Mango Chili is the perfect exotic fruit/vegetable smoothie combo – fiery, sweet, and healthy, all at once. You may already have noticed the mango on a stick drizzled with chili sauce, at some exotic fruit markets. Yet, our Mango Chili smoothie recipe takes this idea even further. We’ll slice and dice hot chilies, such as cayenne and habanero, and blend it into a mango smoothie.
Simply de-seeding requires a special operation. You should wear gloves. Otherwise you may have a burning sensation on your hands afterward for an hour or two. Be careful not to touch your eyes after cutting strong chilies like Habanero. You’ll regret it.
By picking the strongest chilies like Habanero, the chili and mango smoothie feels like a tiny fire in your mouth. Still, it’s not totally unbearable. On the other hand, with one of the less hot regular chilies e.g. cayenne, you don’t feel the fire effect, only a slight burning.
First, go to the fresh fruit market to find ripe mangoes. The skin is usually light orange and yellow, mixed with red and a bit of green. Plus, slightly firm to the touch. If it’s still rock-hard, it’s too green and not yet ready to consume. For this recipe you could use either fresh mango, or mango which you previously cut into pieces and stored in the freezer.
Contents
Add Something Green
Mint leaves are the perfect green complement to a mango chili smoothie. It adds an unique taste that fits perfectly with the other ingredients. However, for sheer health benefits, kale or spinach leaves will also do. In the end, I decided that the best solution was a balance of nutrient value and taste – thus a combination of kale leaves and mint leaves. In below photo is Kale leaves (the next photo is mint).
More Ideas
To further spice things up, you could also add any of the following highly nutritious superfoods: Peruvian Maca powder, Goji Berries, Hemp Seeds (or powder), or Chia Seeds. If you’re using very ripe mangoes, then you don’t really need an extra sweetener. Otherwise, add a natural sweetener like dates, coconut water, honey or maple syrup. You could also sweeten by adding a small piece of banana, or even freshly squeezed orange juice. But avoid adding too much banana. Because then you end up with a different tasting kind of drink altogether (instead of the mango chili smoothie).
Different Types Of Chili Peppers
Chilies are ranked according to the Scoville scale in Scoville units. Out of the below chilies which I experimented with, Jalapeno is the least hot, and Habanero the most.
- Jalapeno: This is a larger chili, it can be green or red. It’s not as strong as the smaller chilies. It’s somewhere inbetween the normal sweet green pepper, and the cayenne pepper. There is only a faint burning sensation if you eat it raw. It’s often used for e.g. Jalapeno cheese poppers.
- Birds Eye Chili: Quite hot. Add a few more to the smoothie, since it’s a smaller chili than Cayenne.
- Cayenne Chili: Hot but not totally unbearable. Usually Cayenne is the easiest chili to find in grocery stores.
- Hot Green Finger Chili: Similar in strength and taste to Cayenne Chili.
- Habanero: Extremely hot, and the best way to test this recipe to the limit. Unless you can find Ghost Peppers, which are even stronger.
When adding chili to this smoothie, remove the stem at the top, then cut it in half. Now remove the seeds inside and rinse in water. Warning: Expect your hands to burn a bit afterwards.
Mango Chili Health Benefits Overview
- Mango: Boosts your immune system. Plus, typical of yellow/orange produce like carrots, it can boost eye health. It contains plenty minerals, trace minerals, and anti-oxidants. It’s specifically high in Vitamin C.
- Chili: The active ingredient, Capsaicin, which is responsible for the burning sensation of chilies, can help with weight loss as it is known to boost metabolism. Plus, chilies are beneficial to the circulation system. It lowers cholesterol, decreases blood pressure and improves heart health.
- Mint Leaves: Helps with digestion. Alleviating stress. Contains plenty nutrients. Some believe it can also help relieve headaches.
Ingredients Summary – Mango Chili Smoothie Recipe
- Mango: It all depends how large the mangoes are, but you could go for 2 or 3 mangoes in this recipe.
- Chili. The suggested quantity depends on the strength of the variety, and how much chili you can handle in your smoothie! For novices, try one or two chilies. Otherwise, 3 to 5. Of course, the size of the chili also matters.
- Mint. Add a bunch of healthy washed mint leaves. Another green leaf option (if you want to further boost the nutrient value) is Spinach or Kale.
- Optional: Chia seeds, Maca Powder, Hemp Seeds, Goji Berries.
- Sweetener: Especially if you use kale leaves, a sweetener will make it more palatable. This can be honey, dates, agave, etc.
- Plant-based milk (optional). Cold water will also help to improve the liquid consistency to a desired level.
- Plus, add Ice to cool down the smoothie.
Have you tried a mango chili smoothie? Would you add or leave out any ingredients? Comment below your tips or questions.