Avocado-Banana Milkshake (Smoothie)

Avocado is in season here in Sri Lanka and our group has been consuming the healthy fruit (or vegetable, if that’s the way you like categorizing it) enormously. Either prepared as avocado shake/smoothie as a drink or lightly pureed and sweetened with condensed milk and eaten as a dessert (the popular Filipino way of eating it), avocado is truly delicious. Wait …… I’m drooling just thinking of the greenish yellow, velvety, buttery flesh of the fruit .... so make that very delicious. :)

Taking advantage of the current abundant supply which also translates to very reasonable or inexpensive cost, we have avocado smoothie almost every day. Don’t be astonished. While we love it and there is no indication that we will develop a taste fatigue any sooner, I decided to effect counter measure early on and made an easy variation by blending banana into the luscious drink. The result is pretty fabulous and worthy of posting hence this feature now.

This is a nice addition to the several fruit shake recipes already posted here such as the exotic bael (beli fruit), guyabano (sour sop) and green mango (unripe); the typical ones like pineapple, mango, avocado and papaya; and mixed-flavor concoction like the mango-papaya. Since guyabano and avocado are my top picks, this new avocado-banana blend is another potential favorite for me ……… and just probably, yours too!

Apart from their wonderful flavors, avocado and banana promise a great deal of natural vitamins and minerals. Everybody knows this. Both are popular in the vegetarian cuisine that could well substitute for meat in many preparations from salads to sandwiches to fritters.

For best results, the fruits should be on their proper ripeness when blended. Anything under or over affects the sweetness or tartness and therefore will influence the overall taste of the smoothie. Since we have a weekly supply of both fruits, timing for the preparation is easy for me.

We always buy local fruits at a little under ripe state like these ones:

So all we have to do is wait for several days when the ripeness is at its best for making a smoothie which appearance should look like this. :)

For a single blending good for about 3 tall glasses of the drink, the few ingredients needed are: 2 medium avocados, flesh scraped from its thick skin, 3 small bananas, peeled and diced, about 2 cups fresh milk, 6 tbsp white sugar and about 1 and 1/3 trays ice cube, about 16 pieces.

To prepare, just put everything into the blender. Ice and sugar first, followed by avocado and banana then covered with the milk.

Put the lid on tightly and pulse it several times until the ice cube and fruits are broken down and blended evenly with the other ingredients.

Stir the mixture using spoon and then pulse it a couple of times more until a smooth, rich and creamy consistency is attained. As I always say, don’t over blend.

Pour the drinks into tall glasses and serve. For me and my colleagues, gulping this drink after a meal is done in just a matter of minutes …… okay, sometimes seconds. :-)

We can confirm, healthy drinks can be so easy and refreshingly tasty. Enjoy! c“,)