Hello lovelies,
now that the sun is properly warm again, almost every morning around here starts at the blender. On hot days I rarely feel like a heavy breakfast, but heading out the door on empty isn't an option with two girls and my own workout routine. The answer is this mango pineapple protein smoothie – fruity, creamy, made in five minutes and filling enough to carry me right through to lunch.
The base is frozen mango and pineapple with coconut water – that makes it naturally ice-cold, light and wonderfully tropical, without any dairy. To make it genuinely filling, in go a spoonful of peanut butter, chia seeds and an unflavoured protein powder: together that's around 25 g of protein per glass, and coconut turns up twice in my summer cooking, as the water in this glass and as the milk in the sauce for my Summer rolls with peanut dip. The half banana brings the velvety creaminess, a squeeze of lemon the freshness, and a teaspoon of freshly grated ginger that little extra you only notice on the second sip.
To serve, I love topping the smoothie with a little passionfruit pulp – it looks pretty and adds a lovely tart note. My girls love it straight from the glass; on training days I make mine a little thicker and spoon it up as a bowl. Either way, it's best enjoyed right away, while it's still fresh and frosty.
If you love smoothies as much as we do, be sure to try my 2 delicious smoothie recipes for a green boost, these delicious recipes with coconut water, and for the hot days the zingy blackberry melon refresher.
A smoothie can carry a surprising amount of protein once you know what to put in it, and the same trick works for vitamins: the teaspoon of linseed oil in my smoothie with carrots, apple and orange is what lets the body take up the beta-carotene. My guide to plant protein sources goes through every plant food worth knowing about.
