Jocelyn’s Berry Kefir Smoothie

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Image from www.artistta.blogspot.com

After about a 9 month hiatus, I have started back up with making homemade kefir again.  If you are not familiar with kefir, it is a wonderfully, healthy probiotic food!  It’s even considered more beneficial than yogurt.  I make mine with raw milk and it has the consistency of buttermilk – actually, it can almost have the thickness of yogurt if I let it ferment longer. 

I must admit….as much as I love the health benefits of it, my main uses of kefir has been primarily as a skin cleanser (it will give you the softest skin ever!) and a replacement for buttermilk in recipes.  We rarely drink it.  I’ve made a few kefir smoothies in the past but we either didn’t really care a whole lot for the tangy-ness or I would have to add a TON of sweetener; so it wasn’t anything I made regularly.  

I realize that my problem was simply a matter of finding the right ratio of kefir for my taste but I just didn’t take the time to play around with the recipes.   I think another part of the issue too was that my homemade kefir itself was a bit too much on the tart side.  (This was when I was first started making kefir)

I’ve been making kefir off and on (more off than on) since the summer of 2009.  However, this past month I think I finally got my “groove” with it and have gotten the right taste and thickness that I like.  Yay!  And to top it off….today, I came up with a wonderful Strawberry Kefir Smoothie that my whole family really liked!  If you’re in the mood for a chocolate kefir smoothie, try my Peanut Butter/Banana Kefir smoothie recipe.

Jocelyn’s Berry Kefir Smoothie:

8/3/12 – I have better perfected this recipe and updated the ingredients.   I’ve also included a version to make it sugar-free!

• 2 cups kefir
• 2 cup raw milk (or more kefir)
• 3 bananas
• 3 cups strawberries (I use 1 bag of organic frozen strawberries from TJ’s)
• 1/2 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
• handful of raw, unsalted cashews
• 1/3 – 1/2 cup raw honey (or your favorite natural sweetener)
• optional: 1/4 cup raspberries
• Sugar -free version: replace the honey with 1/2 tsp. of stevia

Yields: about 8-9 cups (in my Vitamix blender)

Blend all ingredients in a high powered blender until smooth.  Adjust ingredients to your liking.  I recommend starting with less sweetener then increase as needed.    If you like a stronger kefir taste, replace the raw milk with more kefir.  If you’re new to kefir and prefer a more mild kefir flavor, you can use half kefir and half milk.

If you don’t have access to raw milk, I would recommend organic, whole pasteurized milk (not homogenized).

Enjoy!  I’m now looking forward to expanding my kefir recipe collection. 

Do you have a favorite Kefir smoothie recipe?

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