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 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I would try silken tofu or cashews to add creaminess.
posted by music for skeletons at 11:28 AM on February 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

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 [2 favorites]

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

Best answer: 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 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: 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 [1 favorite]

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

Best answer: 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 [1 favorite]

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

Best answer: 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 [1 favorite]

Best answer: 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