13shares
4
0
1
8

Give Frozen Fruit a Swirl, Those Ice Crystals are Safe

If your freezer bag hands you ice crystals all over your fruit, make a smoothie! You can use frozen fruit, inclusive of its ice crystals, to make a great smoothie like the featured recipe below. Ice crystals alone do not ruin frozen fruit, but if the actual fruit has changed state and is now white or hollow then that’s a different story.

So, go ahead and make a smoothie – just be sure that you have a strong blender as chopping ice is not for the weak.

Background Info

As you can see my fruit really didn’t look too bad, so I used it as is. If the ice covering had grown thicker, then a quick rinse in the colander with some cold water would quickly reveal if the fruit is actually fine or not. A little ice like shown does not hurt a smoothie at all, after all you usually add ice to smoothies anyways. But again, you will want to rinse the fruit if the ice is thick to be sure that the fruit is not freezer burned. Using frozen fruit makes better smoothies because then you can use less, or even go without, ice. That way your thicker smoothie has a stronger fruit flavor without being diluted.

I usually just throw whatever fruits, vegetables and juice that I currently have in the refrigerator and freezer at the moment when making a smoothie. Although some do taste better than others, it’s really hard to make a bad smoothie (that is as long as you don’t use rotten ingredients). Below is the recipe for the pictured Cranberry smoothie. Another way to get inspiration when deciding what type of smoothie to make is to check out the Jamba Juice secret menu for pages of smoothie recipes. At HackTheMenu.com you can also find secret frappuccino recipes for those made at Starbucks.

Tangy Cranberry Smoothie Recipe

Cranberry Smoothie Ingredients:

1 Cup Cranberry Juice Cocktail

1/2 Cup Frozen Strawberries

1/2 Cup Frozen Mango

1/2 Cup Frozen Peaches

1/2 Cup Frozen Grapes

1/2 Greek Yogurt

1/2 Cup Mini Carrots

1/2 Cup Ice

To make a tangy cranberry smoothie from frozen fruit just place all ingredients into the blender, begin at low speed and then blend on high until smooth.

Additional Info

To find out how long frozen fruit lasts visit our frozen fruit page.

For more on frozen food, visit our post on freezing.

To find out how long other foods are good for, please visit the Dairy, Drinks, Fruits, Grains, Proteins, Vegetables and Other sections of Eat By Date or use the search function below.