Smoothie Sunday: Coconut Cashew Smoothie
Smoothie Sunday is a Tablecrafter series on creating easy-to-prepare and nutritious blended drinks.
How do you find the middle ground between liquid sugar that masquerades as a smoothie and juiced vegetables that taste like a newly-mown lawn?
Up your vitamin quota with help from this nutty, tropical smoothie: blend coconut, yogurt, honey, and cashews to create a smooth and nutritious pick-me-up.
Coconuts, commonly confused for a nut, actually identify as one-seeded drupes. Drupes contain an outer fleshy part that surrounds a shell with seed inside of it. Some of the more obvious examples include cherries, plums, and peaches — as are olives and almonds too.
Note that we’re going to be using coconut milk, not coconut water. How are the two different? Coconut milk isn’t even “milk,” in a sense. Coconut milk, made from blending coconut meat and water, boasts a richer and creamier viscosity and contains nearly 500 calories and 50 grams of fat in every cup. (In contrast, the liquid that you get when you crack open a coconut is the low-calorie coconut water.)
If you raised a brow at the coconut milk’s nutritional content, you’ll be glad to know that new research reveals that not eating enough fat can actually make you fat. The good news is that the fat in coconut milk leans towards the healthy end of the spectrum, lowers cholesterol levels, and increases metabolism instead.
You can use dessicated coconut, which tends to have a more concentrated taste, to add creaminess and a rich, tropical flavor. The garnish adds a granular texture from dried and shredded coconut flakes. It complements complements the smoothie’s velvety consistency with every sip.
Recipe: Coconut Cashew Smoothie
Yield: 1–2 servings
Time: 10 minutes
Complete Ingredients
Smoothie
• ½ cup coconut milk
• ½ cup plain yogurt
• 2 tbsp honey
• ⅓ cup cashews, toasted (or unsweetened cashew butter)
• ⅓ cup ice cubes
Optional Garnish
• ¼ cup plain yogurt
• ¼ cup dessicated coconut
• ¼ cup crushed cashews
Procedure
- Mix the desiccated coconut and crushed cashews. Spread them out on a shallow dish or tray.
- Pour out the ¼ cup of yogurt into a bowl. Gently dip the rim of the glass until the yogurt comes up about one centimeter over the edge.
- Dip the glass into the desiccated coconut mixture. The yogurt should be completely covered. Set aside.
- Put all the remaining ingredients in a blender. Blend until the mixture is completely smooth and no lumps remain. Pour into rimmed glasses and serve immediately.
How did you do with this week’s Smoothie Sunday? Send us a photo to hello@tablecrafter.com or tag us on Instagram. We’d love to see your work!
