Gluten Free Actimel Mango and Passion Fruit Smoothie with Fresh Basil

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One of the best things about summer is tropical fruit. We're big mango eaters in this house, with a propensity for purchasing cases of the seasonal fruit from outdoor markets dotted around Manchester's ethnic areas. Around this time of year, my husband can be spotted with a huge grin across his face, toting a tray of juicy, bronzed mango. Passion fruit is another favorite of ours, although we tend to buy it much less often than we buy mango.

So earlier this week, when an insulated box arrived with the freshest, sweetest mangoes and passion fruits and a pack of Actimel's new Mango and Passionfruit yogurt, I was beyond delighted to get stuck in coming up with a couple unique and tasty recipes for you guys featuring the yogurt. If you've not tweaked it yet: the materials and the equipment used in this recipe were compliments of Actimel. The recipe and the opinions expressed are my own and have been developed by me and have not, in any way, been influenced by Actimel.

That said, I really love this yogurt. When it comes to yogurt flavors, I'm normally pretty boring, sticking with classics like strawberry or cherry. Or blueberry, when I'm feeling really adventurous. So trying mango and passion fruit yogurt was a big deal for me. I was half expecting it to be sickly sweet and a bit overpowering as passionfruit can be. It wasn't! It was mellow and refreshing. You really get the flavors of both fruits in this yogurt, which can be hard to balance when having multiple fruit flavors in a yogurt, I think. It really slips down a treat and everyone in my family loved it. Especially Callum, my 16 month old. He wanted two pots yesterday for snack time! 

Actimel Mango & Passionfruit Yogurt is available in the UK from 22 April at Tesco and from 29 April at other supermarkets.

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 Ingredients:
For the smoothie
1 cup milk
1 large mango
1 passion fruit
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp fresh basil leaves, torn
2 pots of Actimel Mango & Passionfruit Yogurt
3 cubes of ice

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All right, let's blitz:

Prepare the mango by standing it stem-down on a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut through both sides of the mango, straight down so you're left with two "shells" on either side of the middle.

Take one shell, and slice three our four lines down the length of the mango, flesh side up. Do not cut through the skin, you're simply scoring the flesh here.

Rotate the mango shell and score across the flesh, making a grid.

Pick up the scored shell and push gently on the skin to cause the mango cubes to pop out of the skin. Using your knife, carefully slice between the base of each cube and the skin to remove each chunk of mango. Repeat with the second shell and, if you can feel the hard, fibrous core of the mango on the middle piece, discard it. Otherwise, slice thinly until you reach the inedible center.
Confused? Watch this great video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvLdPjpELyU

Next, halve the passion fruit and set aside. Tear the basil leaves and set aside.

Pour the milk and yogurt into the base of your blender or smoothie maker along with the ice, mango and the passion fruit seeds from 1/2 of the passion fruit.

Drizzle in the honey, sprinkle in the basil and blend until smooth.

Serve topped with the remaining passion fruit and garnish with a sprig of fresh basil. Swirl to disperse the passion fruit evenly before drinking.

Thank you so much to Actimel for the lovely parcel:

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