, avocado or banana.
• If your green smoothie tastes too green and a little too healthy, add more milk, such as almond or coconut milk, add a frozen banana, honey or maple syrup.
• Keep in mind that this may alter the flavor, so always add liquids in small amounts.

If your smoothie is tasteless, you can still save it –

• Try adding a splash of natural fruit juice, Greek yogurt for tanginess, dates, honey or maple syrup for sweetness.
• You can also add spices such as cinnamon or ginger for more flavor.

If your smoothie is not blended enough, try adding the ingredients to your blender in this order:

• Add the liquids first, this helps get the blade turning smoothly.
• Blend at slow speed and gradually increase the speed.
• Blend for 30-45 seconds, in a high-speed blender until nice and smooth

Smoothie Texture and Consistency Tips

• For thick and creamier smoothies, add more banana or fruits.
• If your smoothie is too thick or you prefer them to be more liquid, add more non-dairy milk or coconut water.
• If you want your smoothie to be like a pudding add an avocado.
• If you like your smoothies slushy and cold, add ice.

Making a smoothie is not rocket science, the more you make them the better you will get at it. As your confidence increases, you will learn to create your own recipes and they will be perfect every time.

 Sources:
https://www.vitamix.com