Matcha Strawberry Layered Smoothie

Matcha and strawberries come together in this layered vegan smoothie – and there’s a bonus healthy ingredient in the matcha layer!

Let’s see a show of hands – how many of you reading this are vegan? Awesome… now, how many of you vegans actually don’t like bananas? Hm… okay… it seems most of you do like bananas…

I’ll explain why I asked such a question! I’ve been absent from the blog lately because I dedicated some of my time to a friend of mine who makes her own jewellery; she wanted my help taking pictures of her jewellery for her Etsy shop, Indiana Fox. No problem, I said! Especially since she makes the most gorgeous dainty rings! So, I did that… and then we started talking some more and I found out that she’s going vegan and casually hinted to me that she would love to see some vegan recipes on my blog. Again, no problem!

But, luckily, I asked her if there was anything specific that she didn’t like that I should take into consideration when preparing any vegan recipes with her in mind and she said she hates bananas! I was so relieved I found this out when I did because, as you may know, there a lot of vegan recipes with bananas in them, especially smoothies.

I also knew that she had some matcha that she was wanting to use but hadn’t gotten around to it yet. Now, whenever I think of matcha, I always think of strawberries because those two flavors are just beautiful together (the color combination isn’t so bad, either!). They’d be perfect flavors for a healthy vegan smoothie, and that’s how this recipe came about.

But, yeah, I needed to make a smoothie that didn’t include bananas! Unfortunate, because bananas work so well with matcha and strawberries, and also help to create that thick, creamy texture that makes smoothies so great. I decided to freeze some other fruits instead to try to re-create that classic smoothie texture.

Let’s start with the matcha layer. Here, we have cold almond milk (any milk would be acceptable, though), frozen mango, lemon juice, matcha powder, a tiny pinch of sea salt, a little bit of maple syrup, OH, and did I mention that there’s a secret healthy ingredient in this ultra-green layer??? It’s spinach! Yay for spinach!

Blend all those ingredients together in your food processor until it’s all smooth and creamy. Distribute evenly among 2-3 glasses. Place in the freezer while preparing the strawberry layer.

The strawberry layer is made up of cold almond milk (again, use any milk you prefer), 2 cups of frozen strawberries, a little bit of maple syrup (if the strawberries aren’t quite sweet enough on their own) and vanilla extract.

Blend the ingredients together and set aside while you bring out the glasses with the matcha layer from the freezer. Tip, if the layer isn’t quite thick enough, you can freeze them for a little bit longer. Otherwise, gently pour the strawberry layer over the matcha layer in the glasses. To be extra gentle, you can pour the strawberry layer over the back of a spoon held over the matcha layer.

All done! Drink up!

For my matcha strawberry layered smoothie (featured in these photos), I ended up freezing the matcha layer a little too long (got busy doing something else!), so when I poured the strawberry layer in, it didn’t blend with the matcha. I just used the tip of a knife to break up the edges around the glass where the two layers met to give it a more soft and blended look.

Here’s the problem, though. Both layers taste great on their own… and they taste even better when stirred together. But, if you stir the two layers together, you’ll end up turning those gorgeous layers into a super dark green muddy color. Not to worry, though, because at least it’ll still taste amazing!

If you need some matcha for this recipe, I highly recommend checking out Matcha Me. I used their Original Culinary Matcha for this recipe. When you’re ready to order some for yourself, enter my special code SWEETEST for 20% off your purchase! Yay!

So, tell me, who else doesn’t like bananas!! 🙂

Matcha Strawberry Layered Smoothie

Matcha and strawberries come together in this layered vegan smoothie - and there's a bonus healthy ingredient in the matcha layer!

Author: Adapted from Nutrition Stripped | Nadia Lim

Recipe type: Drinks

Serves: 2-3 glasses

Ingredients

Matcha layer:
2 cups fresh spinach
1 cup almond milk, chilled
1 cup mango, chopped, frozen
½ tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon matcha
pinch of sea salt
1-2 tablespoons maple syrup, adjust to taste
Strawberry layer:
2 cups strawberries, chopped, frozen
1.5 cups almond milk, chilled
1 tablespoon maple syrup, adjust to taste
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

For the matcha layer:
Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until completely smooth. Distribute evenly among 2-3 glasses and place in the freezer while preparing the strawberry layer.
For the strawberry layer:
Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until completely smooth. Remove the glasses with the matcha layer from the freezer and very gently pour the strawberry layer on top of the matcha layer (if you find that the matcha layer isn't quite thick enough, you can freeze it for a little longer). To be extra gentle, pour the strawberry layer over the back of a spoon held over the matcha layer.
Drink immediately, yum! Can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of hours if you don't plan on drinking it straight away.

Notes

- If you don't feel like chopping up a big bunch of spinach, baby spinach works just as well.

- Feel free to substitute the almond milk with any type of milk that you prefer.

- Regarding serving sizes, I used 3x 350ml glasses and they were all filled to just under the rim.

- For the pictures in this post, I froze the matcha layer a little too long so that the strawberry layer did not blend at all into the matcha layer. I used the tip of a knife to break up the frozen edges around the glass for a smoother, more blended appearance.

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