Make your own second chance smoothie
We’ve had 2,500 happy tasters at the events we’ve been to since May, but if you’ve missed out so far you’ve still got chance to see the smoothie bike in action and give it a pedal yourself at Brentford Festival (6 September) and Queens Park Day (12 September).
You don’t need your own smoothie bike though, you can make your own tasty second chance smoothies at home with just a blender – big or small it doesn’t matter.
We make our smoothies using fruit that has had its price reduced (or is going to be thrown away) because it’s the date shown on the best before label or because there’s some interesting bruising or slightly shrivelled bits. We then mix the fruit up with a variety of store cupboard staple ingredients that most of us have at home tucked in the back of a cupboard, plus some milk or milk equivalent, or fruit juice/condensed squash.
So here’s the types of ingredients you could use:
Fruit that you’re probably not going to eat without doing something to it first e.g. brown bananas, squishy strawberries or the rest of a large packet of blueberries you got for a special low price.
Tinned or frozen fruit to add more variety.
Milk, yoghurt, cream or non-dairy equivalent (rice milk, soya milk, almond milk etc) – you could even mix it up so there’s some dairy with an alternative.
Fruit juice or squash – don’t add to the milk smoothies, use instead of dairy.
- Ice – you can also freeze soft fruits and milk in ice cube trays and add these in to make it a nice cold drink. Not all blenders like hard frozen objects so you may wish to thaw them for an hour first.
Extra flavourings – vanilla or almond essence, pumpkin seeds, oats, dried coconut, cinnamon, or honey for example.
We tend to use strawberries, bananas, raspberries, blueberries and other soft fruits because of the number of people we’re seeing at each event. If you know that you’ll be happy having the skin on the peaches or plums you want to use, then cut them up and put them in.
Put your ingredients in the blender. The more fruit you add the thicker your smoothie will be. Cover the ingredients with the milk or juice and blend it up. Have a taste and if it needs a little something else to give it more flavour add the flavourings or if you need to thicken it up add more fruit…
Did you know – brown bananas are sweeter than yellow or green ones, there’s no need to add sugar for a sweet taste if you’re using older bananas.
Store it
Since you’re not going to have 400 people wanting to sample your smoothies you can simply put whatever you don’t drink straight away in a washed plastic bottle (perhaps one that once held shop bought smoothie or a fruit juice bottle) and store it in the fridge. You can also freeze it, if you’re doing this don’t fill the bottle to the top as the contents will expand in the freezer.
If you’ve got bananas or milk in your smoothie you may find the colour changes slightly once it’s been in the fridge or freezer for a day. This is nothing to worry about, bananas go brown quickly in the fridge which is why you should store them in a fruit bowl while they ripen and milk goes yellow when frozen but turns white again once de-frosted.
Smoothies, smoothies everywhere
Cool smoothies are just the thing on a hot day whilst you’re waiting for the bbq to cook properly. Great for all ages and also possibly the basis for some unique cocktails, alcoholic and non-alcoholic ones.
You could also drink it on your walk to the station or to school in the morning, or take one in to work for a healthy snack during the day.
We’re not the only ones that think that smoothies are great for making sure your expensive shopping doesn’t end up in the bin. There are lots of recipes out there from Love Food Hate Waste. Jamie Oliver, Netmums and others to inspire you about different flavours and combinations but it’s really a lot of fun putting whatever you have in there and seeing what you get in the end!