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How to make a smoothie without yogurt

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The wonderful thing about smoothies is that you can make them in a matter of seconds, they taste delicious and if you use the correct ingredients, they can be very healthy too.

A lot of people are used to drinking only one very common smoothie recipe: bananas, strawberries and yogurt. And for good reason – it is very simple to prepare and has a lovely fruity flavour.

But you don’t always have to use yogurt in your smoothies. In fact, out of our 50+ smoothies, only 8 have yogurt in them. Thanks to the large abundance in smoothie ingredients, it is very easy to make a smoothie that doesn’t contain yogurt.

For starters, your basic smoothie should consist of the following:

  • one cup of fruits – fruits are a natural source of sugar and help to make smoothies much more palatable. From personal experience, it’s best to use them frozen because doing so helps to give smoothies a thick & cool milkshake like consistency.
  • one cup of vegetables – vegetables are a rich source of vitamins & minerals and you should try to include at least half a cup in your smoothie recipes. This is another advantage of smoothies; they let you quickly drink your vegetables without having to eat salad after salad.
  • one cup of liquid – there are many options for this besides yogurt including nut milks, fruit & vegetable juices, coconut water (a personal favourite of mine!), ordinary milk and even plain old water.

Once you have these 3 chosen, optional ingredients include nuts, seeds, spices, sweeteners and protein powders.

Without further ado, let’s create a yogurt-free smoothie recipe!

Choosing a non-yogurt liquid base

As mentioned in the previous section, there are lots of options to choose from when deciding on a liquid to use for a smoothie.

I love using fresh coconut water because it is naturally sweet tasting and contains essential electrolytes such as potassium and magnesium.

I also use almond milk fairly often, which I make at home using my NutriBullet. All this involves is blending some almonds and water together and then straining the mixture. If you have never tried almond milk, you definitely should! Alternatively you can also use cashew, hazelnut, rice or hemp milk. And last but not least, dairy milk is also an option.

Finally you can use vegetable & fruit juices or just plain old water. Fruit juices tend to be high in sugar so I don’t use them very often and when I do I usually use half a cup and then use half a cup of another liquid.

The amount of liquid that you use will depend on how thick you like your smoothies. I generally use approximately one cup, sometimes slightly more.

Fruits

It can sometimes be difficult deciding which combinations of fruits to use. Truth be told, they all work great and it’s all down to personal preference. Here is what I tend to use quite often:

1/2 a cup of frozen berries – I don’t know what it is about berries, but they’re just so addictive. And thanks to their small size, very little prep work is involved and your smoothie maker doesn’t struggle too much trying to blend them. The berries that I use most often are strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.

If you are as lucky as I am, your local grocery store should have ready frozen berries for sale. Some even come as part of a smoothie mix. If not, no worries – all you need to do is put them in a zip-lock bag and then place that into your refrigerator for an hour or two.

1/2 a cup of frozen mango or pineapple – both mango and pineapple go incredibly well in smoothies and help give it a tropical vibe. They are both excellent source of vitamin C, which is required for disease-free gums, wound healing and a healthy heart. You can use them mixed together to make things even more exciting!

In place of mango and pineapple, you can also use apricots, cantaloupes, honeydew melons, kiwifruit, papaya, peaches, pears, apples or plums. Now that’s a lot of fruits to chose from.

1/2 an avocado – did you know that avocados are actually fruits and not vegetables? I certainly didn’t and for the longest time ever, I always assumed they were vegetables.

Whenever I make a smoothie (and that’s almost everyday) I try to include half an avocado. They are an excellent source of healthy fats, vitamin E, B vitamins & dietary fiber. Besides this, their creaminess adds a nice yogurt like texture to smoothies.

Vegetables

The thought of adding vegetables to your smoothie might seem off putting to some, but once you know which vegetables to use, you won’t even be able to even taste them. Or they’ll actually be sweet and you’ll enjoy drinking them. I tend to use the following most often (you can use any two):

1/2 a cup of cucumber – cucumbers are made up of more than 95% water, which means they work well in smoothies because their mellow taste is hardly recognizable.

1/2 a cup of carrots – carrots are hands down the best food source of vitamin A that there is. The only other food that comes close when compared weight for weight is the sweet potato. When using carrots, be sure to chop them up before adding them to your blender as this will make it easier to process them.

1/2 a beet – beets are a naturally sweet vegetable and their juice is often drunk because of its many health benefits. However you can also use it in smoothies. Be careful when handling it though or you’ll end up staining your kitchen in maroon!

1/2 a cup of spinach – leafy greens are easy to digest and rich in nutrients. Half a cup of spinach will provide you with almost all of your daily requirement of vitamin K. And for a total of how many calories? 50? Nope. 20? Nope. 10? Nope. Half a cup of raw spinach only has 4 calories! In place of it you can use kale, Swiss chard or collard greens.

Other ingredients

1 tablespoon of seeds – chia, flax, sunflower and pumpkin seeds are all great options. They are loaded with nutrients and boost the protein content of smoothies. It’s a good idea to soak seeds for a little while before using them as this makes it much easier to handle them.

1 scoop of protein powder – I used to use whey protein in my smoothies, but since finding out I don’t react well to it, I started to use hemp protein powder instead. Protein increases satiety and repairs muscle tissue, so its a good idea to include it in, especially if you workout a lot. In place of protein powders you can also use spirulina.

1 tablespoon of superfood powders – there are all sorts of superfoods that you can add, including but not limited to cacao, matcha, maca, moringa and acai.

2 – 3 tablespoons of oats – oats help to make smoothies even more filling than they already are and are ideal to use if you are going to be drinking the smoothie for breakfast. They will provide a slow release of energy and keep you feeling satisfied until lunchtime.

Preparation

Now that we have our ingredients chosen, it’s time to prepare the smoothie. The recommended method would be to pour the liquid into the blender first, and then add in the rest of the ingredients. This prevents the solids from sticking to the blades.

For most blenders, you just need to process for 15 – 30 seconds and everything should be well mixed. Then all you have to do is pour into your favourite glass and enjoy!

If you haven’t tried out our yogurt-free smoothie recipes, be sure to do so.