Alisa Fleming ~ After a winter that lasted far too long, Mother Nature has finally decided to skip right over spring and head straight to summer in the West, and I couldn’t be happier. My alternate name for summer is “smoothie season,” and you can bet there will be at least one of these shake-like beverages whizzing away in my blender every day for the next three months.
This particular smoothie is thanks to the abundance of organic strawberries that I found on sale in May and June. I stocked up, sliced, and froze several pounds of these delicious berries. Since strawberries can vary quite a bit in sweetness, and often taste a bit tart in shakes, I opted to sweeten this beverage with a fresh date and some stevia to taste. To go with the seedy theme, I also used a new milk alternative, Sunsational Vanilla “Milk,” which is fairly low in sugar, but still added a nice little hint of sweet.
I think what surprised me most, was how the berries and seed (or peanut!) butter played off one another for an actual peanut butter and jelly flavor sans bread. It wasn't long ago (this year in fact) that I tried sunflower seed butter for the first time, and it does taste remarkably like peanut butter!
In my kitchen, this recipe made a delicious and filling breakfast treat, but feel free to sweeten it more for a dessert-like afternoon pick-up …
SunButter & Strawberry “Jelly” Smoothie
This recipe is Vegan, Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Gluten-Free, Nut-Free, Peanut-Free (unless you use peanut butter of course!), Soy-Free, and optionally Refined Sugar-Free.
Place all ingredients in your blender, and process until smooth. If the smoothie is too thick for your tastes, add a little more milk alternative.
* I used a few dashes of pure stevia extract, but you could use drops of liquid vanilla stevia, honey, agave, or even strawberry jam! How much sweetener you will need depends on the sweetness of your strawberries. With all but the stevia, I would start with 1 teaspoon and go up from there.
Article, Photos, and Recipe by Alisa Fleming, founder of GoDairyFree.org and author of Go Dairy Free: The Guide and Cookbook for Milk Allergies, Lactose Intolerance, and Casein-Free Living. Alisa is also a freelance writer for several publications, with an emphasis on creating recipes for various types of special diets. For more information about the product(s) reviewed, see the links within the article above.
No comments:
Post a Comment