Welcome to summer: A collection of smoothies

The 1st December marked the official start of summer here in Australia. (We do our season changes at the start of the month, in contrast to the northern hemisphere.) With temperatures soaring in the Eastern states last week, and set to rise sharply in Western Australia this week, it does feel like summer is here and here to stay.

Given my dislike of temperatures above 30'C, I am repeating a mantra of "only two more summers until we move to England".

I am also reminding myself of how much I like summer fruit, the joy of frozen fruit ice cream on a hot summer afternoon, and the luxurious slide of a chilled smoothie down one's parched, hot throat.

I am definitely not thinking about the joy of being wrapped up inside with a book and a hot drink while rain patters on the window. Not thinking about that at all.

For my fellow Australians, here are six smoothie ideas to help kick off your summer. For those of you in wintery countries, you can enjoy these too - I actually made all of these over winter / spring myself. Just rug up warm, drink them near a heat source, and have a hot drink on stand-by for afterwards.

The smoothies are listed in a rough order that takes you from 'basic stand by' to 'could pass as dessert'. I have listed the milk I used for each one but you can substitute in any milk you like. If making these in a blender, just combine the ingredients and process. If using a food processor, leave the liquid out until the other ingredients are processed, and then add the liquid in gradually, so that it doesn't splash out the sides. I don't have a high-power blender so tend to use my food processor; even with that, my spinach is sometimes less processed than I might like!

All ingredient sets serve one, and err towards a small serve. Double ingredients if you like your smoothies served larger.

Banana-free green smoothie with strawberries

1 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/2 cup baby spinach leaves

~10 medium strawberries, stems removed and frozen (~1/2 cup)

1 tsp vanilla

Banana-free green smoothie with strawberries

Green smoothie with a hint of orange and vanilla
(I made this after juicing two oranges for Mr Bite and being left with orange pulp)

3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/2 cup baby spinach leaves

1 large banana, frozen

~2 tbsp orange pulp, or fresh orange or orange juice

Few drops vanilla essence

~1 tbsp hemp seeds or chia seeds (optional)

Green smoothie with a hint of orange and vanilla

Raspberry mint smoothie with hemp seed milk

3/4 cup hemp seed milk (or milk of choice; the hemp seed variety gives a slight nuttiness)

3/4 cup frozen raspberries

1/2 cup baby spinach leaves

2 fresh mint leaves (roughly chopped if your blender isn't as efficient as it could be)

Raspberry mint smoothie with hemp seed milk

Caffeinated banana pineapple smoothie

1 cup soy milk

1 medium banana, frozen,

1/2 cup (drained) tinned pineapple

1 tsp instant coffee powder

Caffeinated banana pineapple smoothie

Strawberry ice cream smoothie 

(this really did taste like strawberry ice cream!)

3/4 - 1 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 medium banana, frozen

4 medium strawberries, stems removed

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tsp vanilla essence

Strawberry ice cream smoothie

Strawberry mint smoothie with coconut

3/4 - 1 cup soy milk

1 medium banana, frozen

4 medium strawberries, stems removed

2 fresh mint leaves (roughly chopped if your blender isn't as efficient as it could be)

1 tbsp oats

1 tbsp dessicated coconut

You may notice that none of these are very 'green', in the sense that leafy vegetables don't feature highly. My lack of a high-power blender makes spinach the only vegetable I can smoothie-fy, but I do have a very green drink to share later in the week (I thought it deserved a post all of its own!).

Tell me - what is your favourite smoothie at the moment?

For another collection of smoothie recipes, see Theresa's post from last summer at The Tropical Vegan.

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