Tropical Fruit Slushies
These tropical fruit slushies are sugar-free, gluten-free, vegan, super hydrating, and really easy to make in less than 10 minutes in your blender.
I love making non-alcoholic frozen drinks with fresh seasonal fruit to keep hydrated and cool in the summer. The produce is so beautiful, and you can blend up endless flavor combinations by using some fruit juice or water, cutting up the fruit, and blending it with ice cubes.
It’s that simple.
Fresh fruit slushies are healthier than snow cones
Traditional snow cones or commercial fruit slushies are typically loaded with nasties. They use syrups containing refined sugars, high fructose corn syrup, and preservatives, and chemicals. Some recipes use highly processed dairy and cream.
These frozen fruit slushies are so much healthier, and just contain juice, fruit, and ice.
I go to my farmer’s market every Sunday, and taste the different fruits on offer to see what is the sweetest so I don’t have to add any sweetener.
Ingredients in this tropical fruit slushie
I’m using very common widely available fruits in this frozen drink to make this recipe accessible so you can get a taste of the tropics all year round.
In this recipe I’m using
- pineapple juice
- oranges
- banana
- lime
- ice
I’ve added a pinch of cayenne pepper as an optional ingredient if you want to spice things up. It’s also fun to salt the rim of the glass if you like.
But. there are so many other flavor options.
How to make frozen fruit slushies
I apply a 5-step approach to making sensational slushies:
- Choose a Liquid (unless you’re using high-water-content fruits like melon)
- Choose a Base Fruit (or fruits)
- Add accent flavors (fresh herbs, spices, or flavorings
- Boost the nutrition with superfoods or frozen veggies
- Add Ice
For simple slushies, you don’t need to use herbs, spices, and superfoods. Certainly, if you’re making frozen slushies for kids, it’s best to keep your frozen drinks simple.
But, for adults, I like to serve frozen slushies that are really exotic and dimensional in flavor. Frozen mocktails are so much fun to serve at summer outdoor parties.
Liquids for frozen fruit slushies
If you’re using high-water content fruits like watermelon, honeydew melon, cantaloupe, oranges, or grapes, you don’t need to add any liquid. Blend one of these fruits to create your base liquid, and then add the base fruit flavor.
Here are my go-to liquids for frozen drinks:
- fruit juice – pineapple, apple, orange, grapefruit, tangerine, grape, pomegranate
- green tea and herbal teas – rooibos, chamomile, lemongrass, ginger, rose
- fresh coconut water
- creamy milks – almond, coconut, cashew
- filtered water or sparkling water
- kombucha or kefir
Best base fruits to make sugar-free frozen fruit slushies
For the best flavor for frozen fruit slushies, use ripe fruit that is in season. I opt for the naturally creamy fruits such as:
- oranges
- pineapple
- papaya
- banana
- mango
- peaches
- apricots
- nectarines
- plums
- strawberries
- raspberries
Accent flavors for frozen fruit slushies
Add a touch of magic to your frozen drinks by using any of the ingredients below:
- fresh herbs: basil, mint, rosemary, cilantro
- spices: ginger, cayenne, red pepper flakes, chile
- lemon or lime juice and zest
- rose water or orange blossom water
- extracts: mint, coconut, lemon, orange
- salt: a pinch brings out the natural flavors of the fruit
Nutrient boosters for frozen fruit slushies
I always make my frozen drinks as nutrient-dense as possible. Many of the boosters below won’t alter the flavor of your fruit slushies, but they kick they will give you more bang for your buck in the health stakes.
- leafy greens: spinach, radish greens, kale, baby bok choy (1 cup)
- superfoods: camu, goji, pomegranate, maqui, açaí, wheatgrass, spirulina, chlorella powders
- frozen raw veggies: cauliflower, peeled zucchini, broccoli (just 1/4 cup)
- probiotic powder
The Icy Factor
Of course, a frozen slushie has to icy and frosty. If you don’t have good ripe sweet fresh fruit, you can make a great slushie with frozen fruit. But, you’ll use a larger ratio of liquid to frozen fruit than a smoothie, add some ice so it’s looser and icier than a typical smoothie.
The best blender to make frozen fruit slushies
You can make a frozen fruit slushie with any conventional or high-speed blender. But, with many blenders the blender gets stuck with the ice and fruit, and the blender develops air pockets, and then blender labors or stops completely, and nothing blends. And, you never get a nice smooth or frosty consistency, and you may get small chunks or bits of ingredients so you never get a nice uniform flavor.
You can stop the blender periodically and put a spoon in to burst the air pockets and redistribute the fruit and ice to continue blending to improve the results. But, this process can be a real pain, takes way more time, the fruits and ice melts, it gets old, and you never get the best flavor.
Ah….no thanks. Life is too short.
When you use a great blender, the machine is designed to bridge and burst air pockets while the machine is running so this doesn’t happen when blending slushies. Furthermore, if you have a tamper, you can insert it into the center lid opening, and have complete control over your blend and guide the ingredients through the blades for the most efficient blending.
I use the KitchenAid High Performance blender.
The blender I use every day is the KitchenAid High Performance blender. It has 3HP motor that pulverizes any fruit quickly and easily, pulverizes ice into a frosty consistency in seconds, and has a tamper to help guide the ingredients through the blades.
The tamper has a fantastic grip that makes it easier to control, and the blender container sits indented on the jar pad for ultimate stability when you’re blending thick ingredients.
This is the best blender I’ve ever used. I’ve been using it for three years and I love it. It is also absolutely gorgeous, and matches my KitchenAid stand mixer. They’ve both got the same die-cast metal base. Most blenders (even expensive high-speed machines) have plastic bases.
When you look at the other machines on market, it’s like plastic-fantastic meets Prada. It’s certainly a show piece and conversation starter. Every time I have people over for dinner, they exclaim, “that is the most gorgeous blender I’ve ever seen,”
I totally agree. Check out the KitchenAid High Performance blender on the KitchenAid website.
*I am a paid ambassador for KitchenAid blenders. But, my opinions are my own.
Get creative and let me know what flavors of fruit slushies you make.
Other Frozen Drink Recipes
Frozen Virgin Margarita
Frozen Margarita
Frozen Strawberry Margarita
Classic Frozen Daiquiri
White Russian Milkshake
Frozen Grasshopper
Let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments!
Your feedback is important, and it helps me decide which recipes to post next for you.
