Delicious Raspberry Banana Smoothie

by Mira

Creamy and delicious raspberry smoothie, and very easy to make. This classic vegan recipe has got to be one of the best ways to use raspberries. Very flavorful.

Of all smoothies I’ve tried, this combo is one of the tastiest. Sure, part of it has to do with the fact that vanilla soy milk by itself tastes wonderful. But it also has to do with the fact that mint goes well with raspberries. The smoothie is tasty without the mint as well, but the mint truly makes it special, and mint goes so well with cocoa! Remember After Eights? A touch of that goes into this drink as well.

This smoothie combo is great because it combines many flavorful elements, and you can tell all those flavors apart as you drink it, which makes it stand out among other smoothies. It’s also packed with nutrients, and you can drink two servings as a light meal replacement. It contains carbs, fats, protein, and lots of vitamins, minerals, and lots of super healthy phytonutrients.

A great way to enjoy raspberries
A great way to enjoy raspberries
© Mira at Wizzley
Minty Cocoa Raspberry Banana Smoothie

Minty Cocoa Raspberry Banana Smoothie


Prep time 5 min  -  Total time 5 min
Ingredients for 2 servings
150 grams / 5.30 oz raspberries  • 2 bananas  • 200 ml / 6.75 fl oz vanilla soy milk  • 2 tbsp honey  • 1 tsp cocoa  • leaves of 2 sprigs of mint

Instructions

1. Wash the raspberries; wash and chop the mint; cut up the bananas.
2. Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth.

Recipe  5.0/5 Stars (12 Votes)

I think the trick to getting the best version of this recipe is to use something that’s vanilla flavored. Somehow I find that synthetic vanilla extract tastes artificial, so I prefer to use vanilla-flavored drinks. The vanilla soy milk I buy, made by a supermarket chain, tastes pretty amazing. It’s also a great way for vegans to get a taste for smoothies, as vanilla soy milk raises them all into the stratosphere. They are truly delicious. Milk and yogurt don’t make them as tasty.

Another important element is the honey. It adds not only sweetness, but also flavor, and is essential to turning this great smoothie combination into an excellent one.

Raspberries pack a lot of flavor

They are also rich in healthy phytonutrients, vitamin C and other vitamins and minerals, and fiber
Fresh raspberries: Beautiful and So Healthy
Fresh raspberries: Beautiful and So Healthy
© Mira at Wizzley

Some of the Health Benefits of Raspberries

Here's why they are a superfood

A cup (123 grams) of raspberries contains 54% DV Vitamin C, 41% DV manganese, vitamin K (12%), magnesium (7%), folate / folic acid / B9 (6%), copper (6%), potassium (5%), iron (5%), vitamin E (5%), niacin / B3 (4%), pantothenic acid / B5 (4%), thiamine / B1 (3%), riboflavin (3%), calcium (3%), zinc (3%), and other vitamins and minerals. It also contains some omega-3 fatty acids (6.2%) and lots of fiber (8 grams / 32% DV -- that’s a third of the recommended daily intake) for only 64 calories, which means raspberries are your friends if you’re on a weight loss journey.

But that’s just the vitamins, minerals, omega-3 fats and fiber in raspberries, which make them especially good for the heart and bones, and promoters of general health (the latter due to high levels of the antioxidant vitamin C). Just as important are their phytonutrients, such as ellagic acid, which prevents a number of cancers. Ellagic acid has also been shown in the 1980s to inhibit induced cancer of the esophagus in rodents.

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Raspberries also contain other powerful flavonoids, among them anthocyanins and quercetin. Freeze-dried berries were proven to inhibit cancer cell growth in the esophagus, colon, oral cavity, and the mammary gland of rodents. The inhibiting power has been ascribed to the anthocyanins all berries contain (the darker the berries, the higher the levels of anthocyanins). These favonoids, and quercetin as well, have not only antioxidant properties, but also anti-inflammatory ones as well, which protects against heart disease (besides cancer). Quercetin is also a powerful antihistamine, helping with allergies.

Based on these findings, some scientists suggest that we should eat berries daily.

