Passionfruit vanilla smoothie

A year ago, I had a vanilla passion fruit drink while vacationing in Bali and it has haunted me ever since.  Now I will give you the recipe so that you can be haunted too!  And by haunted, I mean enlightened. 

Passion fruits can be hard to find, but this recipe also works with passion fruit puree, which although expensive, has the benefit of having the seeds removed.  This drink will combine the flavours of passion fruit, vanilla, and soy milk with a hint of banana. In my experimenting I have found that the larger, pink fruits that are slightly more sour work best for this recipe.

Recipe

• ½ cup of passion fruit
• 1 small banana for texture
• 2 cups of vanilla soymilk
• ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract
• sugar to taste

*Before you create this drink I would like to advise you on your banana selection.  The perfect banana will be small and not too ripe.  Large blackish bananas will overpower and make you sad.   The banana is used more for its creamy texture than its sometimes powerful flavour.  In my opinion the best bananas for smoothies are the smaller, baby bananas, which are a bit sweeter and a perfect size for blending.

Method:

1. Scoop out the contents of several passion fruits until you have roughly half a cup.  Because passion fruits come in all shapes and sizes, this may be more or less than 4 fruits.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients into the blender and blend until a uniform texture is achieved.  If you are using fresh passion fruit and not the puree, you will find crushed seeds at the bottom of this drink.  They are perfectly edible, but if you don’t like the look or feel, strain the fruit from the seeds before blending.  You may want to add sugar because some passion fruits can be quite sour.
3. Pour into a chilled glass, and serve!  Ahhh…