The captious vegetarian

When I was growing up my mom called any thick beverage made with fruit juice a “smoothie” and anything made with soymilk a “milkshake.” Derek, however, insists that milkshakes must include cow’s milk and ice cream. Whatever you call them, there are a million variations out there, and I’m on a quest to find my favorite combinations. So far I’ve only taken a few steps. But don’t worry, give me time. I’ll get there eventually!

Ginger, Peanut, Banana

• 1.5 tsp. coarsely minced ginger
• 4 ounces (1/2 cup) nonfat vanilla Stonyfield organic yogurt
• 2 ounces (1/4 cup) unsweetened soymilk
• 1.5 tsp. peanut butter, 365, crunchy
• 1 banana

I had some ginger leftover and experimented with this recipe. The ginger flavor was surprisingly mild. I could taste it but there wasn’t any “kick” like I was expecting. The peanut butter was also realtively mild. Overall, I enjoyed it, but I probably would alter it before making it again. The texture and thickness was quite nice I thought even without any frozen fruit or ice, but the flavor wasn’t stellar. Rating: B

Fruit, Flax, Molasses

• 1.5 cups fresh or frozen berries or chopped fruit
• 2 cups plain or vanilla soymilk
• 1/4 cup flaxseeds
• 1 large fresh or frozen banana
• 1 Tbs. blackstrap molasses

This recipe is from The Vegan Gourmet by Susann Geiskopf-Hadler and Minday Toomay. I used peaches I had frozen this summer, unsweetened soymilk, and a fresh banana. I also used pre-ground flaxseeds because my blender doesn’t do much to flaxseeds. I liked this smoothie all right. There wasn’t any distinctive flavor to it, but it wasn’t unpleasant either. Even with the unsweetened soymilk I thought it was sweet enough. I couldn’t really taste the molasses, but I’m guessing that it muddied up the flavor a bit, made it taste a little less bright. The consistency was thick and very good. The bits of unperfectly ground flax seeds were definitely noticeable, but not unpleasant. This is a very nutritious smoothie, with the iron and calcium from the molasses, the EFA from the flax seeds, and the protein from the soymilk–quite nutritionally balanced (32% fat, 17% protein, 52% carbs). It’s quite high calorie though, with one 12 ounce cup having about 350 calories. I think if I made this again I might cut out 1 Tbs. of flax seeds. Rating: B-.
Also perhaps I should move my mango lassi and pumpkin smoothie here? Or at least link to them?

Orange Julius

• 1 cup orange juice or 1/4 cup orange juice concentrate, preferably frozen
• 1 cup yogurt
• 1 cup soymilk (use 1.5 cups if use use the oj concentrate)
• a dash of vanilla
• a pinch of salt

This is one of my favorite smoothies. I love the sweet/tart orange with the tangy/sour yogurt. Unfortunately, I don’t usually measure so these amounts are all guestimates, but I’ll measure next time I make it.  I don’t recommend using nonfat yogurt or light soymilk in this recipe: you need some fat in it for it to be filling.

I recently tried this with 1 cup of frozen cranberries added, and it was tasty but I had to add sweetener to counteract the tartness of the cranberries.  The cranberries skins added a pleasant bit of texture to the smoothie, which was thick and icy due to the frozen cranberries and the frozen oj concentrate.  It made 3 cups.

Cranberry Orange Banana

• 2 Tbs. orange juice concentrate
• 3/8 cup unsweetend soy milk
• 2 Tbs. whole cranberries (I used frozen)
• 1 banana frozen

This was a–haven’t been to the grocery store in a month, desperate for vit C–smoothie that I threw together in a rush. I was surprised how much I liked it. The tangy-ness of the OJ contrasted nicely with the tartness of the cranberries. About 200 calories, ~ 80% carbs.

Amounts: 3 cups of smoothie is about 3 small juice-glass sized smoothies or 2 regular-glass sized smoothies or 1 giant smoothie-bar sized smoothie.  You can usually just add up the volume of all the ingredients and that will give you a pretty good estimate of the total volume made.

This is a reminder to myself that I want to hunt down the smoothie book my friend Steph recommended and that Dr. Gregor recommended on smoothies with greens and berries. I think Steph said her favorite combo was bok choy and blueberries.

Simple Strawberry Milkshake

• 1 medium-size or large, ripe banana (frozen is good too)
• 1 heaped cup fresh or frozen hulled strawberries (use frozen if your banana is not frozen)
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
• 2 to 3 ice cubes

This recipe is from one of Martha Rose Shulman’s posts on the New York Times.  It yields 16 ounces, 2 servings.  I thought that the recipe was reasonably good, but not as good as my mom’s strawberry smoothie.  I think it needed a pinch of salt, and maybe a few more strawberries.  The sweetness level was fine. I just tried this again with 4 ounces frozen banana, 6 ounces hulled strawberries, 1 cup milk, 2 tsp honey, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/8 tsp. kosher salt, and 3 small ice cubes.  It made about 18 ounces.  It wasn’t right.  Tasted a bit sour, and not strawberry enough.  I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.  Maybe the honey didn’t really mix in?  Too much salt and vanilla?

I also tried her recipe for a pineapple, banana, mint smoothie, except I used canned pineapple and omitted the sweetener. It was interesting tasting.  The mint was subdued but definitely present, and the pineapple was quite subtle.  With the canned pineapple it was a bit sweet, and stringy in places.  I’m not sure I’d make it again for breakfast, but it could be interesting as a more sophisticated beverage to accompany a spicy dinner.  Shulman’s banana berry smoothie was tasty, but nothing out of the ordinary.

She also has a recipe for a mango buttermilk smoothie, and a watermelon agua fresca, which I haven’t tried yet.

Lately I’ve been making a smoothie with:

• 1 banana, frozen (about 110 grams)
• 1 large peach (about 165 grams)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 Tbs. ground flax seeds
• pinch salt
• 1 cup 1.5% milk

It’s pretty tasty–not revelational, but tasty.  Derek likes it reasonably well, despite the lack of added sugar.  I tried a variant yesterday with about 165 grams fresh mango instead of peach, and I couldn’t tell the difference!  It tasted pretty much the same.  Then this morning I tried using the peach, but instead of the banana I added two small oranges (peeled and de-seeded, about 200 grams).  I also used 1/2 yogurt and 1/2 milk.   Since there was no frozen banana, I added 4 ice cubes. It wasn’t very good.  The texture was very stringy, I assume from the oranges, and it was a little sour.  Derek wouldn’t drink it.

I made a slight variation on the recipe above and it came out really well today.  Derek liked it a lot too:

• 1 banana, frozen (about 107 grams)
• 1 medium peach (about 134 grams)
• 1 cup of light soymilk (my brand has about 5 grams of sugar per cup)
• a splash of artificial vanilla (I didn’t measure)
• a large pinch of salt
• 2 Tbs. ground flax seeds (14 grams)
• two very large pinches of nutmeg
• 2 tsp. “mischmus”, a mix of almond, cashew, and peanut butter.

I think the nutmeg gives the smoothie more depth, and makes it taste sweeter.  The mischmus added a nutty flavor, and the extra salt also makes it taste sweeter.

I tried to replicate this the next day and put in 1/2 tsp. of nutmeg by mistake, and it was definitely too nutmegy!  Next time I’d try 1/4 tsp.