By Erik Marcus
Smoothies easy-to-make, delicious, and full of nutrients. A bare-bones smoothie is made of just vegan milk (like soy or almond), plus some frozen fruit. You can of course also jazz things up with sweetener, dates, protein powder, or various kinds of nuts. Many people also love to add frozen banana for extra flavor.
Maximizing the Nutrition of Your Smoothies
Since they’re made in a blender rather than a juicer, smoothies contain all the fiber of whatever fruit you’re using. It’s always smart to add a couple teaspoons of chia seeds to your smoothies. Chia seeds are full of omega 3s, which is an essential fat that’s abundant in only a few vegan foods.
Since fruit inevitably contains a lot of sugar, it makes sense for your vegan milk base to be unsweetened. You can find unsweetened soy milk in just about any supermarket.
An increasingly popular variant of regular smoothies is a “green smoothie.” Spinach or kale are usually included in these smoothies, and some people will boost the chlorophyll content even further by adding spirulina or chlorella. I must warn you that, prepared ineptly, there is no beverage quite as vile as a green smoothie. But done right, it’s possible to get the kale and the sweetness of the fruit to balance nicely, so you’ve got something that’s fairly tasty. In any event, it’s hard to come up with a more hardcore health food than a green smoothie.
While you can usually get great results using a cheap blender, fibrous kale-based smoothies demand a Blendtec or Vitamix for best results.
Basic Fruit Smoothie Recipe
Here is a super easy starting-point for your smoothie adventures. If you want to get more ambitious, get ahold of Kathy Patalsky’s book, 365 Vegan Smoothies.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups unsweetened organic soy milk
- 1/4 cup frozen blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, or sliced peaches
- 2 teaspoons chia seeds
Add the above ingredients to a blender, or better yet a Blendtec or Vitamix, and process until smooth.
