Purple Sweet Potato Strawberry Antioxidant Boost Smoothie

Intensely hydrating, packed with antioxidants, vitamin C, fiber and beta-carotene this creamy smoothie is subtly sweet with a warm aromatic flavor profile. Purple sweet potatoes and strawberries are a match made in smoothie heaven, while fresh lettuce unobtrusively provides a dose of green leafy goodness.

MY SWEET POTATO SMOOTHIE OBSESSION

I’ve been a big fan of sweet potatoes and yams my entire life, but I only recently started putting them in smoothies. Adding sweet potatoes or yams to smoothies takes some thinking ahead because you need to have cooked sweet potatoes on hand, but the planning is well worth it. If you’re already a plant-forward person, baking sweet potatoes by the batch to have as a snack or ingredient is a very good idea. And I was already doing this, I had even published a post about my sweet potato baking method. When I began experimenting with sweet potato smoothies I was amazed by the velvety creaminess they created. And then something else happened, something that rocked my smoothie-loving world. I found out that eating uncooked bananas along with blueberries blocks the absorption of flavanols in berries and other foods. Wait what? Yes, and not by just a little either (here’s a video explaining the research). This was a serious bummer for me. Bananas and berries taste great together. In smoothies, bananas add sweetness and creaminess without interfering with the optics of other colorful ingredients. Banana berry smoothies are so good that I haven’t completely given them up. After all, a bit less flavanol absorption in a life that’s fairly packed with flavanols is not the end of the world. But I have increasingly turned away from consuming uncooked bananas except as a standalone snack or with low flavanol foods. I’ve found that sweet potatoes and yams, especially the sweetest ones like Japanese Murasaki, purple sweet potatoes and garnet yams, do everything that bananas can do in a smoothie, albeit with a different texture and flavor profile, while also being a bit more filling.

PURPLE SWEET POTATOES & ALTERNATIVES

Purple sweet potatoes and ube yams have a nutritional edge over all other tubers. That’s largely because the beautiful purple color results from a high concentration of anthocyanins, the same antioxidants found in deeply colored fruits like blueberries, grapes and purple cabbage.

If you can’t get purple sweet potatoes or ube yams, you can still make this smoothie!

My favorite substitution for cooked purple sweet potatoes or ube yams would be cooked Japanese Matsutake or Beni Haruka sweet potatoes because they’re incredibly sweet and flavorful. Any cooked sweet potato or yam would be delicious in this smoothie. If you use orange colored sweet potatoes or yams, your smoothie will end up looking more brown but it will still taste great.

LETTUCE AND ALTERNATIVES

Smoothies give me a chance to get more leafy greens into my body quickly and easily. Usually I can barely taste the greens. Because this smoothie has a particularly delicate flavor profile and it’s only slightly sweet, I decided to go with lettuce instead of a more dense leafy green to minimize the flavor impact. Any leafy green, even the light green romaine lettuce I used in this smoothie, detracts from the optics of an otherwise purple, pink or red smoothie. If you don’t care about maximizing the nutritional impact, feel free to replace the lettuce in this recipe with more strawberries or a combination of more strawberries and purple sweet potato. If what you want is to maximize nutrition, or you happen to prefer another leafy green, go ahead and substitute lettuce with that. Cucumbers are also delicious in smoothies and if you peel them, the color impact is minimal.

TAHINI FOR CREAMINESS & NUTRIENTS

Despite what many people out there seem to think, tahini is a health-forward whole plant food. I wrote an entire post about why this is! In this smoothie a small amount of tahini adds a little richness and creaminess. Tahini boosts the fat content of the smoothie which in turn helps you absorb fat soluble vitamins in the other ingredients.

You can leave the tahini out if you prefer, or substitute with a different seed or nut butter such as sunflower or almond butter. Another great tahini substitute in ground flaxseed or chia seeds. If you have a high speed blender, you can also just throw in some cashews, or walnuts.

BOOSTING THE SWEETNESS

The sweetness of this smoothie will depend on the sweetness level of the strawberries and sweet potatoes you’re working with. I find that the sweetness of purple sweet potatoes varies a lot. I’m mostly whole food plant-based (WFPB) compliant, so my tastebuds have adjusted to lower levels of sweetness. Feel free to boost the sweetness of this smoothie by adding a little maple syrup, some whole dates or another dried fruit like prunes.

BOOSTING THE TANG

Strawberries bring a little bit of tang into this smoothie. But if you prefer a tangier flavor experience, you can add 1 to 3 tablespoons of lemon or lime juice.

MAKING IT COLDER

For a cold refreshing smoothie, you can substitute some of the plant milk with ice cubes and/or use frozen strawberries. Frozen cooked purple sweet potatoes also work.

QUANTITIES ARE FLEXIBLE

If followed exactly, this recipe makes approximately 24 ounces. That would be one very large smoothie or two medium smoothies. But it’s practically impossible to be exact when measuring fruits and leafy greens by volume so your results will inevitably vary. Feel free to use more of one ingredient and less of another. Smoothies are fairly foolproof by nature and open to creative interpretation.

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