This is Leif with a recipe for you to enjoy on a sticky summer day. Celebrate our nations independence today with this tasty, fruit smoothie. I’ve got the basic recipe from my favorite cooking magazine, Cook’s Illustrated and thought that everyone should know about these straw-friendly smoothies…
To start you’ll need the following:
Equipment:
·Rimmed baking sheet
·Parchment paper (or not if you don’t mind a bit more cleanup)
·Freezer space
·Blender
·Glasses and straws…
Ingredients:
·1 medium ripe banana in 8 pieces (the riper the better—though moldy is out)
·3.5 cups of watermelon in 1-2 inch cubes (feel free to use cantaloupe or honeydew but the melon should be ripe or over ripe)
·1/3 cup of milk (I use skim but Cook’s Illustrated prefers whole)
·1/3 cup of white cranberry or apple juice
·Pinch of table salt
·3-6 tablespoons granulated sugar (depending on how ripe your melon is)
·2-3 teaspoons lemon juice (depending on how ripe your melon is)
·3 ice cubes (about 1.5 ounces total)
Instructions:
1.Line the rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
2.Arrange banana and melon chunks in single layer on the baking sheet.
3.Freeze fruit until very cold, but not frozen; about 10-15 minutes.
4.In the blender puree the cold fruit, milk, juice, salt, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon lemon juice and ice until uniformly smooth; about 10–15 seconds.
5.Taste and then add more sugar or lemon until combined as needed.
This won’t really keep in the freezer so serve immediately.
Hope you are having a wonderful summer!
Leif
**Photo courtesy of here
