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Mango Lassi

18 Aug

When my mom turned vegetarian, one of the ways she maneuvered into getting me to like vegetarian cooking was to encourage me to take vegetarian cooking classes.   I never disliked cooking, yet it was something done in my house to appease your hunger, not something we had a passion for.

I learned to make whole grain rice, textured soy protein, some sort of potato pastelón, a basic cake recipe without using eggs and as a beverage I remember extra clearly, Mango Lassi.  I remember expressly because I had never mixed mango with yogurt before and it tasted DIVINE!!! 

Maybe the divine part was because Lassi comes from India – the land of deities and divinity.  It’s traditionally made with mangoes, which are plentiful in India, but it can certainly be made with any other fruit.  Lassi is nothing more than a fruit shake made with yogurt and ice.  I read there are versions with rosewater, pistachios, and other spices.  The funny thing is that I went to India 4 years ago;  I never had a lassi – plenty of mango juice, but no lassi.

My version of lassi is simple and very refreshing.  What I like about lassis is they’re great to prepare the digestive system to receive food.  It very well is the active cultures in the yogurt, or that it’s a way to consume fruits BEFORE food instead of as a dessert.  But no matter the reason, they’re just delicious any time of day, particularly in the summer heat.

 

 

 

MANGO LASSI

1 mango, peeled and diced
1 cup of plain yogurt
2 tbs agave nectar
3-4 ice cubes
¼ cup of water, to thin out the mixture if it’s too thick for the blender to process

 

  1. Mix all the ingredients in a blender.  Blend it at the highest speed for about 1-2 minutes to make sure the mango fibers are broken very well.

 

Enjoy as an appetizer, as a snack or as a great breakfast shake.

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Strawberry Lemonade

11 Aug

August, by far, has been the hottest month in the Summer.  So to cool off I have developed a nice repertoire of refreshing drinks that will keep me cool.

To give a nice sweet twist to your regular lemonade…  add some fresh strawberries.

 

 

STRAWBERRY LEMONADE

The juice of 2 lemons – I prefer criollo lemons
About 1 ½ cups of water – this may vary according to the amount of juice your lemons yield
2 strawberries, hulled and quartered
2 tbs agave nectar
3-4 cubes of ice

 

  1. Mix all the ingredients in a blender. 
  2. Enjoy under a shady palm tree.

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Citrus Punch

1 Aug

This was a non-alcoholic drink I did for the Les Francophones get-together.  I wanted to have something light and refreshing if someone needed a break from the French wine they brought over…

 

 

CITRUS PUNCH

1 container of frozen passion fruit juice, thawed
2  12oz bottles of pineapple juice
1 cup of orange juice
1 bottle of Martinelli’s sparkling apple cider
1 cup of lime-flavored Perrier

 

 

  1. Mix all the ingredients in a pitcher and chill in the refrigerator until your guests arrive.

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Ode to the Tropical Cream Supreme

24 Jul

When I was in high school, there was an Orange Julius in Isla Verde…  we would go every Sunday afternoon, after going to the beach the whole day, to cool off with a Tropical Cream Supreme.  This was THE BEST drink over at the Orange Julius.  It tasted like summer, sand and sun all rolled up into a delicious shake.   

I liked these shakes so much that my then boyfriend would buy and bring them to me almost every night when I was home-bound with the chicken pox.  I even bought once a Hawaiian Tropic suntan oil because it smelled just like a Tropical Cream Supreme.  It was almost an obsession… I know.

But that was then…  and suddenly, without even looking for it, I once again reunited with one of my high school loves – The Tropical Cream Supreme.  Let me show you how…

 

ODE TO THE TROPICAL CREAM SUPREME

1 banana
3 strawberries
1 cup orange juice
½ cup plain soymilk
3 tbs agave nectar
1 tbs bee pollen
3 ice cubes
 
  1. Mix everything in a blender and enjoy it watching the sunset after a hot day at the beach. (sigh!)

 

The bee pollen is something I added on my own.  It was not included in the original shake, however it added certain sweetness and energy-boosting qualities very much in tune with my current lifestyle.  Try it… it’s available at most natural food stores.

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SS Smoothie

10 Jul

As you may have noticed, I’ve been making myself a lot of fruit shakes and smoothies lately, especially during the preparations for my yoga retreats.  I need to go thru days of preparations where I eat only salads, fruits and juices.  So when we have to prepare, fruit shakes are a great way to go.  Plus, it’s more appealing to me than eating one fruit at a time.

So the BB Shake does not feel too lonely with the quirky name… here comes the SS Smoothie.  This one has strawberries and spinach.  And again, the fruit flavors are sooooo awesome; you can’t taste nor see the spinach in the final product.   This shake is also very good friends of the Stealth Shake.  As you can see, after two attempts of incorporating spinach into my shakes, none of them have turned out green yet.  

 

 

THE SS SMOOTHIE

3 strawberries, quartered
A handful of fresh baby spinach
1 cup of pomegranate juice
A big squirt of agave nectar
3 cubes of ice
A bit of water , if the smoothie is too thick

 

  1. Mix everything in your blender…  and enjoy.

Here’s a picture of the spinach and strawberries before blending – trying to give you proof that indeed there’s spinach in the mix and that I did not make it up.  Another lesson… Madelyn, needs to get a glass jar for the blender so the blog pictures can look better.  Same goes for the plastic cup I used to drink it.

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