11 Smoothie Recipes Inspired by Your Favorite Desserts (2024)

FAQs

Is A smoothie a dessert or a drink? ›

A smoothie is a beverage made by puréeing ingredients in a blender.

Add natural sweeteners: If you want to avoid added sugar, there are plenty of natural sweeteners you can add to your smoothie instead, such as honey, maple syrup, or agave nectar. Start with a little bit and add more to taste until you find the perfect balance of sweetness for you.

Bananas add a creamy texture and a natural sweetness to any smoothie. They pair well with almost any other fruit and are rich in potassium. Berries (Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries): Berries are packed with antioxidants and vitamins. They add a vibrant color and a tangy flavor to your smoothie.

Cinnamon. The sweet, warm and comforting taste of cinnamon helps transform your glass of fruits and leafy greens into an equally healthy and tasty drink. Despite its dessert-like association, studies show that cinnamon may help regulate blood sugar, making it excellent for anyone battling type 2 diabetes.

Whether you are looking for a quick, nourishing breakfast, an easy snack, or a way to sneak some nutrition into your kid's diet, dessert smoothies are a win for the whole family. From pumpkin pie to chocolate pudding, there's a smoothie dessert flavor to match every sweet tooth.

A typical smoothie is a drink made from mixed fruits or vegetables, and there are many ways to make one. While they provide several health benefits, drinking too many smoothies can negatively affect your health. They can add a lot of unforeseen calories, especially when a smoothie is simply a beverage with a meal.

Next time you make your favourite smoothie recipe, try sweetening plain yogurt with honey. Not only will it cut out the refined sugar, but will add the antibacterial and antioxidant benefits of raw honey. If you have seasonal allergies, the honey may help with those too!

If you drank a fruit smoothie that tasted slightly sour but did not smell or appear to have gone bad, it is likely that the sour taste came from the natural acidity of the berries or yogurt used in the smoothie. This is especially true if the ingredients were fresh and properly stored.

A common ingredient to add to smoothie is fruit, so you adding plenty of sweetness and you don't need to add any more sugar. You are doing a disservice to your body when you do. Sugar can lead to inflammation, weight gain, and feeling unhealthy. Some better options are stevia, an all natural sugar.

For those who want to consume smoothies with bananas, or other high PPO activity fruits and vegetables such as beet greens, the suggestion is to not combine them with flavanol-rich fruits such as berries, grapes and cocoa.

What is the healthiest liquid to put in a smoothie? ›

If you're looking to cut calories and sugar from your diet, water is the perfect choice for liquid for smoothies. Not only is it calorie-free and sugar-free, but it's also money-free!

While occasional use in foods is safe for most individuals, consuming large amounts of Cassia cinnamon or taking supplements with this ingredient might be dangerous, especially for children and smaller adults, as well as for individuals who already have liver disease or gastroparesis.

Cinnamon is made from tree bark and contains cellulose, a substance that doesn't break down easily. While tolerable in very small amounts, in larger concentrated amounts cinnamon can cause kids to gag, cough, choke, and have a burning sensation in the mouth, nose, and throat.

Cinnamon has shown to be effective in lowering blood sugar levels and increasing insulin sensitivity, making it beneficial for managing diabetes. Drinking cinnamon water on an empty stomach can also help kickstart the day with balanced blood sugar levels, reducing the risk of energy crashes and sugar cravings.

A smoothie, when sold as a competitive item, is categorized as either a food or a beverage. A smoothie is a food if the first ingredient is a main food group category (e.g., fruit, vegetable, dairy, etc.). Under this definition, a fruit and/or vegetable juice is considered a main food group.

Your Smoothie as Meal

In order for a smoothie to qualify as a meal, it needs a few extra hearty ingredients — simply fruit blended with coconut water is not going to cut it. Grab at least two high-protein additions like Greek yogurt, tofu, nut butter, and chia seeds. A fiber boost helps too.

Unlike juices, smoothies retain the whole fruit, including the fibre, but don't forget they are a source of 'free' sugars, which should make up no more than 5% of our energy (calorie) intake. Another thing to consider is that because we drink smoothies rather than eat them, we do tend to consume them more quickly.

Smoothies are thick, creamy beverages usually blended from puréed fruits, vegetables, juices, yogurt, nuts, seeds, and/or dairy or nondairy milk. The most basic smoothie starts with two essential ingredients — a base and a liquid. From there, you can combine ingredients to your liking.