Strawberry season is in full swing, we need to take advantage while we can. I recommend a strawberry smoothie with coconut milk. On a hot day we can add a handful of ice cubes and we have a delicious, cooling afternoon snack. I didn’t sweeten the smoothie because I’m not a fan of sweets, I prefer the natural, tart taste of fruits, but you can use some natural malt or a few soft dates.

In an enriched version, I suggest adding powdered baobab fruit and chia seeds or freshly ground flaxseed.

More and more doubts are appearing whether super food is really super or just more expensive and whether we can replace expensive, well-promoted, trendy products with something cheaper, yet equally valuable. Of course we can. I wrote about baobab fruits here click. As for chia seeds, we can replace them with flaxseeds. However, I notice two basic differences. First, we digest chia whole, but flaxseed needs to be ground or chewed very well. Ground flaxseed loses its nutritional properties very quickly, so it should be ground just before use. We can only store ground flaxseed for a few days in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container. Buying ground and defatted seeds in a store or pharmacy, in my opinion, defeats the purpose. Secondly, chia seeds are completely neutral in taste, while ground flaxseed has a hint of cod liver oil (at least for me). For these two reasons, I prefer to add chia seeds (Spanish sage) to smoothies.

Strawberry and Coconut Milk Smoothie

350 g fresh strawberries
125 ml coconut milk
1 small, very ripe banana, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (can be replaced with lemon)
100 ml water
handful of ice cubes
optionally some natural sweetener (honey, maple syrup)

enriched version
1 tablespoon powdered baobab fruit
1 tablespoon chia seeds or freshly ground flaxseed

Put all ingredients, except chia seeds and ice, into a blender and blend until smooth. Add ice cubes and blend for a few seconds (to crush the ice).

Pour the smoothie into glasses and sprinkle with chia seeds or ground flaxseed.