07 July 2015

Matcha Chai Smoothie - A Morning Pick-Me-Up

I was feeling a bit jaded this morning, so I needed a pick-me-up to kick start the morning.

Rather than making myself a strong black tea, I reckoned on tweaking my Cacao Smoothie Recipe and came up with this Matcha Chai Smoothie. It could easily have been called a M+M smoothie for Matcha and Maca but it might have disappointed those hoping for a really sweet candy drink.

Matcha Green Tea Smoothie, great for a healthy morning pick-me-up

This is an adult smoothie, and not something that everyone will go for; but it did the trick for me.

I used the same core of almond and coconut milk for a dairy-free base, with banana, almond butter and flax seeds for the carbohydrate and protein body.

To these, I flavoured with some maca root powder and 1 teaspoon of organic matcha tea. You can double or halve the matcha, depending on how much you like its slightly marine-like flavour.

I used a bit more maple syrup than usual. This toned down the matcha flavour. You're welcome to reduce that, or switch to a honey sweetener. You could use agave, but I am not so keen on agave - it's very sweet and more processed than I like.

For a sugar free version, I removed the maple syrup/honey and replaced it with half a teaspoon of vanilla powder. This was really tasty and a good alternative if you're trying to cut out sugar from your diet.

Matcha chai smoothie

100ml almond milk

100ml coconut milk

1 chopped banana

1 tbsp almond butter

1 tbsp flax seeds

½ tsp chai masala spices

1 tsp maca powder

1½ tsp matcha tea

2 tsp maple syrup or honey

Simple combine all the ingredients into a blender. Whizz until smooth, then enjoy.

Sugar-free matcha chai smoothie