I came up with this blend because I wanted a snack, but was out of fresh fruit. In the freezer I had frozen mango and figs. I wouldn’t have guessed that they would go together, but, combined with vanilla, the result is surprisingly delicious.
I’ve previously written about how you can use vanilla pods in smoothies, but this time I just used extract. For most things, I think extract is the way to go, because it is cheaper/easier, and you don’t sacrifice too much flavor.
Both mango and figs have plenty of fiber, so the smoothie comes out relatively thick, but still fully drinkable.
¼ cup raw cashews
1 cup frozen figs
1 cup frozen mango
1 tsp vanilla extract
Makes 2 servings.
If you want to avoid needing the tamper, and to maximize smoothness, first blend water, cashews, and figs for ~30 seconds on high. Then add mango and vanilla and blend for another ~20 seconds. Or you can just blend it all together.
If you have fresh fruit, you can use that and blend with ice cubes instead of the water. However, if you can find them, I think frozen figs are a particularly good idea for smoothies, since fresh figs are so delicate. (I’ve found frozen figs at Trader Joe’s.)
This smoothie is also quite good with the addition of plain protein powder and/or chia seeds.
I made this twice this Summer. Very tasty! I did not have access to frozen figs so I used 6 organic, semi-dried Turkish figs with stems removed. I also used store-brand frozen mango chunks as they were readily available. Even though the figs were not frozen, the smoothie was still very thick and cool.
Glad to hear you liked it! And thanks for sharing your experience with the semi-dried figs. That sounds like a good option.
How do you measure the fruit in this recipe? I froze fresh figs and mango, leaving the figs whole and made medium chuncks of mango. I can wing it, but am curious about your method.
For this type of recipe I don’t really measure. I included the 1-cup amounts as a ballpark estimate so that you can have a some idea of what I made. My take is that smoothies are forgiving on amounts, and even if you did measure everything out to the gram, each batch of fruit will be a bit different anyway. And people have different preferences on taste as well…
When I’m estimating amounts for writing up a recipe, sometimes I use the markings on the blender container, and sometimes I use a measuring cup.