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Some of the Health Benefits of (Pepper)Mint (Mentha piperita)

Mint tea, mint oil, and even the scent of mint are very good for you. Here's why
  • You all know mint is a breath freshener.
  • It also promotes digestion (peppermint oil is a carminative) and relieves heartburn.
  • Menthol (rubbed on your chest, added to steam inhalations, or in mint tea) is a decongestant, giving respiratory relief when you have a cold. Extracts from peppermint also inhibit histamine release, thus relieving nasal congestion in seasonal allergies.
  • The scent of mint and mint oil rubbed on wrists and abdomen relieve nausea.
  • The scent of mint boosts your mood as well. It also stimulates your brain so you feel less tired and more focused.
  • Peppermint oil reduces skin inflammation. You can use it to treat insect bites, for instance.
  • Peppermint oil also helps with headaches, and sensitivity to noise and light.
  • Inhaled before and during a workout, the oil of this plant also helps to boost your energy; and it calms your sore muscles after that workout.

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Other Great Ways to Use Raspberries

You can use raspberries in a variety of cake recipes, with or without the mint. As far as quick raspberry recipes go, they are great in parfaits as well, or with oatmeal and Greek yogurt. Here in Romania we also add them to egg-white foam, which we then eat with crepes.

Updated: 10/18/2020, Mira
 
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What's Your Favorite Raspberry Dessert?

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Mira on 05/14/2016

Thanks, Frank. I'll ask at Botanical Gardens, too. And, good idea, I'll inquire online about specialist markets.

frankbeswick on 05/13/2016

Good,there may be specialist markets that sell all these berries. However, beware, I once grew a hybrid berry known as Worcesterberry, which is a gooseberry-blackcurrant cross, but the spines on these berries were worse than those on gooseberries. I dug them up as they were too spiky to handle,so don't try picking your own!. However, you would like jostaberries, which are tasty.

Mira on 05/13/2016

Thank you, Frank! The natural world is ever more fascinating to me. I never even heard of the names of these berries in Romanian, so I wasn't aware of all this diversity. Not too much diversity at farmer's markets either. I would absolutely love to be able to taste all these hybrid berries you mention. Next time I travel abroad during the summer or autumn I'll seek out food markets. I've been to two great ones in Barcelona and Madrid and discovered new varieties of fruit. I'll keep an eye open for berries next time.

frankbeswick on 05/13/2016

There are Summer and Autumn fruiting raspberries, which each require different kinds of treatment by gardeners. But raspberries belong to the genus Rubus, which is an incredibly large genus of plants. Within Rubus there are blackberries [2000 microspecies in Britain alone] dewberries and raspberries. There are different species of raspberry.

Then there are the hybrid berries. Where raspberry is involved, there are loganberries, Tayberries and boysenberries. Loganberries and Tayberries are blackberry-raspberry crosses that differ in the particular species of raspberry and blackberry chosen. Boysenberries are a cross between a European raspberry,a common blackberry, an American dewberry and a loganberry. You can achieve a complex cross like this because Rubus plants possess polyploidy, the ability of some plants to have multiple chromosomes, which animals do not have.

I grow raspberries and once grew loganberries, which can run out of control with one stem growing much longer than the others. My tayberries failed for some unknown reason and I have not tried them since.

You probably have seen several varieties of raspberry, but they taste very much the same as each other,so you did not spot the difference. It takes a specialist to identify the different species and varieties.

Mira on 10/17/2014

Thank you :)

Tehreem on 10/17/2014

Pics are mouth watering. It sounds so yummy, Tweeting . . .

Mira on 10/16/2013

Thank you, janices7! This raspberry is one of the joys of summer for me.

janices7 on 10/16/2013

Looks delicious! I love raspberries and smoothies are a great, nutritious breakfast option that I utilize often.

Mira on 09/13/2013

Shraddha: I don't use strawberries much myself. I'll have to see how they go with the mint. Thank you for stopping by, Shraddha!

Mira on 09/13/2013

:) Thank you, Tolovaj! This raspberry smoothie really is good :)


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