It had been a while since I’d last given you a smoothie recipe.
Well, to be completely honest, it had been a while since I’d created, or even got inspired to come up with a new smoothie recipe.
I’d even dare say I’d gotten a little bit bored with them and had instead been dreaming of creamy buckwheat cereal, peanut butter and banana on toasts and even oven baked sweet potatoes covered with vanilla custard, raisins, pecans and a drizzle of honey. Those who follow me on FB might have seen this latest crazy breakfast idea of mine. I must admit it was pretty decadent and I am planning on giving that one its very own post eventually.
But anyhow, back to smoothies, I hadn’t really been inspired until Joann recently commented in her “own personalized smoothie post” and challenged me to create something with frozen cherries.
Having well over 3 pounds of them left in my freezer, I was more than happy to accept the challenge!
Originally, I had meant to use dried chipotle peppers but couldn’t get my hands on them, so out of despair, I resorted to using fresh jalapeno. I was determined to give this one a really nice kick, you see, so I NEEDED to add some sort of a hot pepper.
To tell you the truth, I’m real happy I never found the chipotle. The jalapenos work absolutely brilliantly. They do provide the kick that I’d been looking for without completely taking over. In fact, I think they add a great feeling of freshness to the combination.
This smoothie is probably my favorite so far; In fact, I’m so excited about it, it made it right to the top of the pile and bypassed all the other recipes that had been patiently waiting their turn… Most of them weren’t too happy about being passed like that, but hey, they’ll get over it and will look just as good and delicious when their time arrives…
After all, I’M the decision maker, and I decided you guys NEEDED to get your hands on this recipe sooner than later.
Especially you, Joann! Thanks again for another real winner!
For sure, one that I will be wanting to have over and over this summer. It IS so extremely refreshing. Perfect for a hot summer day!
Oh, and don’t let the pictures fool you.
I might have poured this into 2 glasses, but I ended up drinking BOTH of them…
So save yourself the trouble… and pour the whole thing into a single glass.
Trust me on that one. You will NOT have too much…
You might even wish you had made a double batch!
INGREDIENTS
- 150g frozen cherries
- ½ large jalapeno pepper, seeds removed and chopped finely
- 20g walnuts
- 1 cup coconut water
- 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
- 1 tbsp chia seeds, ground
- 1 scoop vanilla flavored whey protein powder
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
INSTRUCTIONS
- Grind the chia seeds in using a coffee grinder or small food processor.
- Cut the jalapeno pepper in half, remove the seeds and chop very finely. Save about a teaspoon to garnish.
- Add all ingredients to your mini food processor or blender and process until smooth, about one minute.
- Transfer drinking glass(es), garnish with a pinch of unsweetened grated coconut and reserved jalapeno peppers.
- Sit back and prepare to be amazed!
Great smoothie! The thing about pouring in 2 glasses and finishing both sounds very familiar here
Maybe doing more dishes compensates for some of the calories? A girl can hope 
LOL! Right… especially when you let the dishwasher handle the job!
Not a good excuse for me… (altough I really wish it were that easy!)
Can’t wait to try this..I’m a little scared of the jalapeno…I do eat spicy things but I may try this once without and then add it in the next time.
Don’t be scared, Joann. Maybe I should’ve mentioned that it’s surprisingly not that hot or spicy at all! Do remove all the seeds and membranes, though. And maybe use only one quarter of a pepper first? I think you really need to add “some” heat. That is what makes this smoothie so very unique. Well, that and the sherry vinegar…
What an unusual and delicious sounding combination. Summer is such a perfect time to experiment with refreshing smoothies. My blender has been out on the counter for weeks! (love that…).
Bet you’ve been making LOTS of smoothies then… I’ll have to take a look at your site for inspiration!
Yummm this looks delicious! Not having an AC unit at my place and with the heat in Mtl these days, I’ve been staying away from the kitchen and can’t find the motivation to cook, so this recipe is very welcome and the perfect beverage for later today! Thanks again for sharing all your amazing creations!
