Elevate your Plate

Background:

As the weather gets warmer, sometimes you just fancy a smoothie! There’s nothing like a cold, refreshing drink to perk you up. After buying fruit, trying combinations and lots of blitzing, these 2 came out on top!

Recipes:

Tropical: Prep and add ingredients to a blender then blend:

• 2/3 of a fresh pineapple chopped
• 1/2 a mango chopped
• 200ml of low fat coconut milk
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2tbsp of low fat Greek yogurt

Red n’ Berry: Prep and add ingredients to a blender then blend:

• 100g of watermelon flesh deseeded
• 180g of frozen raspberries
• 50g of frozen blueberries
• 10 mint leaves chopped
• 200ml of low fat coconut milk
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2tbsp of low fat Greek yogurt

Tips and Tricks:

• For the Red n’ Berry smoothie, blend the mint leaves first with a little water and the coconut milk for a smooth minty flavour in the final result
• If the smoothies seem too thick, then add in some water or coconut water to thin them out

Recommendation and Rating:

Overall, I was quite pleased. The Tropical smoothie reminded me of a Pina Colada without the rum! It was silky and smooth with a subtle hint of coconut and sweetness from the pineapple. The Red n’ berry smoothie was crisp and refreshing, leaving a cool mint aftertaste. The Tropical was a hit, but the Berry could’ve used some additional water or coconut water to thin it out. Also to make it less bitty, I could have boiled the raspberries and blueberries, let them cool, and then passed the liquid through a sieve. In any case, I know smoothies are simple to make but the complexity lies in balancing flavour combinations. The Red n’ Berry gets 3 stars and the Tropical gets 5 stars so by average the result is 4 stars.