By Genevieve
I love recipes that have avocado in them, but the problem for me is that I can’t eat a whole avocado in one meal, and as I’m sure you all know, leftover avocado doesn’t save very well as it starts to go brown once you cut it open.
Luckily I’ve come up with another use for my leftover avocado – I store it in the fridge and use it for smoothies the next day! Since avocados are already so creamy, they are perfect for making thick smoothies without even needing to add ice.
It took me a few tries to get this recipe right, but I’m happy enough with this version to share it with you! The full title should really be Avocado-Almond Banana Coconut Smoothie, since each of those flavours comes through. But it can also be adapted very easily if you don’t have all these ingredients. I would say that the avocado and frozen banana are essential, but the rest of the ingredients could be played around with....so for example, if you don’t have coconut water, you could try pineapple juice, and you could probably use honey or sugar in place of the agave.
Before I get to the recipe, a quick note about coconut water – this is another of my recent discoveries that I’ve become obsessed with! It’s been popular with celebrities for awhile, and you can find it in some grocery stores now, in addition to health food stores. If you do a google search, you will find tons of information about the health benefits of coconut water, and its great for re-hydrating on a hot day or after working out.
The taste does take some getting used to though...I remember the first time I tried the real thing straight out of a coconut in India and I almost had to spit it out! But now I’ve grown to love the taste and I will happily drink it both out of freshly cracked coconuts or from the packaged bottles! It even comes in different flavours now, like lime, pineapple and mango.
So far, my favourite kind is O.N.E. coconut water in the mango flavour (which I believe is only available in the US).
If you don't like the taste of coconut water on its own though, you can still get the nutritional benefits by adding it to a smoothie along with other ingredients to mask the taste!
Here is the recipe I used:
- ¼ avocado
- ½ frozen banana
- 1 tbsp almond butter
- ½ tsp agave
- 1 tbsp almonds soaked in ¼ cup coconut water*
- ¼ cup additional coconut water
Instructions:
Blend first 5 ingredients until smooth. Add up to 1/4 cup additional coconut water to thin out (mine was very thick the last time I made it, so I needed a bit more than the 1/4 cup extra just to make it drinkable).
* It is best to soak your almonds in the coconut water itself overnight, so that you don't lose any of the almond "juice". If you don't plan your smoothies that far in advance though, I've also tried it after just soaking the almonds in hot water for at least 5 minutes before making the smoothie...but you might end up with some chunks of almonds that don't get broken up this way).
Makes 1 smoothie.
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