BTW, if you are looking for dried chipotle, I buy mine from the supermarché Sabor Latino (sur Bélanger, près de l’intersection St-Denis). They’ve got some great choices of dried peppers) and some ingredients I can’t find in other stores.
Oh, how cool! Thank you so much for that information Élise, I really, truly appreciate that! I admit that with the
And of course, I’ll share the recipe! 
warmcrazy hot and humid wheather that we’ve been getting lately, cooking is not the first thing that we want to be doing… but still, this crazy foodie managed to make pizza on Sunday. Need I tell you I was sweating bullets? It was already like 200 degrees in the house and I went and used the oven at 500… It was very well worth it, though! Pizza is ALWAYS worth it!Say, did you end up trying that smoothie?
That smoothie recipe was delicious! In fact, I made it TWICE already! I love jalapeno in all shapes and form, but I never would have thought to use it in a smoothie. As for the heat, I can’t even go near my oven despite my intense craving for a healthy home baked dessert
— I just keep making some not so healthy dark chocolate mousse lol The humidity is melting me and making me oh so cranky.
— For now, I will just keep drinking cold beverages and wait for the heat wave to fade.
I can’t wait for the pizza recipe, although it will certainely have to wait before I turn up my own oven to 500F
You couldn’t pay me enough money to turn on the oven now… wow, has the heat ever gone up to barely tolerable levels! Glad you like the smoothie… I sure could use one right about now.
Not so healthy dark chocolate mousse you say, eh? (à la Canadian
) Sounds like a great challenge to me! Healthy Dark Chocolate Mousse. I need to come up with something! 
This was yummy…I did leave out the jalapeno for the first try…I wanted to have something to compare it to. And I swapped almonds for walnuts as planned because I have a weird allergic reaction to walnuts. Mine was a little more like juice than a smoothie…maybe because I had to use 30 g of fresh cherries since I only had 120g of frozen left. I added half an avocado to try to thicken it up. I thought maybe I missed an ingredient at first.
Juice? Really? Even with the addition of ground chia seeds? I agree that frozen cherries really help make it thick, but I seriously doubt that using 30g fresh cherries would make that much of a difference. Mind you, mine wasn’t exactly SUPER thick, I wanted this one to be more “refreshing”, but still, it was thicker than juice…
Can’t wait until you try it WITH the jalapenos!
Oops – my bad!! I didn’t grind the chia seeds first…I figured they were small enough it wouldn’t be a big deal! I guess I should learn to listen to you!
So you need to try it again with the jalapeno AND ground chia seeds. Then you need to let me know how it was!
Say what? Now this is something I have to try.
Make sure you get some GREAT background music for that one. This calls for some SERIOUS BEAT, let me tell you!
Just came back from my garden and oh, guess what?? I’ve got a few jalapeno peppers fully grown and just begging me to hop in such a nice smoothie like this one!! Will try this for sure to cool down a bit(uh… it’s 37 freakin’ degrees right now!!)
But tell me, is it easy to find coconut water?? Do you have to use the water straight from fresh coconut or can you find it in a can at a supermarket?? So many questions, so little time to waste before making this!!
So cool about the jalapenos! I so wish I had time to grow my own veggies in the summer. Funny, I was just looking at the garden while fixing lunch earlier and I felt sad to see all the weeds that have grown in place of the veggies that SHOULD be in there. But hey, I have to make choices. I cook and blog OR cook and garden. Can’t do both. And, well, to me the choice is quite obvious, so for now, it’s weeds in the garden!
