Healthy Strawberry Smoothie
Recipe Guide

Benefits of a Healthy Fruit Smoothie. A healthy strawberry smoothie recipe will make you one of the most nutritious — and delicious — meals on earth. Healthy fruit smoothies are loaded with phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals and enzymes that come in a whole-food form.

The fruits and vegetable blended together in healthy smoothie recipes provide vitamins, minerals, enzymes and fiber that will do wonders for your health — and build up your body’s defenses against disease.

In addition, when fruits and vegetables are blended, the plant fibers are broken down just like when you chew them; the blender literally does most of the “chewing” for you. And chewing food more thoroughly means that you'll absorb more of the nutrients.

Healthy fruit smoothies retain the fiber from the fruits and the vegetables you use. The fiber works to improve digestion and helps your body naturally rid itself of toxins. Fiber also helps you feel more satisfied, and maintains that feeling longer.

Strawberries Make Great Healthy Smoothie Ingredients. Strawberries are among the most popular ingredients used for smoothies for many reasons. They add lots of flavor and nutrition, and they're low on the glycemic index — making it easy to create a strawberry smoothie recipe that's really good for you.

One cup of strawberries has just 43 calories — and 3 grams of fiber. Strawberries are an excellent source of vitamin C, vitamin K, manganese and potassium.

Each strawberry smoothie recipe I've collected here is just a starting point for you to experiment with and customize to your own taste. I've also including a list of my recommended optional ingredients that you can add to strawberry smoothies to make them even more nutritious.

Recommended Starter
for Any Smoothie Recipe

Most smoothie recipes call for some liquid to allow the solid ingredients to move around inside the blender and give your smoothie the right thickness. This base liquid can be plain water, milk, yogurt, soy milk, nut milks, or fruit juice. If you want your smoothie to provide optimum health benefits, you'll want to pick the right one. I share all the best tips at my page on how to make a smoothie the healthy way.

Chilling Your Strawberry Smoothies

Is there's anything more satisfying than a cold, creamy fruit smoothie? There are two ways of chilling your healthy smoothie recipes:

• Ice Cubes — a good way of thinning down a smoothie that's too thick and chilling it at the same time.

• Frozen Fruit — has the advantage of not diluting the taste, and also giving your smoothie a creamier texture. It's also very convenient to store cut-up fruit in your freezer, so you always have them on hand.

Optional Ingredients
for Your Strawberry Smoothie Recipe

Protein Additives

Adding a quality source of protein turns your smoothie into a complete meal. I recommend raw organic eggs or a protein powder made from hemp, rice, peas or whey.

Hemp protein powder is a great way to add healthy omega 3 fats and fiber to your smoothie as well.

Undenatured whey is another excellent source of protein for your smoothies. Both whey and hemp protein are very mild tasting; the hemp powder is not as concentrated and will thicken up your smoothie quite a bit more than the whey protein will.

I don't recommend using cheap protein powders, especially any with artificial ingredients. The whey protein should be cold-processed (undenatured) and derived from grass-fed cows, free of hormones and chemicals. Cold-processing whey protects the nutrients in their natural state.

Antioxidant Superfoods

Green superfood powders like chlorella and spirulina make any smoothie a super-nutritious green smoothie. They give you the equivalent of several full-size servings of dark green leafy vegetables in just one tablespoon.

Superfood supplements like maca root, raw cacao, hemp, flax, chia seeds and others increase the antioxidant content and nutritional benefits of your smoothie in their own unique ways.

Antioxidant superfruits like acai, goji, mangosteen and noni, available as concentrated juices or powders, add lots more antioxidants and a natural fruit sweetness to your smoothies.

Other Great Additions for Your Healthy Smoothie

Coconut Oil is the healthiest fat there is. It contains lauric acid, a rare medium-chain fatty acid (also found in mother's milk) that has many health-protecting properties. Coconut oil gives your healthy smoothie a richer, creamier texture. Because coconut oil is solid below a temperature of 76 degrees F, it doesn't work as well in cold smoothies.

Herbs and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves have higher concentrations of antioxidants than any fruit or vegetable, and add a warm flavor to your healthy smoothie recipe.

Strawberry Smoothie Recipes

Start by pouring the liquid ingredients for each smoothie recipe into your blender. Use fresh fruit or frozen.

Add any of the optional ingredients recommended above, if you like — then blend!

Add more liquid to reduce the thickness, ice to chill it, or more fruit to thicken your blueberry smoothie.

Substitute ingredients at your whim — it's fun to experiment!

Strawberry Raspberry Smoothie
1 cup strawberries
1 cup raspberries
1 cup nut milk

Strawberry Raspberry Blackberry Smoothie
1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 cup strawberries
1/2 cup blackberries
1 cup nut milk

Strawberry Lemonade Smoothie
1 cup lemonade
1 cup frozen strawberries
1/2 cup nut milk
1/2 cup ice

Strawberry Raspberry Pineapple Smoothie
1 cup strawberries
1 cup raspberries
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1 cup nut milk

Strawberry Date Banana Smoothie
1 cup strawberries
3 fresh dates
3 frozen sliced bananas
1 cup nut milk

Strawberry Banana Peach Smoothie
1/2 cup frozen bananas
1/2 cup frozen strawberries
1/2 cup frozen peaches
1-1/2 cup nut milk

Strawberry Blueberry Banana Smoothie
1 frozen or fresh banana
1/2 cup blueberries,
1/2 cup strawberries
1 cup nut milk

Strawberry Mango Orange Smoothie
1 cup mango, cut in chunks
1 cup sliced strawberries
1/2 cup orange or pineapple juice
1 cup ice cubes