Banana kefir smoothie

This may well be the easiest way to use up milk kefir. A ripe banana softens the sharpness, the frozen one makes the smoothie cold and thick, and the oats add a bit of substance so it keeps you going until lunch. Five minutes, one blender, and breakfast is sorted for two. Even children who find plain kefir too sour usually drink this without a word of complaint, which on a school morning is worth a lot.

The bananas: the riper the better

Use bananas with brown freckles on the skin. They are sweeter and more fragrant than yellow ones, and you will rarely need the honey. If the fruit bowl has a bunch ripening faster than anyone can eat them, peel them, break them into pieces of a few centimetres and freeze them in a bag. Frozen pieces chill the smoothie without ice cubes that water everything down.

Which kefir works best?

Any milk kefir will do, including a batch that has stood a little longer and turned sharper: the banana balances it out. If your kefir is very thick, you get something closer to a smoothie bowl that you eat with a spoon. If it is thin, it becomes more of a drink. Where that difference comes from is explained in milk kefir too thin or too thick.

You make your own kefir with 20 g milk kefir grains in 1 litre of whole milk, 24 hours at 20 to 25°C. With 10 g you make half a litre, which is plenty for a smoothie every morning. The full method is in How to make milk kefir, and if you are wondering which milk to buy, see the best milk for kefir.

Variations

• Banana and peanut butter: a heaped tablespoon of peanut butter. Creamy, slightly salty and very filling.
• Banana and cocoa: a tablespoon of cocoa powder and two stoned dates. It tastes like chocolate milk with a fresh tang.
• Banana and berries: a handful of frozen raspberries or blackberries instead of the frozen banana. A lovely pink colour.
• Banana and coffee: a shot of cooled espresso and a pinch of cinnamon, for anyone who wants breakfast and coffee in one glass.
• Banana and spinach: a handful of baby spinach. The colour turns bright green, the taste hardly changes.

Making it ahead

A smoothie is best fresh, because the banana slowly turns brown and the oats keep soaking up liquid. If you want to save time in the morning, put the dry ingredients and the banana pieces into a freezer bag the night before and keep the kefir in the fridge. In the morning, tip it all into the blender and you are done in a minute. A smoothie left over can sit in a closed jar in the fridge until the afternoon. Shake it before you drink it.

If you prefer something to eat with a spoon, the kefir overnight oats use the same base of kefir and oats and are ready when you wake up.

Frequently asked questions

Live milk kefir grains give you a fresh batch every day. All our recipes and guides are on the milk kefir page.