The main obstacle to making a smoothie on a weekday morning is not the blending, which takes a minute. It is the preparation: finding, washing, peeling and measuring ingredients before anything happens.
Freezer Packs
The standard solution is assembling portions in advance and freezing them, so the morning task becomes emptying a bag into a cup and adding liquid.
An hour on a Sunday produces a week or more of portions, and it removes the decision-making that is the actual barrier at seven in the morning.
Let It Sit Briefly
A pack straight from a freezer at its coldest is considerably harder on a blender than the same pack after five minutes on the counter.
That short wait reduces motor load and produces a smoother result. Sets with several cup sizes, of the kind at magic-bullet.net, also help by letting the portion match the cup rather than rattling around in an oversized one.
How to Assemble Them
- Portion the solid ingredients into bags or containers, one per serving
- Leave out liquid and anything dairy, which are added fresh
- Include the greens, which freeze well and blend more easily frozen
- Label with contents and date, since frozen fruit is unidentifiable
- Lay flat to freeze, which stacks better and thaws faster
What Freezes Well
Most fruit, particularly banana, berries, mango and pineapple. Spinach and kale, which become easier to blend after freezing because the cell walls have broken down.
Bananas should be peeled before freezing, which is obvious once you have tried to peel a frozen one. Slicing them first also helps the blender considerably.
What Does Not
Yoghurt and milk separate on thawing and are better added fresh. Whole citrus segments become unpleasant. Anything with a high water content and delicate texture, such as cucumber or melon, turns mushy.
Seeds, oats and powders are better added at blending time, since they can absorb moisture and clump in a freezer bag.
Using Fruit That Would Be Wasted
The most practical version of this is freezing fruit approaching the end of its life rather than buying fruit specifically to freeze.
Overripe bananas in particular are ideal: sweeter, softer and free, since the alternative is throwing them away. This makes smoothies a way of reducing food waste rather than an additional expense.
Food Safety
Fruit and vegetables should be washed before freezing rather than after. Anything that has been thawed should not be refrozen, and a portion left out to thaw for hours is better discarded than used.
Frozen fruit keeps well for months but does deteriorate in texture and flavour, so labelling with a date is worth the moment it takes.
Blending Straight From Frozen
Add the liquid first, then the frozen pack, and pulse rather than running continuously. Attempting to blend a solid frozen block with no liquid is how small motors are damaged.