Sour Apple Smoothie

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A smoothie is a popular beverage arrived upon by mixing fruits, vegetables, and other ingredients. They are quite thick and they are made by blenders. Common fruits used in smoothies include mangoes, apples, avocadoes, and pineapples. Common spices include ginger, cinnamon, and turmeric.

Sweeteners used include dates and honey. The vegetables include cauliflower, cucumber, and beetroot. There are many more of these varieties and the lists shared above are not at exhaustive either.

While the commonality of smoothies is a fairly recent phenomenon in the West, the Eastern and Mediterranean cultures already embraced diets that were close to the drinks as we know them going back a hundreds of years now.

The tapping into this much needed development for the rest of the world, only picked off following the invention of accommodative appliances in the first half of the twenty first century e.g. blenders and refrigerators .

Closely related to this was the 1960s onwards campaign that sought to popularize the benefits of eating healthy foods. The body builder Jack Lalanne is one of the names to be remembered for this.

 

Green Apples

The smoothie of our interest today is the sour apple smoothie and as we shall see its major ingredient is apples. These fruits have a long history too having first originated in East Asia between four thousand and ten thousand years back.

They are said to have been adopted in Europe thereafter following activities of traders along the Silk Road.

Counterintuitively unlike most fruits, there are apple variations that are green in color even when they are ripe. It is this kind that we are most interested in when it comes to making sour apple smoothies. Even then, there are several types of these apples, and the best suited for this purpose among them is the Granny Smith apples.

Granny Smith apples are green on the outside, white on the inside and they are quite juicy. Their taste is bitter though hence the name “sour apple”.

 

Ingredients

Here are the things you will need to get your smoothie going;

4. Plain yoghurt: Emphasis on plain so do not use any yoghurt you find. Yoghurt makes the smoothie more holistic by adding a touch of protein and fat to it. Further, yoghurt facilitates the creamy components of the beverage.
5. Apples: We already talked about the necessary kind that is needed and why so above.
6. Lemon juice: Lemon is for those that require further tart in their smoothie. Considering that green apples have a bit of this attribute depending on which of them you use, you might very well do without the lemon especially if you are not one to accommodate extremely sour stuff. That said though, lemon has its unique nutrients too. You should not miss out on them if you need them. As we shall see, there are sweeteners to help with the bitterness.
7. Water: This too is an optional ingredient. The purpose of adding water is to enable blending of the other components. The downside here though is that the process tends to make the smoothie to come out thinner. If you want something thick therefore, you should use very low quantities of water. Alternatively, and better perhaps, you can substitute water with juice or coconut water. I recommend apple or orange juice in the former event. It is also okay to do both juices at the same time.

5. Spinach: A smoothie is not a smoothie if does not have a vegetable component. Spinach is the best vegetable to use in the case of sour apple smoothie. It does not matter that it is frozen or fresh. Other vegetables to consider are cashews and cucumber. These two will make the smoothie less tart though. So you should be conservative in applying them.
6. Kale: After Spinach, kale is the second best shot at a vegetable to use in sour apple smoothies.
7. Frozen ripe banana: It helps to sweeten the smoothie. It has a creamy component too that you do not want to miss out on. If you cannot land on a banana though or if it is not your taste, then you can have a mango take its place. Strictly note that just like the banana, the mango to be used should be frozen. On top of these, you can always add sugar to the smoothie though doing so comes at the expense of compromising the natural taste of your smoothie. Honey is appropriate for sweetening as well.

8. Chia seed: It helps add extra fiber and thickening to the smoothie. Importantly, it does not interfere with the flavors. This ingredient is not compulsory though.

 

Preparing the smoothie

Preparing a sour apple smoothie is much easier than what many of those who have never done so imagine. In fact, the whole process takes as few as five minutes to complete.

1. First, you should have all ingredients ready. The apples chopped, juice and water measured to appropriate quantities etc. You do not have to peel the apples though if your blender is high-powered.
2. Here are my suggestions for the smoothie quantities you should use (blending for one largeserving that is): Plain yogurt (¼ cup), Spinach (1 cup), Flaxseed (1 Tablespoon), Whole frozen ripe banana (¼), Water (⅓ cup water), Apple (½), and Lemon juice (1-1 ½ Tablespoon). You can increase these amounts depending on how much smoothie you are in need of.

3. Add these items to the blender and blend. The first thing to pour in the blender should be yoghurt though. That way it will facilitate a smooth blending.
4. You should monitor the blending as it happens in real time. If it appears that the initial output is thicker than you intended it to be, then you should add more juice or water. In the opposite case, add more ice cubes and frozen mango or banana.
5. It is possible that the first smoothie you will blend turns out not as intended in some respects in which case you should try adjusting the quantities mixed next time.

 

Necessary equipment

Once you have the ingredients, it is not really a big deal when it comes to the tools needed to blend. Nonetheless, let us look at the must haves;

1. Blender: This equipment squeezes the juice out of the vegetables and fruits to make the smoothie. Your blender may or may not be high-powered.
2. Measuring utensils: As established already, setting up your ingredients in the right amounts makes the difference. You will require a couple of spoons and cups for this.
3. Cutting. There is chopping to be done. The main things required here are a cutting board and a knife.

