How to Make Smoothies

Homemade smoothies are a tasty way to add extra servings of fruits and vegetables into your diet. Whether you are looking for a delicious way to start your day or just need a healthier afternoon snack, knowing how to make smoothies is a great way to expand your culinary knowledge and build your kitchen confidence.

How do you make a smoothie from scratch?

In short, making a smoothie is as simple as tossing ingredients into the blender and letting it do the work. The harder part is deciding what, and how much, goes into the pitcher.

A homemade smoothie can be as simple or complex as you choose to make it.

You can make an easy 2-ingredient strawberry smoothie by blending together frozen strawberries and a bit of milk. Or you could get really complicated and make a 12-ingredient mega smoothie with enough calories to last the day.

At a minimum, here is what should go into your smoothie recipe:

• fruits and/or vegetables
• liquids
• protein
• optional smoothie add-ins

Need some extra inspiration? Here are some of my favorite breakfast smoothies to inspire you.

Fruits and Vegetables

The fruits and vegetables make up the bulk of the smoothie, adding fiber, nutrients, and flavor. Fresh or frozen options both work and are often picked based on personal preference.

Best Fruits for Smoothies: Fruits that are a bit soft make for the best creamy smoothies. Things like berries, bananas, cherries, peaches and other stone fruits, avocados, citrus fruits, ripe pears, kiwi, and mango.

Best Vegetables for Smoothies: When choosing vegetables for smoothies, select those that don’t have a strong smell and aren’t too hard or dense, unless they are cooked. Things like tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, kale and other leafy greens, cooked beets, cooked sweet potatoes, and cooked carrots are good. Things like Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and raw root vegetables are not as good.

Pro Tip: A smoothie is a great way to make unique champagne cocktails. Blend your favorite smoothie half and half with champagne, cava, or prosecco. Enjoy!

Choosing Fresh or Frozen Fruits and Vegetables

When it comes to what goes in your smoothie, only you can decide. There are no wrong answers here!

Pros of Fresh Fruit & Vegetables: It’s a great way to use up fruit that is no longer visually appealing, but still tastes good. Think browning bananas, soft strawberries, and blackberries so ripe they are falling apart. All still have good flavor, but aren’t what you’d pick first out of the fruit basket on the counter.

Cons of Fresh Fruit & Vegetables: You have to make your smoothies on your fruit’s schedule, not your own. If those fresh fruits no longer taste good, they won’t make your smoothie taste good. If the fruit is underripe, it will be harder to blend and may not make for the smoothest smoothie.

Pros of Frozen Fruit & Vegetables: Frozen (or partially frozen) fruit makes a thicker texture that stays colder longer without watering down the flavor. Most frozen fruit is picked at peak ripeness. You can have summer blackberries in January or tree-ripe peaches in March. Also, unless you are shopping an in-season market stand, frozen fruit is usually cheaper than fresh.

Cons of Frozen Fruit & Vegetables: If you aren’t using a high-power blender, frozen solid fruit may be more than it can handle. While my Vitamix does just fine with it, my stick blender would leave frozen fruit in chunks. Let the frozen fruit thaw on the counter for 10 minutes or so before making your smoothie.

Liquids

The liquids help to thin out the pureed fruits and vegetables, making it easier for your blender to process and giving you just the right consistency. You can go super simple (and calorie-free!) with plain water, but the sky’s the limit.

Coconut water adds a subtle flavor, electrolytes, and a nutrient boost that makes it a good post-workout option. Dairy milk or non-dairy milks like soy milk, almond milk, or coconut milk, add in an extra boost of vitamins and minerals like calcium and vitamin D, some of them also give an extra protein boost. Fruit juice, like apple, orange, or cranberry, can add a kick of flavor and a bit of sweetness to your smoothie, but it can also add unnecessary sugar.

Protein

Not everyone puts protein on their list of required ingredients, but in my smoothies, it is an absolute must. Without the protein, your smoothie is really just dessert.

Protein helps to slow down digestion, giving your smoothie the staying power to keep you satisfied longer. A breakfast smoothie without protein leaves me hungry again in an hour, which does not make for a fulfilling breakfast.

Smoothie-friendly whole-food protein sources include options like plain Greek yogurt, nut butters, or milk. Another way to add more protein is through protein powders made with whey, soy, or collagen.

Optional Smoothie Add-ins

These add-ins are optional because they are not required in order to make a delicious, nutritious smoothie. They do, however, give you space to play with both the nutritional aspects and the flavor of your homemade smoothie.

• Sweeteners – Honey, maple syrup, simple syrup, or stevia can all add a boost of sweetness to a smoothie that may be more tart than you wanted. While liquid sweeteners dissolve better in cold liquids, the thick texture of a smoothie will keep powdered sugars from settling.
• Flavor Boosters – Ginger root, a splash of citrus like lemon or lime, fresh herbs like basil, and ground spices like cinnamon, cardamom, or turmeric. These boosters add a dash of flavor and shake up the monotony of eating a warehouse-sized bag of frozen fruit.
• Whole Seeds – Flax seed, chia, or hemp are tasty options that add in a nutritional boost and a little bit of crunch.
• Seed or Nut butters – Almond butter, peanut butter, cashew nut butter, or sunflower seed butter can add a boost of flavor and nutrition while helping to give your smoothie a thicker, creamier texture.
• Nutritional Supplements – Vitamins, meal replacement powders, and other nutritional boosts can help make your smoothie a more well-rounded choice for your own unique, overall diet.

How to measure smoothie ingredients

I, too am guilty of looking at a smoothie recipe and then throwing a bit of everything into the pitcher. I could end up with a 12-ounce breakfast or a 24-ounce drink-me-all-day. Sometimes though, it’s nice to know exactly how much smoothie I’m going to end up making.

Maybe you are counting calories. Perhaps you don’t want to end up with leftovers. Maybe you never make enough for your kids to share. No matter your reason, sometimes it just makes life easier to know.

How do I do this without dirtying a pile of measuring cups and spoons? A kitchen scale!

Simply place the pitcher on your scale and hit the “tare” button to zero it out. Add the ingredients, pressing tare between each one, to measure exactly how much goes into the pitcher. Best of all you do it without dirtying a single measuring utensil.

What are the steps to make smoothies?

Homemade smoothies are one of the easiest things to make in the kitchen. In fact, there are only five simple steps.

1. Select and gather your ingredients.
2. Wash the fruits and vegetables. Peeling, removing pits, seeds, and bad spots as needed.
3. Place all ingredients into the pitcher of your blender, or a jar if using an immersion blender, measuring or weighing as necessary.
4. Blend until smooth.
5. Taste, adjusting as needed until it’s perfect.

Out of all of those steps, the last one is the most important. When using fresh fruits and vegetables, their flavor may not always be uniform. Today’s strawberry smoothie may be sweeter than yesterday’s. The best time to fix it is before it’s in your glass and you’ve cleaned up the mess.

Homemade Smoothies FAQs

Most of the questions I get about smoothies are about how to adapt the ingredients for what you have on hand in your pantry and fridge and/or customize the flavor to suit your own palate. Across all of my smoothies, these are the most common ones.

If you have additional questions, feel free to drop them in the comments on this post, and I’ll add them.

For the step by step version of this recipe, check out the Beginner’s Guide to Homemade Smoothies Story or this collection of 7 Simple Smoothies to Start Your Day.