Vitamix Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Combining strawberries and bananas into one is pretty much love at first sight. You cannot go wrong with combing these two delicious and nutritious fruits. I’m sure you’ve often heard strawberries are a perfect fruit to eat, low in sugar and low is calories, yet a high fiber fruit filled with minerals and vitamins. They are delicious on their own or mixed in with salads, made into smoothies, desserts, cocktails, jams, chutneys, jellies, and more.

Having said this, it’s not always easy to get fresh local sweet strawberries. Most strawberries are grown commercially on large farms and pesticides are used to produce more fruit that’s sellable. These commercial strawberries are what ends up in most groceries’ stores, being sold for a much cheaper price than local, organically grown strawberries. These are the strawberries that you don’t want to buy.

I encourage you to buy locally sourced and where possible organically grown strawberries. Try to find local farmers markets in your neighbourhood that sells strawberries and ask them how its grown.

Alternatively, roadside stands and pic-your own operations are a good way to buy fresh, locally grown berries. If you’ve ever tasted a strawberry that is grown locally, without pesticides and picked at the right time, you will know what I’m referring to when it comes to taking the extra effort to buy good quality strawberries. If fresh, local and organically grown strawberries are not available to you, then I suggest buying frozen organic full strawberries to use in this smoothie.

I grew up in the south of India and had never tasted strawberries until I left the country to travel for work. I always wanted to taste strawberries because they looked so pretty in pictures and on TV. In fact, I knew (or though) I knew what strawberries would taste and smell like, because I had a few pencil erasers in the shape of strawberries that smelt absolutely heavenly and sweet.

The first time I had fresh strawberries were in Singapore. They were fresh but not local or organic. Rather, they were imported from Australia. I remember them being very large, quite hard and almost no taste to them. However, they definitely looked pretty, just like my eraser. After eating a few, I concluded that strawberries looked pretty, but had no taste to them.

After traveling a lot more and living in different countries, I tasted different varieties of strawberries and learnt what a freshly picked and organically grown strawberry should taste like.

In summer, I take advantage of all the delicious berries available. I buy my berries from local markets, making sure they are grown organically. I do pay a slightly higher price for them, than what I would pay at the groceries, but its worth it for sure. Plus my local farmer gets paid fairly for his/her hard work.

Here’s a simple absolutely delicious smoothie to try made just with strawberries, banana and milk of your choice. No added sweetener or extracts needed. The banana is sweet enough and combining it with strawberries  gives it lots of flavour. Blending it in a high powered blender like the Vitamix will make this smoothie extra creamy and thick.