Hello! The summer is almost here, and I’ve been experimenting with new and delicious recipes, as always. The bounty of summer brings a nice variety of local and fresh fruits and vegetables, and it is fun to play with them in the kitchen and taste new flavorful creations.
Today, I’d like to share a very simple but super delicious smoothie – a blueberry acai smoothie. I decided to make my own version after I tasted a blueberry acai smoothie bowl in a local raw food cafe (The Judahlicious cafe in San Francisco). Their acai bowl was amazing. However, mine turned out pretty good, as well! For this recipe, you will need raw cashews, frozen blueberries, frozen acai, dates, and filtered water.
You will need the following equipment: a good blender (such as Vitamix, Blendtec, or a similar one), and serving glasses.
I like to use raw, unsalted, soaked cashews because, after being soaked overnight, they become soft and plump and have a different taste and texture. Depending on the type of raw dried cashews, they can expand up to two times in their size after soaking. For example, for this recipe, I soaked 1 cup of dried cashews overnight, and they expanded to 2 cups. Note that the standard nutritional information such as the calories, fat, protein, and carbohydrate content, is usually provided for the dried nuts.
As for the blueberries, in this recipe, the frozen ones worked very well; I did not have to add any ice. I usually buy fresh, organic, and local blueberries that are in season and freeze them. Also, I like keeping some of the wild frozen blueberries in stock. The dates that I love to use in my recipes are the Medjool dates.
For this recipe, I used a frozen acai that was available at Trader Joe’s. Also, different acai powders or purees are available at other retailers; however, I have not tried them all in my recipes yet.
The recipe:
- 2 cups raw cashews, soaked overnight and drained (an equivalent of 1 cup of raw, dried, unsoaked cashews)
- 4 cups of frozen blueberries
- 4 cups of water
- 3 dates, pitted
- 1 packet of frozen acai (about 100 grams)
Yield: 8 cups, Serving size – 1 cup
Method of preparation:
- Place cashews, blueberries, acai, dates, and water into a blender
- Blend well until smooth and creamy
- Serve immediately or store in a refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Before serving, decorate with your favorite nuts, seeds, herbs, or spices.
Enjoy the deliciousness!
Nataliya