cilantro smoothie
If you have the genetic trait OR26A, stay clear.
Servings: 1 (~1 ½ cups)
Time: <10 minutes
Recipe:
1 cilantro: 2 greens
½ large frozen banana
1 frozen banana: 1 frozen blueberries: 0.5 miscellaneous frozen fruit*
Unsweetened almond milk
*miscellaneous frozen fruit can either be more berries or tropical fruit of choice (i.e., pineapple, mango, papaya, etc.)
If using a personal, upside-down blender :
1. Chill an empty glass in the freezer while you prepare smoothie.
2. Add cilantro and then add greens.
In order to eyeball correctly, cilantro and greens should be washed and pressed down into blender (but not tightly compacted.)
3. Add frozen banana and frozen fruits.
4. Add almond milk.
The almond milk should surpass cilantro but not the greens. The liquid level should reach the halfway mark of the greens. You want the minimum amount of liquid as possible for the thickest smoothie. It is best to be conservative and add more ONLY if needed during blending.
5. Blend.
Resist the temptation to add more liquid. Jolt the blender from side-to-side while blending if needed.
6. Remove glass from freezer and pour into the chilled glass. Voila fiber, water, and natural sugars!
Eyeballing guide for personal, upside-down blender
If using an upright blender:
1. Add frozen banana and frozen fruits.
2. Add cilantro and then add greens.
In order to eyeball correctly, cilantro and greens should be washed and pressed down into blender (but not tightly compacted.)
3. Add almond milk.
The almond milk should reach the ¾ mark of the frozen fruit. You want the minimum amount of liquid as possible for the thickest smoothie. It is best to be conservative and add more ONLY if needed during blending.
4. Blend.
You will find that the frozen fruit will blend first leaving the greens unblended. Turn off and uncover the blender, and then using a utensil, fold the greens down towards the blade and under the frozen fruit. Continue to blend. Resist the temptation to add more liquid. Jolt the blender from side-to-side while blending if needed.
5. Remove glass from freezer and pour into the chilled glass. Voila fiber, water, and natural sugars!
Eyeballing guide for upright blender
Notes:
You’ll know if you’ve eyeballed correctly based on the color of the smoothie. If the smoothie is a dark and dreamy blue-turquiose, then you’ve eyeballed correctly. If it leans more green, you did not add enough frozen blueberries.
Food styling tips?
Try my favorite smoothie-making-cum-reducing-food-waste-cum-increasing-aesthetics technique. See Test XXX.3.
Top with fresh cilantro, a few frozen berries, chia seeds, and/or dried coconut!
A sexy smoothie calls for a sexy shot! Chuck your blender in the freezer for a few minutes. While the smoothie chills, put on an outfit you wanted to wear last year, but 2020 didn’t let you. After a quick freeze, the consistency will be slightly more thick in consistency and much darker in color--so much more sensual than before. Find natural lighting, and smize!
Non-negotiables:
Frozen banana. Trust me on this one. As someone who only consumed homemade acai bowls from 2016-2018, I’ve learned that frozen bananas are the key ingredient to the thickest smoothies. I always have frozen bananas in my freezer; as bananas mature from spotty to brown on my counter, I routinely will cut and then freeze them.
Unsweetened alt milk. You don’t need any excess sugars. The frozen fruit will provide all the sweetness.
Cilantro, obviously.
Try experimenting with:
Alt milks. I use almond because it’s the cheapest where I live. I also like its relatively neutral taste as a base for smoothies. I think this recipe would also go wonderfully with a 1:1 mix of orange juice and alt milk of choice. (Can someone please try this?)
Greens. Kale is a kitchen staple for me, so I’ve tested the recipe three out of the four times with kale. But feel free to grab for any fresh, leafy green (e.g., spinach, chard, etc.) Or even try frozen greens: in college, it was always hard for me to finish a whole bag of greens by myself, so I would buy frozen spinach and use that in my smoothies. Beware--ratio measurements will look different though if you opt for frozen greens.
Cilantro:greens ratio. I personally prefer a 1:2 ratio because I love fresh herbs. But I would recommend if you’re hesitant, go for 1:4 and then work you way up to 1:2. If you’re a supertaster positive for genetic trait OR26A, stay away from this recipe entirely.
Frozen fruits. I’ve tested this recipe with only frozen berries, but I believe a mixture of bluebs and frozen tropical fruits (e.g., pineapple, mango, papaya, etc.) would play well play well with the candy-like tang of the cilantro. But if you opt for solely bluebs, you’ll get the most dreamy blue color.
Turning this smoothie into a smoothie bowl. You’ll need to increase the amount of frozen fruit in this case: use 1 whole frozen banana. Keep the same liquid measurement, but blending will take more effort. You’ll have to either jolt the blender side-to-side while blending or stop blending intermittently to push the unblended parts closer to the blade.
