Pomegranate & Blueberry Oat Smoothie

It took a couple of months longer than usual but summer finally washed over southwestern Ontario a few weeks back with a familiar wrenching heat and wringing humidity, reducing otherwise healthy appetites and cooking ambitions to a minimum. And while bodily health might be braced under these circumstances with a cold gin and tonic on the patio, a little food value — no matter how reluctant — is still vital for its maintenance.

Oat, yogurt and fruit smoothies present a simple and delicious no-cook solution to stifling temperatures without burdening the appetite. Fermented in good, whole-fat yogurt, blended oats are ready to digest without cooking and provide you with the B vitamins, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, protein, and soluble fat and fibre to get you through a summer day's lazing. And the natural mild nuttiness of oats and the tang of fresh yogurt form a perfect flavour backdrop to the sweet and tasty vitamins and anti-oxidants found in fresh fruit.


In fact, the overnight room-temperature soaking of one part rolled oats and two parts whole-fat yogurt presented here is a one-size-fits-all base for adding any variation of fruits and natural sweeteners to make a thoroughly nutritious and digestible smoothie. This refreshing and nutritious pomegranate and blueberry smoothie was born with plenty of fresh and juicy local blueberries on hand as well as some wonderful samples of pomegranate juice generously provided by POM — a product I'm pleased to endorse both for its taste and for its health benefits.

Pomegranate & Blueberry Oat Smoothie

Recipe by Lisa Turner Published on September 4, 2009 A delicious, refreshing and nutritious smoothie with the goodness of pomegranates, blueberries and oats soaked in yogurt Print this recipe Ingredients: 3/4 cup rolled or steel-cut oats 1 1/2 cups whole-fat yogurt 1/2 pint fresh or frozen blueberries 2/3 cup pomegranate juice 1/3 cup cold water 2 tablespoons honey 4 ice cubes Instructions: Stir the yogurt into the oats and let soak overnight at room temperature in a covered non-plastic bowl. In the morning, blend the soaked oats together with all the other ingredients in a blender until smooth and frothy. Serve with breakfast, or as a snack. Makes 4 large servings

Other fruit smoothies you may enjoy:
Blueberry and Maple Syrup Oat Smoothie
Oat-Mango Smoothie with Blackberries

On the top of the reading stack: Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski

Audio accompaniment: Anger Do Not Enter by Beef Terminal

Frozen Mango Lime Lassi

If you've ever woken up coated with a coarse and perversely intimate film of overnight-fermented perspiration, there's a good chance you were in southwestern Ontario during the summer. Quite possibly you also spent the night in my apartment, where the otherwise kind and solicitous landlady downstairs considers it a matter of policy never to turn on the air conditioner until July regardless of the weather. If there is one redeeming quality to this policy it is that even the cat can't lift himself up enough to drag himself around on his daily annoy-the-human rounds, but that's a poor compensation when I haven't the energy to appreciate it, assuming that I'd have the energy to get annoyed in the first place.

I've lately considered bribing her with food to reverse this austerity program, fearing that she could easily dismiss any thuds overhead I might make pretending to faint with the heat. But the food strategy has its drawbacks too, since she might conclude that the heat can't be too bad if I've got the energy to make something for her. And, of course, it presupposes that I actually do have the energy!

But she'd be right too, even if it goes against my best interest to say so, if this past Sunday is any indication. Despite a couple of cups of hot coffee, or maybe because of it, I was too enervated in the drenching morning heat to even have an appetite … which is where this recipe for frozen mango lime lassi comes in, for those of you who remember the post title. Oddly satisfying in an ice-cream milkshake kind of way, it was all I really felt like I had the stomach for to get myself going, or as far going as I would be able to go when the temperature inside is over 30°. Cold, smooth and creamy except for a few delectable small chunks of barely thawed sweet mango floating around, and with the refreshing blast of fresh lime juice, this lassi is a super hot-weather step up from the ordinary mango lassi found in Indian restaurants, as much as I enjoy them too. It's a perfect afternoon drink to serve when you're entertaining guest on the patio in the summer, but I had it for breakfast!

