Smoothies - Creamy and fruity start to the day
I recently made upto 1000 smoothies at one time. This for was an event on the weekend of 12 - 13 th March. I have never really done anything like this before.
Apart from having accomplished this with relative ease as I will explain, my use of freshly pureed cashew nuts as a replacement for almond milk was a revelation. First it makes the smoothie creamy but dairy free, any nut milks are expensive, and cashew is a soft nut and blends easily to a creamy consistency. Its commonly used in raw desserts for these properties.
For equipment I had a large stick blender from RobotCoup, a domestic blender and a soup pot.
For 1000 smoothies (works when scaled down)
Blueberry Banana Ginger Smoothie
30 kgs Bananas 8 kg Blueberries 2 kg Cashew nuts 1/2 kg Ginger Grind Cashew nuts and ginger till you get a smooth puree. This was my substitute for the nut milks used in smoothies. It would be too expensive for this occasion and anyway it doesnt get better than freshly ground nuts anyway! Blend bananas and blueberries adding water as needed to get the mixture smooth and homegenous. Add cashew and ginger puree.
Its simple but the creaminess and heft of cashew is hard to identify as an ingredient.
Strawberry Melon Rose Smoothie (my test version which I then scaled up 10 times)
1 kg Strawberry 3 ripe Musk Melons 2 Bananas 2 teaspoons best quality Rose Jam (from my garden in this case) 50 gms Cashew Nuts
Blend cashew nuts till creamy. Add all other fruits and rose jam.
The secret: Whenever I use ingredients that are not at their peak, I fall back to the flavour profile as a way to enhance the ingredient. In this case both melons and strawberry would benefit from a musky floral flavour. The Rose jam gives it a fragrance that strawberries in peak season would have and it was also had a hint of muskiness that matched the melon very well. And it is to subtle that with the creamy cashews it doesnt stand out at all and instead just enhances.
Strawberry , Quark, Tahitian Vanilla, Flaxseeds
8 kg Strawberry 1/2 kg Flax seeds 2 best quality vanilla beans 10 kg Quark 1/2kg Light floral Honey diluted in some warm water 5 L Water
Blend flax seeds and vanilla beans into as fine a grind as possible. A normal domestic blender can do this. Blend Quark and strawberries. Add the dry mixture above and honey. Add water till pouring consistency and thin it further. The flax seeds will continue to thicken the smoothie as it rests for even 15 min.