And don’t I know… it’s so dang hot outside. Just went for a 50km bike ride and now I am TOTALLY exhausted. It took all I had to make it home (still, I managed to push just a little bit to get an extra few kilometers in!) and now I have NOTHING in me. I just want to go for a nap…
Alright, enough rambling… Coconut water! Of course, you can buy the stuff canned. I use fresh when I can, but I’d get fat real fast if I had to eat all that coconut just to get the water that I use on a weekly basis. I buy Blue Monkey (pour ne pas les nommer…) but there are other brands out there. For the time being, you can find it in the organic section of most grocery stores and most ethnic food stores, as well as natural food stores carry it. I find it’s becoming more and more available, however. I get the feeling that it’ll soon be everywhere. Even at the local dep!
I also vote for the cook and blog option for you! I have to say we bought one of the young coconuts and the coconut water out of that was so much better than the coconut water that I buy. I use vita coco because I like that it comes in the paper like container instead of a can. Some of the other brands do too but I just liked that one better.
JOANN! Long time no see! Good to see you my friend!
Of course, nothing ever beats the real thing! I’ve never seen Vita here, I’ll have to keep an eye out for it. Mind you, I’m not even quite sure that they recycle the paper like containers here, I heard all sorts of horror stories to the effect that they actually end up in the trash… apparently there are no facilities where to treat this material around here. Aluminium, on the other hand, I KNOW is getting recycled. So not a bad choice for me.
And thanks for your “blog” vote. I too, vote for that!
It’s more drinking something that came in a can than the recycling aspect for me. Even before the BPA stuff and before I started eating healthy I have just never liked anything from a can. That’s why I was so excited when you inspired me to cook my own beans because they were one of the last things that I was still using from a can.
Right… I hadn’t thought of that aspect. Now I’m gonna have to look into it. Apart from the occasional diced tomatoes, coconut milk and coconut water, I don’t really use cans all that much anyways… fresh is always best.
They say tomatoes are the worst because of the acidity of the tomatoes. I will admit to using them in a couple recipes but the last time I made something that called for canned diced tomatoes I used the kind that come in a carton – but they were pricey. I think I am going to can my own this year and use those when a recipe calls for diced tomatoes. (BTW – why is preserving fruits and vegetables in “glass” jars called canning? I’ll never understand that!)
Funny, I was thinking EXACTLY that when I replied earlier. Tomatoes are the worst product to have out of a can. I try and use fresh whenever possible, but it’s not always an option! I might try my hand at
canningjaring my own too!It is SUCH a pleasure to grow a garden!! It’s a real therapy for me and I can spends hours working on it with great pleasure. And I’m not even talking about the joys of having fresh, bio, veggies in your own yard. Plus, I always try new stuff in my garden. This year, amongst the “normal” veggies, I’m growing pineapple sage, chocolate mint, horseradish, artichokes, jerusalem artichoke (topinambour) and apple mint!
Next step? To convince my husband that a few chickens aren’t that noisy when you think of all the fresh eggs you can get!!
But like you said, it does take time and we do have to make choices. I, for instance, would NOT be able to own a blog and keep it up to date. So props to you for accomplishing that!
And congrats for your bike ride, that is quite a ride, especially with the heat wave! Good job girl
I was supposed to go to the Mont St-Anne so my 2 year old could run his first 1k while my husband ran the 10k trail up the mountain but I decided to stay home and not risk seeing my little boy melt before the finish line….
Thanks for the info on the coconut water, I’ll run to the supermaket and make that smoothie pronto!
Oh, topinambour I have!!!! Those require no attention at all. In fact, I have them mostly for the beautiful yellow flowers that they produce in the late summer. I haven’t harvested them in a long time, for fear that they might not come back I know, they are supposed to be like super invasive, but mine are a bit on the frail side, so I had to give them a chance… I’m planning on harvesting this fall, though. These things are WAY too good to be staying in the ground.
Mint, I’ve been trying to keep. This stuff is supposed to be super resilient, yet, it just keeps dying here. My soil is way too sandy and dry. It would seem like echinacea is the way to go for me!
I’ll have to go steal some of your mint!
Hey, let me know how things went with the artichoke, I’m real curious about that one. Oh, and let me know how you liked the smoothie too, if you end up trying it!
Thank you for this! This is a great smoothie.