Whole Carrot-Mango Smoothie (made with whole carrots, not carrot juice)

It’s always satisfying to have an “a-ha” moment, and I had one the other day regarding carrots in my smoothies.

The issue prior to the “a-ha” was this: I’ve seen many a smoothie recipe calling for carrot juice, but I wanted a recipe that uses whole carrots. Carrot juice has several problems: It is expensive, or it requires hauling out my husband’s clunky juicer of old to get a few drizzles of juice, and more importantly, all of the fiber (of which carrots have plenty) is removed. Whole carrots, by contrast, are cheap, always in my refrigerator, have all of their fiber intact, and are ready-to-use.

I tried giving whole carrots a whirl on several occasions to chunky, unpalatable results. If you have a Vitamix, you can liquify just about anything, but in an average blender, chopped carrots only become smaller chopped carrots, which is antithetical to a smoothie.

A solution dawned on me while grating carrots for some muffins. I was using the small grating holes because I like the extra-fine shreds in the muffins (they lead to moister, less dense muffins in the end). Why not do the same for a carrot smoothie?

So I did. And it was smooth, sweet delicious bliss. Even the oldest, clunkiest blender will produce a velvety carrot concoction when the carrots are prepped this way. And cleaning a box grater is a breeze compared with de-mucking the juicer.

Here’s my recipe for a mango-carrot smoothie, but keep in mind you can add a handful of finely shredded carrots to just about any smoothie. It will add gorgeous color, loads of nutrition, natural sweetness, and some extra body. Happy sipping!

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Whole Carrot-Mango Smoothie (made with whole carrots, not carrot juice)

Yield: 1

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

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Ingredients

• 1 cup frozen mango chunks
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and finely grated
• 1 cup ice water
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• Sweetener to taste (optional: I used 2 packets of Organic Stevia)

Instructions

1. Place all of the ingredients in blender; puree until smooth. Done!

Notes

(1) I strongly advise peeling the carrots! I am all for keeping the peel on carrots about 99% of the time, but unless they are super-fresh carrots (i.e., right out of your garden or straight form the farmer's market), give them a peel for optimal flavor.
(2) The mango need not be frozen, but it produces a thicker smoothie.
(3) Here is some more nutrition 411: This humble smoothie has 267% of your daily Vitamin A, 101% of your Vitamin C requirements, is high in potassium and vitamin B6, is very low in sugar, and is very high in dietary fiber.

Nutrition Information

Serving Size entire recipe
Amount Per Serving Calories 148Total Fat 1gSaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 0mgSodium 54mgCarbohydrates 38.2gFiber 5.4gSugar 29.4gProtein 1.7g

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