Help me make my perfect smoothie

February 8, 2023 11:15 AM

I would like to make a smoothie that contains as much frozen fruit as possible, does *not* contain banana or coconut milk, and has a reasonably smoothie-like texture with minimal amounts of (non)-dairy milk and yogurt. What ratio should I use?

I'm a newbie smoothie maker/drinker, and part of that is my inordinately picky preferences:

- Should taste as much like fruit as possible, and as little like milk/yogurt/dairy as possible. For reference, I don't like milkshakes or milk boba tea or lattes, even when made with non-dairy substitutes. Yogurt has less of the icky taste, but it seems too thick to actually help blend the frozen fruit together on its own?

- Should not taste like banana or coconut. I'm similarly sensitive to those flavors, and I find that adding banana to a fruit smoothie (for creaminess) inevitably makes it taste like banana.

Given those requirements, it'd be great if my smoothie isn't actually an ice slushie, but at least a little creamy, maybe? I'm not opposed to adding dairy to accomplish this, but my first attempt of 3C fruit + 1.5C dairy (mostly oat milk with a bit of yogurt) tasted distinctly milky and still seemed super thick/chunky.

If it helps, most fruit ingredients are OK by my taste buds, except for: banana, coconut, pineapple.

posted by serelliya to Food & Drink (13 answers total)

Avocado, and a better blender.
posted by supercres at 11:21 AM on February 8, 2023

I would try silken tofu or cashews to add creaminess.
posted by music for skeletons at 11:28 AM on February 8, 2023

I'm usually a skeptic about fancy appliances, but I agree that a really powerful blender noticeably improves the texture. It doesn't have to be superfancy or cost a fortune, but going from a 300 to 1000+ watt motor makes a big difference.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 11:33 AM on February 8, 2023

If it's too thick, water and juice can easily thin it without tasting creamy
posted by advicepig at 11:34 AM on February 8, 2023

You can use fruit juice to thin the yogurt. Mango (when it's good and ripe) has lots of flavor and also a lovely buttery texture ideal for the ultimate creamy smoothie feel.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 11:34 AM on February 8, 2023

Thanks for the ideas so far, keep them coming! I'd also love some reference points on fruit-to-liquid ratios?

For reference, I'm using this Wirecutter-budget-pick blender with a 1400W motor, and actively using the tampdown tool to help blend. It's no Vitamix, but it ought to be powerful enough?
posted by serelliya at 11:40 AM on February 8, 2023

I just reccod silken tofu in yesterday's smoothie thread and so am here to second mfs's comment.
posted by phunniemee at 11:51 AM on February 8, 2023

I like pumpkin seed butter or tahini in my smoothie if I do not want to put a banana in it or have no bananas. I like frozen strawberries and cherries with some cinnamon and hemp seeds, chia seeds, or flax seeds as well. Avocado will definitely replace the banana for smoothness and creaminess texture. I put in oranges or mandarins as well for vitamin c.
posted by RearWindow at 12:06 PM on February 8, 2023

I'm part of The Smoothie Crew (tm) at work; we have a Ninja Nutribullet in the canteen that a lot of us use every morning. I personally love that it has a setting designed for smoothie making.

As for ingredients - I usually keep a couple big bags of frozen mixed fruit in the canteen freezer, and each morning I fill the nutribullet up about 2/3 and then add one of the yogurt cups they also keep in the fridge plus some water. One morning we were out of yogurt - but our housekeeping staff was unpacking some bottles of single-serve coconut water, and one of them called my attention to a serving suggestion printed on the side of the package ("hey, it says you can use this with berries, maybe try that?") One of the 12-oz bottles plus 2/3 of a Nutribullet of frozen berries worked perfectly.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:17 PM on February 8, 2023

Frozen mango yields a texture improvement over "berries only" in my experience. Also a bit of vanilla protein powder can make the smoothie taste "creamier" without adding actual dairy.
posted by grog at 12:46 PM on February 8, 2023

I've tried a bunch of different liquids in smoothies and I always come back to almond milk--it's not as thin and sad tasting as water, not sickeningly sweet like juice, and not thick and milky like soy or oat milk.

My standard smoothie is made thusly.

1. I create 5 or 10 smoothie dry ingredient "packs" to make smoothie making for the next week or two a fast process.
2. On smoothie day, I drop the dry ingredient pack into the blender, then add 1.5 cups unsweetened and unflavored almond milk, 1 cup of Wyler's kale/berry frozen fruit mixture OR 1 cup of frozen cherries, and some frozen banana--sometimes half, sometimes whole, it just depends on how big the banana is. I can't taste the banana at all. Then I drizzle in about a Tbl. of maple syrup or add a medjool date for sweetness. (If you simply cannot handle banana, drop it and use only 1C of almond milk.)
3. Blend and then pour into my big smoothie glass.

I like chocolatey smoothies which may not be your thing, but here's my dry pack recipe:

1/4 cup rolled oats
2 Tbl. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tbl. chia seeds
1 scoop vegan chocolate protein powder.
posted by MagnificentVacuum at 12:49 PM on February 8, 2023

Also consider that chia and psyllium husk are good thickeners and some think they are superfoods for other reasons. Oats do this too to some degree.
posted by advicepig at 1:28 PM on February 8, 2023

I've read that zucchini is a good replacement for bananas in smoothies but have not yet dared to try it myself. And I started enjoying my smoothies 10x more when I started adding orange juice to them (1:1 with oat milk and sometimes soy yogurt).
And I agree with others here about the blender. I'm not sure why this is but my 600W Nutribullet is so much better at making things creamy than some 1000-1200W blenders I have used. Go figure.
posted by sharksmile at 6:59 AM on February 9, 2023