Smoothies and Cool Summer Beverages

Slow Food Piedmont Triad and Deep Roots Market co-hosted the Chef’s Showcase at Greensboro Farmer’s Curb Market this morning. Volunteers played with fruit and blenders and served up tasting samples to market customers and vendors.

Here are some smoothie combos that we gleaned from cookbooks and all over the web - sorry that I don’t have sources but these are pretty basic. Do a search (use Goodsearch and put in Slow Food USA as the beneficiary please) for “smoothie” and whatever fruits you have on hand. You’ll find lots of ideas!

If you don’t like what you get, play with adding different ingredients or more sweetener. Bananas are often good choices, and strawberries are great, but they’re not in season at this time.

Cantaloupe Smoothies:

Peel, seed, and cube all fruits as necessary. Blend ingredients until smooth. Chill if you don’t use ice or frozen fruit. Makes about four cups.

6 lemongrass, green, or mint tea ice cubes
1/2 cantaloupe
honey (or sweeten tea with honey)
fresh mint leaves

Note: Emily played around with this one to get a very light refreshing drink. We’re not sure what she did exactly, BUT she did use green tea ice cubes.

1/2 cantaloupe
1 cup milk
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1 cup crushed ice
2 Tbsp honey

Note: Mixed reviews on this one!

1/2 cantaloupe
1/2 cup orange juice
honey
1/2 cup ice

1/2 cantaloupe
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 cup blueberries
3 Tbsp honey

1/4 cantaloupe
1/4 honeydew melon
1 lime, juiced
1 Tbsp sugar

We played around a lot with the cantaloupes and made many adjustments and experiments.

Other Smoothies and Beverages:

Peel, seed, and cube all fruits as necessary. Blend ingredients until smooth. Chill if you don’t use ice or frozen fruit.

CHAI SMOOTHIE
1 c soy, whole, or rice milk
1 banana
1/2 t cinnamon
1/8 t cardamom
1/8 t ground coriander
1/8 t ground cloves
1/8 t black pepper
1 Tbsp honey
6 ice cubes or 6 frozen chai tea cubes

Note: Emily made the spice mixture in bulk ahead of time, and used rice milk and plain ice cubes. This was a nice surprise to those who weren’t so sure, like me!

WATERMELON YOGURT MINT SMOOTHIE
1-2 cups seeded watermelon chunks
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp fresh mint leaves
1 cup yogurt
Dash cinnamon

Note: Everyone thought that this one hit the spot on a hot muggy morning. The recipe called for lemon yogurt, which we didn’t have. I think that someone added a bit of lime juice.

BANANA BERRY APPLE SMOOTHIE
2 bananas
1 cup blueberries
1 apple
1 1/4 cup apple juice
1 tsp vanilla
3 ice cubes

Note: A colorful hit with the kids!

PEACH SMOOTHIE
4 peaches
8 oz. plain yogurt
2 Tbsp. honey
1/3 cup apple juice

Note: If you like peach yogurt, this is a drinkable version.

SOURCES:
Bananas, limes, green tea, spices, rice milk, apple juice, orange juice, yogurt: Deep Roots Market
Cantaloupes: Fawcett Farm, Gann Farm
Blueberries, watermelon, and cantaloupe: Gann Farm
Peaches, apples: Dodge Lodge Farm
Peaches: Kalawi Farm
Honey: Quaker Acres Apiaries
Mint: Slow Turn Farm

~ Laurie O’Neill