My theme for this week’s blogging marathon is ‘Explore Latin American Cuisine’. Latin America broadly refers to all of the Americas south of the United States. In one sense it refers to territories in the Americas where Spanish or Portuguese languages prevail. So Mexico, most of Central and South America, and in the Caribbean, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico fall under Latin America. Latin American cuisine is a product of many diverse influences from Native Americans, Africans, Europeans and Asians. It is a fusion of many many different cuisines and each country has it’s own unique way of cooking the dishes. My husband travels quite a bit to these countries for business and he says the rice and beans in one country is not the same from another country. They differ widely in the type of beans, spices that are used to make the dish. First up this week is this creamy and delicious vegan Batido or Tropical fruit smoothie from Latin America. Tropical fruits are loaded with vitamins, antioxidants and in case of papayas and pineapples, plenty of digestive enzymes too. So this smoothie is a great start to any day.My smoothie is made with mango and passion fruit with some almond milk to make it a little creamier and richer. Fresh passion fruit is usually quite expensive to buy where I live, but luckily I found frozen passion fruit puree in a store near by. This frozen puree is very convenient because it tastes fantastic and takes no effort at all (think about all the peeling and blending that needs to be done with fresh fruit).This mango & passion fruit smoothie is a creamy and delicious treat to serve any time of the day. Try changing up the fruit – use pineapple, papaya, banana etc to make different flavored batidos. Add some vegan vanilla ice cream for an extra-special treat.
Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked today for BM# 77.