 

When to drink sour apple smoothie

You can drink this smoothie as and when you feel like. So what I am sharing below is nothing close to exhaustive options of when to do so.

There are thoughts that are not likely to cross minds of many though so if you find any of them applicable to you can adopt it without necessarily restricting on your current consumption.

1. A sour smoothie before bed. This is a time that you are probably not thirsty yet if it does not take much from you, I encourage you to drink some of this beverage. This because there is now research that indicates that smoothies will relax your mind. As a result the person drinking will sleep for longer. Moreover, their sleep quality improves too. This works only if you adhere to the time stipulation though.

 

2. A sour smoothie before and after working out. If you are going to work out, then you will need something to energize your muscles. Because a sour smoothie has carbohydrates in it, it works well here. Please note though that it should only be drunk at least thirty minutes before the exercise. This cap should also not exceed three hours prior to exercising lest the body will have already broken down the nutrients. As for after, the smoothie helps restore the food components lost. Yoghurt in this case carries proteins.

 

3. A sour smoothie at the beginning of the day. This is especially for people who because they are very busy in the mornings often miss out on breakfast. Thankfully, a sour smoothie takes only a handful of minutes yet it is able to keep you going in instances like these where you are not exactly hungry yet waiting is not healthy. You can also further cut the time demands by preparing the ingredients beforehand such that you leave the mornings to only blending.

 

4. A sour smoothie at the thought of sugar. It is now no secret that refined sugar is not good for human health. It is a good thing then to avoid it whenever possible. While this smoothie is ideal for folks with desire for sour stuff, increasing the amount of frozen mango or banana will cater for sweet teeth.

 

Sour apple smoothie health hacks

There is no doubt that this smoothie has health benefits associated with it. The fiber intake therein for example, reduces your risk of suffering from chronic illnesses e.g. diabetes.

Mark you, the US Department of Agriculture estimates that the average citizen falls short of the requisite fiber intake by more than a half.

Beyond facts, below is a list of a couple of tricks which when learnt might help you use your sour apple smoothie knowledge to the benefit of your health;

1. While this smoothie is healthy, I do not recommend that you be quick to replace it with meals except light ones e.g. breakfast as shared already. The best way to look at it is that you are using the beverage to supplement your regular eating. Should you decide the contrary, as I know that some readers will, then seek further health assistance first.
2. The quantities of the ingredients shared above are general. You can always twitch them however, to match specific demands of your diet. Increasing the amounts of yoghurt for example, will allow you more fat content. This would mean that you would have to simultaneously cut the juice levels though.
3. An easy way to get ahead of your diet with this recipe generally is to calculate the amount of calories that each ingredient to be used carries. The sum gives you the full picture of what it is that you are partaking. Accordingly, you can choose to cut/increase on aspects of the smoothie depending on what it is that you would be targeting.

 

 

Substitutes to sour apple smoothies

There is no reason to worry if you have determined that while being close to what you would like this smoothie misses out some things. Additionally, you might like it but find that sometimes you are not able to prepare it.

1. The best alternative is to go for shakes. You can in fact make one that is entirely made from ingredients that would otherwise make a sour apple smoothie. These include; green apple, spinach/kale, and almond milk. Related ingredients are; dates, cinnamon, and wheatgrass. Wheatgrass carries both vitamins B and E. It is great for reducing cholesterol which otherwise clogs blood arteries. Cinnamon on the other hand is an anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory too. It reduces blood sugar levels too.
2. From there, we get to the other many smoothies out there. The common thing here is the degree of natural nutritious component that these beverages carry. Here are some examples;

• Oat Milk Smoothie with Banana and Peanut Butter
• Apple Cucumber Smoothie
• Strawberry Almond Milk Smoothie
• Mango Cherry Smoothie
• Mango Cucumber Smoothie
• Orange spinach smoothie in a glass jar
• Strawberry Almond Milk Smoothie

It goes without saying that you should endeavor to checkout out the ingredients of whichever smoothie you decide to go for next prior to preparing it or buying it.

Further, interchanging these drinks helps create a more balanced intake of nutrients for you.

 

Other Sour Apple Smoothie

There is a lot more that we could talk about sour apple smoothies. Unfortunately, space is always a limiting factor. In conclusion thus, let us highlight a couple of facts that might be relevant for you in this regard;

1. Like with all the other smoothies, sour apple is best served when fresh. As such, avoid preparing large amounts of it unless you are sure about having the numbers.
2. You can always use the leftovers for quite a range of purposes. You can make other kinds of smoothies to start with, or related drinks. But it could also be stuff that is entirely unrelated. Bananas can for instance be used as ingredients in strawberry banana smoothies and strawberry banana milkshakes too. By contrast, spinach can be used in Thai Inspired Beef Bowl.
3. Apple harvesting begins around June and goes on to almost towards the end of autumn. It serves best to capitalize on the season if one is to get the fruits cheaply. This matters especially for large scale producers. Stored appropriately, these fruits go a surprisingly very long way. Autumn apples for example will remain intact until February.
4. Remove any rough parts of ingredients before placing them in the blender e.g. kale stems. This helps with smooth blending.