Innocent Style Strawberry and Banana smoothie

As I live in Sydney, I am no longer able to buy Innocent smoothies, which are quite simply the best shop-bought smoothies in the world. They have started their plan for world domination by expanding from the UK to France and Holland but have yet to make it to Australia.

In order to salve my innocent cravings, I have tried to create their ultimate smoothie - the original strawberry and banana. I don't know whether my quantities are exactly the same as I can't buy a bottle and check, but it tastes almost identical.

If you want to make this smoothie the true Innocent way you should juice your own apples, they certainly wouldn't approve of using shop bought juice like I do.

Ingredients

1 banana (very ripe)
9 strawberries
100 ml apple juice (roughly two juiced apples)
2 oranges

1. Cut the banana in half and add to the blender.
2. Wash and hull the strawberries and add to the blender.
3. Juice the oranges using a citrus squeezer.
4. Juice the apples (if using) using a proper juicer.
5. Add all the juice to the blender and whizz.



Stawberry and banana smoothie


Note: If you live in the UK, Holland or France, you can substitute about 600ml of Innocent's Strawberry and Banana smoothie for the above recipe.

Classic Mango Milkshake

I looked up several recipes for Mango Lassi. They all used different quantities of mango, milk and yoghurt (one used water instead of milk) but I found the quantities below to create a good consistency - possibly more milkshake than lassi.

All the recipes also included some kind of sweetner i.e. sugar or honey but I left this out as I am slightly averse to sweetening things unnecessarily. If you prefer your drinks sweet you can add honey to taste.

The other thing that several recipes included was some kind of spicing (mainly cardamom). I might try this as a variation next time.



Mango

Ingredients

1 mango
4 tablespoons yoghurt
150ml milk

1. Peel mango and cut flesh away from the stone into the blender.
2. Add the yoghurt and top up with milk.
3. Blend.



Mango Lassi

Pomegranate, Strawberry, Banana and Orange smoothie

This smoothie came out very similar in texture to the innocent strawberry and banana smoothie, but with a nice hint of pomegranate.

Ingredients
1 pomegranate
1 banana
10 strawberries
2 oranges

1. Peel the banana and slice it into the blender.
2. Add the strawberries to the blender.
3. Juice the oranges and pomegranate using a citrus juicer.
4 Add the juice to the blender and blend until smooth.



Pomegranate, Strawberry, Banana and Orange smoothie

Passionfruit and Peach smoothie

I think passionfruit are great, but they are so distinctive it is hard to find sweet things that they will blend well with. I choose to use peach, mango and orange for this smoothie, which are all pretty innocuous.

Ingredients

1 peach
1/2 mango
2 passionfruit
1 orange



Extracting the tasty bit from the passionfruit

1. Peel the mango, slice and add to the blender.
2. Slice the peach and add.
3. Cut the passionfruit in half and scoop the flesh and seeds into the blender.
4. Squeeze the orange, add and blend.



Smoothie

Guava, Banana and Orange smoothie

Guavas are good for thickening up smoothies, like bananas. Consequently, this is a thick, rich smoothie. The recipe makes 1 small glass; if you are hungry, double it!



Inside a guava

Ingredients

1 guava
1 banana
1 orange

1. Cut the guava in half and scoop the flesh into the blender.
2. Slice the banana into the blender.
3. Squeeze the orange and add the juice to the blender.
4. Whizz until it is a nice thick consistency.



Guava, Banana and Orange smoothie

Melon, Blackberry and Ginger smoothie

When I made this smoothie I used twice as much ginger, which made it crazy hot. Try this at your peril.

Ingredients

1/4 large melon
Large handful blackberries
1cm x 1cm x 2cm piece of ginger
100ml apple juice

1. Grate the ginger and cut the melon into large chunks.



Grating ginger

2. Add everything to the blender.

3. Blend until there are no lumps left.



Melon, Blackberry and Ginger smoothie