Mango Smoothie

When making smoothies, it’s all about the blender. My trusty Oster Counterforms has been pulverizing ice for several years now at about a quarter the price of bigger, fancier machines. The blade pauses and reverses a couple of times when you first start blending, which greatly reduces the chance of cracked carafes or broken blades. Very nifty!

Ingredients

6 ounces of mango nectar

1 cup of ice cubes

1 cup of frozen mango chunks (Trader Joe's are the best)

½ cup of plain or vanilla yogurt

Makes enough for one smoothie

Directions

Combine all ingredients in your blender. Pulse a few times and then blend on high. Stand nearby with a little bit of water just in case. Ice cubes and frozen fruit chunks are unpredictable and you may need to add a little more liquid while blending to get the perfect consistency.

Additional notes

Pear nectar makes a good alternative to mango. It mixes well with almost any fruit and, unlike orange or apple juice, allows the flavor of the frozen fruit to be the thing you taste the most. You can use any frozen fruit but I would avoid raspberries. A raspberry smoothie tastes great, but those little seeds will drive you crazy!

About Me

Name: Andrew

Where's your kitchen? Montclair, NJ

What's your signature dish? Chicken with vinegar, pan roasted potatoes, apple pie

What's the best thing you ever ate? A small, perfectly roasted piece of lamb consumed in a tiny restaurant on the outskirts of Lucca, Italy

What's your favorite item in your kitchen and what does it say about you? My iPod radio. I like a little music or baseball play-by-play during a long, leisurely afternoon in the kitchen!

What's your kitchen resolution(s) for 2011? To perfect my technique for making pasta from scratch