The Best Batida de Lechosa (Papaya Smoothie)—Just Like My Grandmother Taught Me

You can’t go to the Dominican Republic without coming across papaya—a large oblong fruit with beautiful orange flesh found at roadside fruit stands, all-inclusive resorts and on trees in people’s backyards. Lots of people enjoy it sliced, but in the Dominican Republic, it’s often used to make juice or smoothies. In fact, a papaya smoothie, or batida de lechosa in Spanish, is one of my favorite comfort foods.

Long before I became a dietitian, I grew up drinking this smoothie with my mom and my grandmother. My grandmother was born and raised in the Dominican Republic and she maintained a profound love for her home country until the day she died. She moved to the United States as a young adult before she had my mom, and for as long as I can remember, she would travel back and forth from the U.S. to the DR, usually to avoid the cold Northeast winters.

Throughout my formative years, my grandmother lived with my mom and me for about half of the year, bringing her Dominican culture, Spanish language and amazing cooking with her. Our kitchen was always warm and filled with the aroma of rice and beans, pollo guisado, Dominican spaghetti and so many more indescribably delicious foods. I credit my grandmother for instilling Dominican culture in me, with a large part of that culture being Dominican food.

One of the many cultural foods she passed down is this simple papaya smoothie. Unlike other dishes she made that were quite labor-intensive, this one takes just a few minutes to prepare. That’s part of what makes me love it so much. As someone looking to connect more with my ancestral foods, this is the perfect recipe when I don’t have time to spend hours making a Dominican dinner from scratch. Plus, it reminds me of the invaluable time I spent with my grandmother growing up and the way she showed her love for me and my mom through her cooking. 

It was the weeks when we’d buy a fresh papaya from the supermarket that I knew I was in for a treat. Once the papaya was slightly soft to the touch and the skin turned from green to yellow, it was papaya smoothie time. (If you’ve tried papaya and you thought it tasted like soap, don’t give up on this fruit! You may have just needed to let it ripen longer.)

After a meal of rice and beans and chicken, as we were settling in to relax for the evening, the golden question would be asked, “Do you want a papaya smoothie?” The answer was always a resounding “Yes!” 

The simple blend of papaya, milk, vanilla extract, cinnamon and ice makes for a delectable drink that never gets old. While many recipes call for evaporated milk, my family always used cow’s milk. Sometimes, we’d make it with water for a lighter and more refreshing option, but most of the time we’d make it the traditional way with dairy milk. Even lactose intolerance didn’t deter my mom and grandmother from enjoying the smoothie—they simply switched to lactose-free dairy milk. 

Not only does milk give an added creaminess compared to water, but as a dietitian, I now recognize that cow’s milk also makes it a more nutritionally complete smoothie, and that I can enjoy it for breakfast. Using reduced-fat (2%) cow’s milk instead of evaporated milk lowers the saturated fat content.,  The milk also adds protein, while the papaya provides carbs and fiber. Plus, the bright orange flesh of papaya signals that it’s rich in carotenoids—antioxidants that help reduce inflammation and chronic disease risk. According to a 2022 study in Diversity, papaya is also high in vitamins A, B, C, E and K, folate, pantothenic acid, magnesium, copper, calcium and potassium, which may provide benefits like helping reduce risk of cardiovascular disease, promoting healthy digestion and more.

You could really enjoy this smoothie any time of day (and you might want to enjoy it all day, every day when you first discover it), but my family always had it as a post-dinner snack—a fruit-centric dessert, really. Not only did I enjoy this smoothie in my home growing up, but I’ve enjoyed it in airports and juice stands in the DR as well.

While you can absolutely travel to the Dominican Republic for this smoothie (I mean, why not?!), I’m sharing my family’s recipe so you can bring a little Dominican culture to your home. As we say in Spanish, “Buen provecho!”