Healthy Cherry-Pineapple Smoothie Recipe

Jun 29, 2020

"The gods created certain kinds of beings to replenish our bodies. They are the trees, the plants, and the seeds."
-Plato

About the Ingredients

Strangely, I find it much easier to get my daily servings of vegetables than fruits. I've never been a huge fan of fruit. (I guess I always preferred to get my sugar fix from chocolate and candy instead.) But mixing them together in a smoothie is a great way to cover most of my necessary daily fruit intake. I try to follow Dr. Greger's Daily Dozen checklist to ensure I'm getting all the necessary nutrients, so I will be referencing that in the following paragraphs.

This recipe includes three separate fruits: cherries (covers my daily serving of berries & they're filled with antioxidants), mango (one of the best fruits for weight loss), and pineapple (which, along with the mango, covers 1/2 of my "other fruit" servings for the day).

You may notice that there's a common smoothie staple missing from the fruit category: bananas. Though I do enjoy a good ripe banana, I absolutely cannot stand the taste in a smoothie (it always takes over). Additionally, this recipe is already pumped with fruit, so it isn't entirely necessary. Instead, to still get that creamy consistency we usually get from bananas, I use riced cauliflower (which covers a 1/2 serving of my daily cruciferous vegetable dose).

One simple ingredient that I've found to be essential is fresh mint (covers an herbs & spices serving). It adds just a hint of coolness -- an additional depth of flavor -- to this otherwise very sweet and fruity drink. Also, Dr. Greger notes that adding just a little bit of herbs or spices to a dish can significantly increase your nutrient intake.

Probably the strangest ingredients included in this recipe are turmeric and black pepper (also covers the herbs & spices category, though turmeric, in particular, should be included in your diet every day), as they certainly don't fit with the overall flavor of this smoothie. Though you don't have to include them if you often add turmeric to your other savory meals during the day, I like to add it in if I haven't had my daily serving of turmeric. Turmeric is one of the most powerful spices out there, known for its anti-carcinogenic and detoxifying qualities. And adding just a dash of black pepper helps curcumin (the active ingredient in turmeric) absorption by over 2,000 percent!

Recipe

1 cup unsweetened plant milk
1/2 cup frozen cherries
1/2 cup frozen mango
1 cup frozen pineapple
1/4 - 1/3 cup frozen riced cauliflower
3-5 fresh mint leaves
1/2 tsp turmeric (optional)
Dash of black pepper (optional)

Simply place all the ingredients in a blender and enjoy!

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Substitutions & Alterations

Instead of 1 cup of plant milk, I often use 1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk + 1/2 cup filtered water/unsweetened coconut water to keep the fat content lower. If you follow a low-fat diet, it's best to opt for nut- and coconut-free milks.

Instead of riced cauliflower, you can substitute 1/2 of a ripe, frozen banana.

To make this a standard piña colada recipe, simply remove the cherries, replace them with more frozen mango, and use coconut milk.

This recipe is also incredibly delicious when replacing the cherries with raspberries. (In fact, I might even prefer it that way.)

To turn this into a smoothie bowl, simply add in less milk or more fruit/cauliflower.

Tips & Tricks

Since I have a generic, low-speed blender, making ultra-creamy smoothies isn't possible, and it has difficulty dealing with frozen foods. Because of that, I put all my frozen fruits in a glass measuring cup and microwave them for 60-90 seconds beforehand. With the frozen cauliflower and other refrigerated ingredients, the smoothie still stays quite chilly, but my blender doesn't have to struggle so much.

If you also don't have a high-speed blender or want to protect the blades from damage, it's best to put in liquids and non-frozen ingredients first.

Because this smoothie is low in calories and is almost entirely fruit, it will not keep you satiated for long, and I wouldn't recommend it as a full meal. Generally, I like to have this as an afternoon snack or a post-dinner dessert. If you'd like to get in more calories, you could add a serving of hemp, chia, or flaxseeds, cooked beans, or frozen peas (though I can't attest to how that might alter the flavor).

Nutrition Facts

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