And I guess it worked too, since I proceeded right after that to stay in my scorching kitchen to whip up, in order, my Indian-style gazpacho soup, another batch of cocoa fruit treats, a pan of peanut-butter-chocolate squares to take to work and which recipe I'll be sharing shortly, and a batch of harissa for a friend — all without stopping except to occasionally wipe my brow to keep sweat from dripping in the food. So here's to frozen mango lime lassi, even if I'm now almost too bushed to write about it.

Frozen mango lime lassi

1 1/2 cups frozen mango chunks
1/2 cup ice cubes
1/2 cup lime juice
1 tablespoon honey
1 1/2 cups plain whole-fat yogurt
slices of lime for garnish

Place the first four ingredients in a blender and process until the mango is chopped up but still chunky. Add the yogurt and stir until blended with the mango.

Pour into chilled glasses and serve with a slice of lime for garnish. Makes two tall glasses or four cups.

I'm sharing this with Siri, who is hosting a food event celebrating the goodness of yogurt.

Blueberry and Maple Syrup Oat Smoothie

In addition to all her lovely recipes and her wonderful idea to host our new "No Croutons Required" food blogging event, there are many things that I have to thank my fellow vegetarian blogger Holler from Tinned Tomatoes for, not the least of which is that she is such a dear friend even though she's halfway across the world from me. One other thing that I'm grateful to her for is turning me on to the idea of oat smoothies blended with yoghurt and fruit. What a terrific way to combine all the proteins, minerals and fibre of oats and yogurt with the vitamins of fruit into a quick, easy, wholesome and delicious pick-me-upper for any time of day!

Holler's blueberry, maple syrup and oat smoothie already inspired me to dabble around with oats, yoghurt and a blender to come with my own fermented oat smoothie base to which I added mango and blackberries. It worked out so well that I would consider an overnight room-temperature soaking of one part rolled oats and two parts whole-fat yoghurt to be a one-size-fits-all base for adding any variation of fruits and sweeteners to make a thoroughly nutritious and digestible oat smoothie. So of course I had to try applying it with Holler's yummy-sounding combination of blueberries and maple syrup. It was absolutely gorgeous, and didn't last long!

Blueberry and maple syrup oat smoothie

3/4 cup rolled or steel-cut oats
1 1/2 cups whole-fat yoghurt, from raw milk if possible
1/2 pint fresh or frozen blueberries
2/3 cup fresh-pressed apple cider or apple juice
1/3 cup cold water
2 tablespoons fresh maple syrup
4 ice cubes

Stir the yoghurt into the oats and let soak overnight at room temperature in a covered non-plastic bowl.

In the morning, blend the soaked oats together with all the other ingredients in a blender until smooth and frothy. Serve with breakfast, or as a snack. Makes 4 large servings.

Oat-Mango Smoothie with Blackberries

If you're ever looking for a super-quick, healthy and delicious pick-me-up for breakfast — or any other time of the day, for that matter — oat and fruit smoothies are the way to go, as my good friend Holler from Tinned Tomatoes has discovered. The mild flavour of oats provides just a hint of nuttiness without overcoming the tang of yogurt and the sweetness of fruit that makes these drinks so appealing, while providing an especially good source of B vitamins, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, protein, and soluble fat and fibre. Together with the vitamins from mangoes and blackberries, notably C, B6, B9 and A, and the easily digestible milk protein in fermented yogurt, what's not good about this smoothie?

Like other glutinous grains, oats must be fermented themselves to make their proteins digestible and available for absorption. For my smoothies, I use the yogurt with its whey content to soak and ferment the oats in a variation of the muesli technique. While some may find the idea of leaving yogurt overnight at room temperature unappealing, it is perfectly safe since the broken-down lactic acid in yogurt prevents harmful bacterial culturation, and it really brings out the natural tangy flavour of yogurt besides.

Oat-mango smoothie with blackberries

3/4 cup rolled or steel-cut oats
1 1/2 cups whole-fat yogurt (from raw milk if possible)
1 medium red mango, peeled and chopped
1/4 pint blackberries
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons honey
pinch of ground cardamom
4 ice cubes

Stir the yogurt into the oats and let soak overnight at room temperature in a covered non-plastic bowl.

In the morning, blend the soaked oats together with all the other ingredients in a blender until smooth and frothy. Serve with breakfast, or as a snack. Makes 4 large servings.