Smoothies have remained a popular diet snack and breakfast in health circles for years. Perhaps this is due to how flexible smoothies can be in thickness, texture, and flavour. Or maybe they are so popular because they are an easy and filling substitute for overly sugary treats.
As smoothies are so easy to make and are so moreish in taste, it is very easy to make too much smoothie at once. Instead of wasting delicious fruit by throwing away your leftover smoothies, use them for something equally delicious.
4 Things to do with Leftover Smoothie
You may not realize it, but many recipes use similar preparation methods as making a smoothie in their cooking process. As such, you can use your leftover smoothie as a base for other treats and dishes, such as:
1) Turn It Into Smoothie Cubes
Just because you do not have enough leftover smoothie for another full glass does not mean you have to use the smoothie for something else. Instead, you can make smoothie cubes to add to your next batch of smoothies.
Smoothie cubes are blocks of frozen smoothie that you can pop out and include in other smoothies.
They are a great way to bulk out smoothies when you don’t have quite enough fruit left in your kitchen. Or if you are growing bored of your current smoothie flavour and want to throw in a little something extra to make it more interesting.
All you need to do to make smoothie cubes is pour your left-over smoothie into an ice cube tray and leave them to freeze for up to 3 months.
2) Make Homemade Popsicles
What better way to use a refreshing summer smoothie on a hot summer’s day than to freeze your leftovers and turn them into refreshing popsicles?
Like smoothies, popsicles are a quick and easy snack to make when you are craving something sweet but are trying to take a healthier route.
It doesn’t matter how much smoothie you have left over, as you can always dilute the mixture to get more popsicles out of your leftover smoothie. If you add some water or milk, then the vibrant taste of your smoothie will mellow out a little. This may be a good thing depending on the type of smoothie you have made.
Just follow these steps to turn your smoothie into the perfect popsicles:
- Prep The Moulds
Before you start making the popsicles, rinse out your popsicle moulds and prop them up securely so that you avoid spilling as much of your leftover smoothie as possible. - Pour
Take your smoothie and pour an equal amount of smoothie into the popsicle moulds. - Add The Stick
Using the provided plastic stick or your own wooden ones, push the stick into your popsicle to act as a handle. - Freeze
Now you can place the popsicle moulds into the freezer and allow the cold to work its magic for a few hours before enjoying.
3) Make A Meat Marinade
Not all smoothies require dairy to achieve that perfectly thick smoothie taste. Neither are all smoothies overwhelmingly sweet. These kinds of smoothies can work perfectly as a meat marinade.
It may seem a little out of the box to use blended fruit or greens as a meat marinade. However, if you leave your chicken or pork to rest overnight in a bed of leftover smoothies, they will soak up the refreshing flavour of the smoothie and make for a wonderfully tasty dish.
This technique can work well for lighter meat dishes such as orange chicken or grilled pork. You just need to allow at least 8 hours for your meat to soak up as much flavour from the smoothie as possible.
Of course, you should be aware that whatever flavour your smoothie is, that’s the flavour that your marinaded meat will pick up. So only marinade your meat in a smoothie that can work well with the rest of your dish.
For instance, banana and kiwi chicken will be too hard to pair with anything else!
4) Add To Baked Treats
This is another leftover smoothie trick that may leave a few people scratching their heads at first but can work wonderfully with the right smoothie.
Many baked goods, including cookies, brownies, and muffins, can be improved with a little bit of leftover smoothie.
Add your leftover smoothie to your brownie, cake, or cookie batter at the same time as you would add chocolate chips or any other additions. It will cook in a similar way as when you use fruit puree or jams in baking, making your baked goods beautifully moist every time.
As mentioned above, not all smoothies will work well in every baked good. For example, a kale smoothie will not have much to offer an orange cake.
While your smoothie will not alter the taste of your baked goods a terrible amount, you don’t want it to take away from the flavour either.
Leftover Smoothie FAQs
Do you still have questions about what to do with leftover smoothie? Then these FAQs might help you out:
You can keep leftover smoothies in the fridge for up to 48 hours. During this time, it will separate, so you’ll need to give it a vigorous stir before drinking it.
This depends. If you want to keep it for more than 2 days, you’ll need to store it in the freezer otherwise, it will keep fine in the fridge.
Acacia may be a freelance writer by day, but they are a food fanatic by night. They are always trying out new recipes or finding different ways to elevate classical dishes. But their biggest culinary aim is to educate others on the basics of the kitchen so that they too can enjoy delicious food.