Recipe Development:
Test #XXX: I really can’t give these tests numbers because it feels as though I’ve been testing this recipe for years. From the years 2016-2018, I only made acai/smoothie bowls. In fact, I think smoothie bowls first introduced me to food plating and photography. My snapchat stories became a feed of solely acai bowls until I decided to start @everythingalexcooks in October 2018.
The past two years, my fanaticism has slowed down. I realized that smoothie bowls are not as “healthy” as I thought. During 2016-2018, my relationship with food definitely was disordered in that I moralized food groups. So, I’ve tried to avoid smoothie bowls because they remind me of an Alex with whom I no longer identify. Also, as my relationship with cooking and food has matured, breakfast or brunch is one of my favorite meals to experiment with and cook for myself. (Eggs, need I say more?)
Anyways, this recipe is personally special to me because I’ve come far from 2016-2018 Alex. Moreover I’ve been able to turn two years’ worth of smoothie tutelage into a recipe to share with you.
I definitely learned a thing or two about smoothies during 2016-2018. Before blending, chill the bowl/glass to prevent any melting and preserve thick consistency. Frozen bananas only. If you use countertop bananas, the smoothie will not have a thick enough consistency for floating fruit toppings.
original 2 greens: 1 cilantro test
Test #XXX.1: I saw @meanpickle blend cilantro into her smoothie, and I was intrigued. She told me that the herb becomes “nature’s gummy bear.” After trying it for myself, I truly believe there is no other way to describe it. Cilantro adds a candy-like and citrus tang to the smoothie. I felt a little odd to develop a smoothie recipe though: absolutely no one measures smoothie and ingredients. Even if they do, I have no idea how to measure greens and fruit other than in handfuls and eyeballs.
I asked everyone on IG if they would like to see this smoothie developed though, and to my surprise, a emphatic 80-something people responded, “Yes, Alex.” Before formally developing this recipe, I tested out 1:4 and 1:2 ratios of cilantro to greens. Various online recipes for cilantro smoothies tout a 1:4 ratio, but I thought the cilantro was too subtle.
I enjoyed the 1:2, but I wanted to test an upper limit for the recipe. I tested 1:1 this time.
What I did right: ½ frozen banana provided the right amount of sweetness. A whole banana in the past was too overpowering. I used the minimum amount of liquid to get the mixture to blend easily and evenly in less than 30s.
Next time: Increase the amount of frozen fruit. The consistency was a bit too liquidy for my palate. I like my smoothies thick. The 1:1 ratio was way too strong.
Test #XXX.2: I already used the minimum amount of liquid. Thus, the only variable available to thicken the smoothie and increase bulk was to add more frozen fruit. I increased the frozen fruit by 50%. I also decreased the cilantro: greens ratio back down to 1:2.
What I did right: In the previous test with the 1:1 ratio , the smoothie was colored a moody green. In this test with less cilantro and more blueberries, I returned back to the dreamy blue that I blended in my first attempts. The smoothie was thicker as well.
Next time: Test in upright blender. I had been testing the recipe so far in my upside down personal blender.
my trusty 10-speed Osler blender. i only use one speed though—that is, blend.
Test #XXX.3: The order of ingredients and eyeballing ratios will differ depending on your type of blender, so I needed to test the recipe on my cheap, janky, but trusty upright blender. It’s no Vitamix, but this 10-speed Osler was been the beast behind my two-year long acai infatuation. Because you usually want the frozen fruit closest to the blade, the idea is to reverse the order of ingredients in an upright blender. Because the frozen fruit is nearest the bottom now (instead of the greens), eyeballing liquid volume will change. The difference in the two blender’s shapes (pitcher v. tumbler) also changes eyeballing techniques.
I also introduced one of my favorite tricks for smoothie-making-cum-reducing-food-waste-cum-increasing-aesthetics techniques. After pouring the bulk of the smoothie into your glass, you’ll always find the blender with residual but nutritious bits! It hurts my heart to see precious fiber washed down the sink. Pour the smallest amount of liquid into the blender and just shake it around. Top your glass off this frothed. lighter-colored liquid into the glass for an ombre effect! Or swirl it into your glass for marbled, galaxy effect.
Some other substitutions worth mentioning but in the end had negligible effect: subbed oat milk for almond and frozen wild bluebs for frozen regular bluebs.
What I did right: Eyeballing new liquid ratio.
Test #XXX.4: I needed to style this recipe for the feed, so I decided to blend up this recipe one more time. I previously only had been using frozen blueberries and fresh kale. This time, I opted for a frozen variety of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries and fresh spinach. The only notable change was the color. The color was a midnight blue-green. I chucked the upright blender in the freezer for a few minutes as I was prepping the shot, and after a quick freezer hang, the color turned into an even sexier! darker! shade.
What I did right: Freezing the smoothie quickly after blending increased the aesthetic appeal.This drink has now been perfected.
If you decide to test this smoothie, please tag me @everythingalexcooks,
(and I mean actually tag me, the new IG update doesn’t notify me when I simply get mentioned in a caption).
I want to see your creations and hear your thoughts!
