It’s blendin’ time!
Over the holiday period (which I refuse to call festive) my employer showed it’s generosity and gave everybody vouchers that could be spent in a variety of high street shops. In an positive attempt to make sure I’m getting enough fresh fruit and veg in my diet I recently went out and bought this blender with the intention of making smoothies. This one is supposed to be “intelligent” and boasts some very convenient buttons on the front for making different things.
It was pointed out to me by a friend of mine that people who buy these kind of kitchen appliances either:
- use them a few times but then lose interest and shove them in a cupboard for several years, or
- use them frequently or even every day
At present I seem to be sticking to the second option, but we’ll see if it continues over the coming weeks 
Since I’ve owned the blender I’ve had fruit smoothies (of some description) nearly every other day and have even had a stab at making vegetable soup. This I over peppered significantly but it still turned out to be surprisingly tasty. The biggest gripe I have is getting ingredients of decent variety. Most fruit seems to be quite expensive this time of year, and I’m loathe to buy a tiny box of strawberries air-freighted from Israel for £2.50 a go! However, today I found a good range of smoothie-ready frozen fruit in ASDA, which are ideal for quickly throwing into the blender. Ingredients-wise I’ve tried mixing the following in different combinations and quantities (in no particular order) - orange, clementine, banana, melon, apple, red & green grapes, forest fruits, blueberries, strawberries, yogurt, milk, celery, tomato, peppers… The list is still growing after today’s trip to the supermarket. Through experimentation I’ve learned some important lessons:
- banana is extremely dominant taste wise - use it and it makes the whole drink taste of banana!
- when using vegetables (as opposed to fruit) there tends to be a lot more pulp which is not particularly easy to drink - need to add lots more liquid. Veggies also need sweetening up with some fruit.
- frozen fruits straight from the ice box need some liquid adding to soften them up first
I’ve not tried following any set recipes yet although I have looked at some on the web and in books. Most of the one’s I have seen seem to require odd measures - e.g. use half a pineapple, or half a banana. So what are you supposed to do with the other half’s then?!…
