Six exotic smoothie recipes from around the world

As we pass through spring and go into summer, health oriented foodies can focus on smoothie delights…

As we pass through spring and go into summer, health oriented foodies can focus on smoothie delights for refreshingly healthy beverages.

In case you're unfamiliar with making your own smoothies, you'll come to realize how easy it is if you have a decent blender that doesn't have to come apart for cleaning purposes. Adequate blenders don't have to be the most expensive.

All you do is add the ingredients into the blender and crank up the blender for a couple of minutes. One source even recommends setting aside the ingredients for each type of smoothie in containers and anytime it's smoothie time simply pull one out of the freezer and plop it into your blender adding water if needed.

Many smoothies combine a form of dairy or dairy substitute like almond milk with only fruit and maybe coconut oil. This type is tasty and refreshing, but green smoothies that use a vegetable and a fruit, around 50/50, with water and ice if desired, are considered more healthy and promote great green veggie consumption.

Green smoothies offer the benefits of veggies such as spinach or chard and others. But what many consider veggies are often fruits. Avocados, cucumbers, bell peppers, even tomatoes are technically fruits.

Mixing fruits with starchy vegetables is not a good idea for good digestion. So the ideal green smoothies should contain green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, kale, chard, and others with your choice of fruit.

Recipe examples

1. Here's an easy summer time smoothie that combines watermelon, strawberries, and cucumber. Make sure your strawberries are organic as the worst pesticides are used in conventionally raised strawberries.

1 cup fresh strawberries with the leafy parts removed, or frozen strawberries
1 cup watermelon chunks without seeds
1/2 cup chopped cucumber

Add some ice for chilling if necessary and blend until liquified.

2. The New Zealand manuka honey and strawberry smoothie incorporates manuka honey's antimicrobial magic with a tasty smoothie.

2 tablespoons New Zealand manuka honey
1/2 cup fruit juice (preferably organic unfiltered or unpasteurized apple)
1 cup organic plain whole milk yogurt (favored yogurts have too much sugar, fructose, or use aspartame)
1/2 cup fresh strawberries
1 cup ice cubes
1 fresh mint leaf

3. Papaya surprise smoothie

1 papaya, peeled seeded and diced
1 banana peeled and sliced
1/2 cup sliced fresh strawberries
1/3 cup organic or raw milk
1/4 cup honey or sucanat
15 ice cubes

4. Berry smoothies work with any kind of berries. Here's a blueberry example:

2 cups frozen blueberries - if fresh, then you'll need to add ice.
A couple of generous dollops of plain organic whole milk yogurt
A teaspoonful of vanilla extract
A pinch of cinnamon
A healthy squeeze of lemon
2 cups of grape juice or apple juice if grape is unavailable
Sweeten to taste with honey or sucanat

You can get many more hints from The Smoothie Bible by Pat Crocker available online from Amazon. It contains over 300 various smoothie type recipes and other valuable information.

5. Here's a beginner's green smoothie from Kristine Miles' book The Green Smoothie Bible, also available online from Amazon. She advocates no dairy and uses either water or plant-based milk substitutes.

3 or 4 bananas peeled and sliced
A teaspoonful of vanilla extract
A generous handful or two of fresh cleaned spinach
2 cups of water
If necessary, sweeten with honey or sucanat

6. This is from a MindBodyGreen.com collection of international smoothies: The Mexican Quintana Roo smoothie

2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
1 cup fresh or frozen mango (if fresh add ice)
1/2 avocado
a few sprigs of fresh cilantro
juice of one lime