Today’s summer recipe of Tiger nut and peach smoothie is brought to us by the creative sweet_kabocha.

I heard about horchata for the first time thanks to Lorenzo (my boyfriend), who used to drink it during his vacations in Barcelona. I started then noticing a lot of recipes on the web, but they had rice and almonds as ingredients and I knew from him that the main ingredient of the horchata was chufa, otherwise called tiger nuts.

We discovered that several kinds of traditional beverages can be called in this way, no matter the ingredients : in Latin America is commonly made with rice and cinnamon, but the one using chufa is strictly Spanish, Valenciana to be precise.

What’s so cool about tiger nuts?

They’re not actually a nut, but small tubers : they’re gluten-free, nut-free and soy-free. They contain potassium and magnesium (about the 15% of the daily recommended dose) ; they’re are also really high in resistant starch, which is a type of fiber that doesn’t get digested at all by humans, becoming food for the microbiome. Such a help to improve the health of our gut!

Tiger nut milk, or horchata de chufa, is a great and refreshing drink as it is, but I decided to prepare a smoothie using this beverage and many other seasonal ingredients : a perfect and nutritious breakfast!

INGREDIENTS:

For the horchata de chufa

• One cup of raw tiger nuts (135 g)
• 4 cups water (1 l)

The smoothie

• a few frozen raspberries
• Two frozen sliced peaches
• 2 medjoul dates, pitted
• 1 pinch of vanilla powder
• 2 tsp superfoods (optional – I used 1/2 tsp each of maca, mesquite, baobab and açai powders)
• A cup of horchata

topping used here : A sprinkle of almond flakes, bee pollen and dried rose’s petals (my latest addiction) 

INSTRUCTIONS:

For the horchata de chufa

1. Soak tiger nuts for 24 hours.
2. Wash, drain and blend them with the water until smooth.
3. Strain the milk using a nut-milk bag and pour it in a jar or a hermetic bottle. Reserve the pulp for other recipes.
4. If you want to use this milk as a drink, pour it again into the blender and blend with 4 dates, then reserve in fridge.

The Smoothie

5. Cover the bottom of a jar or a glass with the raspberries and set aside.

6. Add in a high-speed blender peaches, dates, vanilla, superfood and horchata and blend until smooth.

7. Pour the smoothie over the raspberries and top with your chosen ingredients.

8. Enjoy!

Tiger nut and peach smoothie article written by and all photos are copyright of sweet_kabocha

Website: sweetkabocha.com

Instagram: @sweet_kabocha

If you are looking for an alternative to a Tiger nut and peach smoothie, why not try one of our many great premium teas.