How to Keep Smoothies From Separating - Your How-To Guide + Easy Recipe! (2024)

Smoothies are an excellent start to the day. As an avid drinker myself, I’ll often make a big enough batch to last me the next day. This will save me from having to make the same thing again so soon, because smoothies can be messy to make! That said, I really do hate the look of the smoothie that has been sitting there, but how can you stop this? This post will outline ways in which you can prevent this, and I’ve also included a great recipe with ingredients that prevent your smoothie from separating!

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Table of Contents

• Why do Smoothies tend to separate?
  • Insoluble fiber
  • Too much water
  • Use Frozen Fruit
  • Oxidization
    • Does Oxidization Affect the Nutritional Value of Fruit and Veg?
    • How do I Prevent Oxidization?
• How Do I Prevent My Smoothies from Separating?
• Best Recipe for Smoothie that Doesn’t Separate
  • Ingredients
  • Method
• How to keep smoothie from separating – FAQs
• You’ll be Smooth(ie) Sailing!

Why do Smoothies tend to separate?

Separation of natural foods like fruit and vegetables is totally normal. It doesn’t mean that the drink has gone bad, it is just natural. Even in pre-made smoothies you can buy in the supermarket, you can notice the same separation, and the label will say ‘natural separation may occur – shake well before drinking’.

There are a few different reasons why your smoothie is separating the way it does, which depends on the ingredients you are using.

Lets take a further look at which ingredients have what impact:

Insoluble fiber

When making fruit or vegetable juices, the blending process causes the fruit and vegetable particles to separate, which then become insoluble when they settle down. This is caused by insoluble fiber, which is present in fruit and veg, preventing the pulp from mixing with the liquid.

If you take orange juice as an example. Once you blend orange juice, it tends to have a pulp with bits in it, which settles at the bottom of the container if you leave it sitting for a while.

The same cannot be said for banana, pear, or mango juice. Once these have been blended, they tend to stay creamy throughout the liquid, because they contain soluble fiber, which allows the liquid to mix hom*ogenously. These liquids are creamier and do not separate easily.

Too much water

If smoothies have a high water content, it will cause them to separate a little quicker. This is also the case if you add lots of ice to the smoothie, as when the ice melts, it will increase the water content and speed up the separation process.

If you plan on keeping some of your batch of smoothie for later, I recommend you don’t add as much ice and try to use chilled liquids instead, such as refrigerated milk, fruit juice, or ice-cold water.

Use Frozen Fruit

Frozen fruit is a great way to keep the liquid volume down in your smoothie. If you use frozen fruit, this helps the mixture to stay smooth and stay together for longer. It will make your smoothie cold too, preventing the need for using ice.

Frozen fruit is usually much cheaper than fresh fruit. It also comes in the bag prepared. For example, the tops of strawberries have been cut off, or pineapple has been chopped up and ready to use.

Oxidization

Oxidization can occur in fruit once it has been left out in the air for a while. It can be seen on an apple when you’ve taken a bite out of it and left it for a while. The browning interior flesh is actually oxidization at work.

Does Oxidization Affect the Nutritional Value of Fruit and Veg?

The effect of oxidization on fruits and vegetables can only be seen after a very long time. Fruit and veg are so rich in nutrients that the body still hugely profits from eating them. Even if they have lost some of their nutrients.

How do I Prevent Oxidization?

While blending your fruit and veg doesn’t cause a loss of nutrients, oxidization does. A surefire way to prevent smoothies from oxidizing is to store them in airtight containers, in the refrigerator.

Adding in a few drops of lemon or lime juice can also prevent your smoothie from going brown due to oxidization.

How Do I Prevent My Smoothies from Separating?

Some ingredients I’ve already mentioned, such as banana, pear, and mango have insoluble fiber, which prevents the pulp from separating. Using insoluble fiber ingredients like these will help to prevent this.

You can also try using a thickener like Greek yoghurt, or kefir. These ingredients also provide some nutritional value, which making the smoothie taste super creamy.

Adding fat can help. Oil, cream, and coconut cream could also be incorporated, which would add to the flavor. If you are trying to be healthy, note that these will highly increase the fat content of your smoothie.

There are other ingredients such as xanthan gum or gelatin. Unfortunately, these ingredients have no health benefit or add to the flavor.

Best Recipe for Smoothie that Doesn’t Separate

Ingredients

• 1 Banana
• 100g Frozen Strawberries
• 1 Mango
• 200ml Orange Juice
• 100g Greek Yogurt
• 1 Tbsp Smooth Peanut Butter

Method

How to keep smoothie from separating – FAQs

You’ll be Smooth(ie) Sailing!

Hopefully, these tips and tricks will help you to make super tasty smoothies that tend not to separate.

It is worth noting that separation is not bad for you. If you have a shaker and want to pop your smoothie in and give it a shake it will emulsify again. Even stirring it with a spoon will return to its former glory.

If you give the recipe a try, let me know how it goes in the comments!

I’ve written some other blog posts on smoothies, which are similar to this or may be helpful when preparing ingredients. Make sure you check them out too!

• How Long Do Smoothies Last in the Fridge
• How to Tell if Mango is Bad
• How To Wash Blueberries