Super Smoothies

The holidays are over, and after all the indulging over Christmas it’s a great time to get into making some healthy smoothies.

A decent blender is a must for making smoothies, and I find my Nutribullet works a treat.

Create your own recipes using vegetables or fruit that need to be used from the fridge. Smoothies are super easy to make so give it a go. Choose your preferred liquid to go with the fruit/vegetables – eg orange juice, water, milk, almond milk, yoghurt etc.

I love adding yoghurt! The yoghurt you use can affect the sweetness of the smoothie.  I like using Anchor Greek yoghurt.  It has little sugar, only 2.5%, and it’s nice and creamy.  It also has 8% protein content.

Here’s a couple of smoothies that I’ve created, one green and one pale yellow. I hope you like them too.

MANGO AND BANANA SMOOTHIE

Ingredient

2 cups of frozen mango pieces

1 ripe banana

1/2 cup of milk

2 tbsp water

3 tbsp plain yoghurt

Method

Put all ingredients in your blender and blitz until smooth.  This is a lovely smoothie to have on a hot summer afternoon.  This is quite a thick smoothie, so add more milk to suit. Makes 2 cups.

KALE AND PEAR SMOOTHIE

Ingredients

1 cup lightly blanched kale

1/2 banana

1/2 pear

1/3 cup milk

2 tbsps plain yoghurt

Method

Chop up some kale leaves (approx 3), and cook for 1 minute in a pot of rapidly boiling water. Drain and cool.  Put 1 cup of blanched kale, banana, pear, milk and yoghurt in a blender.  Blitz until smooth.  Add quantities to suit. Kale can be substituted with spinach, but will not need any cooking.