Why?
Smoothies are a great way to supplement or balance your nutritional intake, and damn they can be tasty! Most weekdays I break my fast (yes, that’s where the word break-fast came from…) with a delicious nutty smoothie. Like most things I cook, I almost never make it the same way twice, but I’ll provide some basic guidelines and some sample recipes here.
A few things to be aware of, whether you purchase smoothies or make them yourself:
- Smoothies can be very calorically dense, and you can drink calories far more easily than you can eat them, so depending on your intake goals you can either take advantage of this fact (if you’re in an anabolic growth phase or looking to gain weight) or need to be careful if you’re looking to lose weight through caloric restriction
- Sugar contents can get high quickly if you’re not careful with your ingredients, or if you get them at smoothie bars. Use unsweetened milks or yogurts as the base, and avoid juice-based smoothies unless you’re just looking to have it for dessert.
- These are super easy places to sneak in nutrients or foods that you’re not crazy about, but wish you ate more of. Taste-masking can work well here.
How
Here are some mixing guidelines from which to create your favorite recipes. Note that I normally make ~20oz mixes, but of course you can scale as appropriate for your needs. My suggestion is to choose 1 or 2 items from each of the bullets below and experiment around with ratios and combinations.
- The base: I almost always use some sort of unsweetened nut milk–almond milk, hazelnut milk, cashew milk, coconut milk, etc.–but cow’s milk or plain yogurt can work also. Fill to a little over half of your total volume target with the base, so ~10-12 oz for my example.
- Fruits: you can add almost any fruit to a smoothie, but if you’re doing a milk-based base then berries, bananas, and coconut are best. Stay away from citrus. If you’re going to drink the smoothie soon after making it, freeze your fruit before blending. A good practice is to put any fruit in the freezer before going over-ripe to save it for future smoothie use
- Vegetables: Likewise, most non-starchy vegetables can find their way into smoothie recipes, but go for complementary ingredients to the rest of the mix. Kale, spinach, or other lettuces, avocado, carrots, and even olives (technically a fruit…) can all work
- Protein and other supplemental powders: I typically add 20-30g of protein powder in the source of whey protein, pea protein, or collagen peptides, along with several tablespoons of cocoa powder (same stuff I use for my dark chocolate). See this as your opportunity to get whatever supplemental sources of nutrition you think you need here. While I’m a big advocate of getting as much as possible through whole natural foods, depending on your goals this can be an effective way to add protein or other nutrients. Companies such as Amazing Greens and Four Signmatic make some nice powders you can add. This is a good time to add fat, too, if you’re ketogenic. MCT oil is a great add, helping solubolize any of the fat-soluble nutrients and packing on the monounsaturated fats.
- Nuts: I am a HUGE lover of nuts. You can always add nut butters to smoothies, but on a cost/weight basis it’s usually more efficient to use neat nuts. I’ve yet to find a nut I can’t use, but my favorites are macadamias, almonds, and cashews. Seeds work well here too. Perhaps the most important smoothie innovation I can offer is the following: blend all your smoothie ingredients without the nuts first (including some ice cubes if you don’t have frozen fruit). Then, add the nuts in and just pulse it for a few seconds. This keeps the nuts partially chunky and allows you to even chew your smoothie! If you enjoy chunky nut butters then you’re sure to enjoy this.
- Typical non-edibles: Using a powerful blender is also an opportunity to make edible some of the fruit and vegetable parts that you normally wouldn’t eat, but nonetheless contain valuable nutrients. Mess around with banana peel, nut shells, avocado skin, pits, etc. My advice is to start small–some can be quite extreme on the taste, particularly bitterness, and can be tough for the digestive system.
Some sample recipes
I’ll add more soon, especially as my daughter Emma has agreed to share some with me, but for a start here are two:
Greg’s standard post-workout, fast-ending protein bomb: blend together 12 oz almond milk, 20g whey protein powder (Primal Kitchen chocolate coconut brand), 10g collagen peptides, 1 frozen banana + 1/8 of its peel, 4 strawberries with the calyx (stem), 4 cubes of ice, 3 TBSP Valrhona cocoa powder, a handful of spinach, and 1 bag of Four Sigmatic mushroom coffee mix. Open the container and throw in a big handful of mixed nuts. Close again and pulse for 2-3 seconds or until desired level of chunkiness.
Keto-friendly smoothie: To eliminate the carb intake, reduce the protein, and up the fat, try this: blend together 12 oz coconut milk or cream, 10g whey protein powder (Primal Kitchen chocolate coconut brand), 5g collagen peptides, 1/2 an avocado with the skin, 4 cubes of ice, 3 TBSP Valrhona cocoa powder, a handful of kale, and 2 TBSP MCT oil. Open the container and throw in a big handful of mixed nuts. Close again and pulse for 2-3 seconds or until desired level of chunkiness.
Blended fruit smoothie bowl: Find this concoction from Emma on the recipe page.