How To: Build A Smoothie

There are no rules to making a smoothie. None!

And to be honest I never follow any rules when I'm throwing a smoothie together.

But I get a load of questions from people who are like "My smoothie is too thick, what do I do?" or "My smoothie has no taste, what the heck?!" so I said I'd put this blog post together with some steps on building a smoothie that I usually follow whenever I'm having one.

(Omg I just remembered this as I was typing the steps for building a smoothie) TOP TIP: A smoothie HAS to be cold! No joke. I've had quite a few not-warm-but-not-cold smoothies in my time and oh my god they're the WORST!!! So to avoid being a lousy not-warm-but-not-cold smoothie maker then use frozen fruit or throw in some ice cubes!!!!!!!!!!

 99% of the time I'll follow these 'steps' when I'm smoothie-making but I'm not gonna lie I do experiment sometimes and not use them, even if it does go horribly wrong ahahaha!

But to be honest, these steps aren't set in stone, like don't take them word for word if that makes any sense at all. The most important thing to do is to find what works for you and do that!!!

There are 5 steps in building an unreal smoothie, none of them are complicated, and you don't even have to do all 5 (but if you do all 5 then you'll have such a rockin' smoothie oh my god!)

Here they are:

1. Base (E.g banana or avocado)

2. Fruit (E.g frozen pineapple)

3. Greens (E.g spinach)

4. Extras (E.g walnuts and spirulina)

5. Liquid (E.g rice milk)

1. Base - Every smoothie needs a good base, a solid ingredient that'll bring it all together. A few times I tried some smoothies without a 'base' ingredient but I found that those smoothies were always far too watery and awful! That's why in every smoothie I made I use a banana or an avocado. I'll usually go for a banana, but avocado works well with smoothies where there's a strong flavour that'll overpower the avocado taste. If I'm hungry I'll put 2 or 3 bananas in a smoothie. Don't worry, you're not going to die from a potassium overdose if you have 2, 3, 4, or even 5 bananas in a smoothie ahaha! A mix of 1/2 a banana and 1/2 an avocado is nice too, the banana adds a sweetness to the smoothie while the avocado makes it super creamy.
2. Fruit - Once you have your banana/avocado base then you need to decide on what fruit you're gonna have. If you're new to smoothies then it doesn't really matter but if you're trying to be healthier then I'd recommend putting less fruit and more veg in your smoothie, it sounds scary but trust me it's not! I always go for frozen fruit as it's cheaper and it makes the smoothie cold. I usually go for strong-tasting fruit like berries or pineapple or something that'll add a good strong flavour to the smoothie. In most supermarkets they have smoothie 'bags' made already so I usually pick up a bag of mixed berries and a bag of mixed tropical fruit (with pineapple, mango, and papaya mmmm).
3. Greens - Don't be scared when you hear the words 'green' and 'smoothie' used in the same sentence ahaha!!! If you follow the steps it's 100% grand because the strong-tasting fruit (from step 2) completely overpowers the taste of any greens you'll use, trust me! I'd say about 90% of the smoothies I make are green because I'll nearly always throw some spinach or kale in them, just for the laugh. In my opinion, smoothies are the best way of eating (or should I say drinking?!) your greens because (a) you can consume much more of them without you even realising, and (b) the greens will be raw which is fab because they won't lose any nutrients in comparison to when you cook greens cuz they lose some nutrients etc because of the heat of cooking them. If you're new to smoothies then I'd say start with spinach. Throw in a small handful of spinach into your next smoothie and I bet that you won't even taste it! If you're feeling more adventurous then try a bigger handful of spinach and see how you get on. If you're a more advanced smoothie maker then try putting some kale in your smoothie, it's unreal omg! The most important thing with kale in a smoothie is that you remove all the main 'hard' stem of the kale because it doesn't blend very well and leaves the smoothie lumpy which isn't great. So yeah throw in some kale or spinach and see how you feel! (Fun science fact: Make sure to have a source of vitamin C in your smoothie if you're including some greens as the vitamin C makes the iron in the greens more absorbable in the body. Sources of vitamin C include lemon, lime, honeydew melon, pineapple, raspberries, strawberries, and spinach.) TOP TIP: Never ever use strong-flavoured greens like rocket because your smoothie will taste like grass!!! (Unless you want your smoothie to taste like grass, then carry on!) Go for milder-tasting greens like spinach and kale!
4. Extras - I love throwing in some extra bits and bobs into a smoothie. Tbh, an 'extra' is just anything like nuts, seeds, nut butter, chia seeds, linseeds, goji berries, protein powder, and other powders like spirulina or maca. I find that cashew nuts make a smoothie so creamy and walnuts add a lovely flavour. Adding 'extras' to your smoothie helps keep you fuller for longer too! I love throwing in a big dollop of peanut butter or a handful of pumpkin seeds into my smoothies. Another thing I love (even though they should probably be in the 'Fruit' section and not the 'Extras' section ahaha) are dates! Omg just adding 1 or 2 to a smoothie makes the smoothie so much sweeter and I just love it! You can throw in some protein powder into your smoothie if you're hungry after a workout or you can put in some groovy powders like cacao powder, spirulina or maca powder which all have very strong flavours so only use a small bit until you get used to them!
5. Liquid - For all my smoothies I use rice milk or coconut water orange juice or just normal water or a mixture of a few. It all depends on what flavour you want, e.g use rice milk in a chocolate-flavoured smoothie, use orange juice in an exotic-flavoured smoothie. I'd never do a smoothie of just juice, I find that it's far too sweet and my teeth feel fierce sugary afterwards so if you're using juice (e.g orange juice) then go for 1/2 orange juice and 1/2 another liquid like coconut water or just normal water. Never ever ever ever ever use dairy milk (e.g cow's milk) in a smoothie oh my god, I know I'm vegan like so I don't use it anyway but for goodness sake give your body a break from the dairy for just one drink!!!! ALWAYS go for a plant-based milk, there are so many different types, they're good value, and you don't even taste them fully when all the other ingredients are in the smoothie too! Trust me, your body will thank you for it! Most of the time I use a mixture of rice milk/orange juice/water in my smoothies but if there is coconut water reduced in a shop I'll always get it omg! I've found that coconut water gives the best consistency for a smoothie, it is expensive though so I only really buy it when it's on offer!

Smoothie Probs 101: Everyone makes a disgusting smoothie by accident from time to time, it happens to all of us! But if you can save it then here are some tricks that might help you...

• Smoothie too runny? - Add ice or frozen fruit or banana or avocado.
• Smoothie too thick? - Add more liquid.
• Smoothie has 'no flavour'? - See what 'Fruit' or 'Extras' you have and throw some into the smoothie and try again! E.g throw in some frozen strawberries and a dollop of peanut butter and see if the smoothie tastes any better!

So there we have it, 5 simple steps to building your own smoothie!

I hope it all makes sense, and sorry if I blabbed on a lot, I could talk about food all day omg I'm so sad like!!!!

There's gonna be a new blog post tomorrow with 5 of my favourite smoothie recipes so make sure to come back here tomorrow for them! I can't wait for you to try them!

If you have any questions or anything just send me an email to plantpoweredhuman@gmail.com or ask me over on my Instagram account.

Happy smoothie making!!!

Big love,

Darragh