This 5 minute Mad Cacao Smoothie is flavored with almond butter and chocolate. It tastes like dessert and is full of protein to start your morning right!
This smoothie takes me back to better times.
Times of sand between my toes, long walks on the beach, and Hawaiian paradise.
Not that this smoothie has a tropical ingredient in it. No papaya, pineapple, or passionfruit to be found.
It triggers tropical memories because my sister was married in Hawaii late last year. The whole family rolled her wedding into a tropical vacation and spent a week on the island. There were plenty of blended drinks: piña coladas, daiquiris, and this less alcoholic Mad Cacao Smoothie.
(Side note: I had the opportunity to photograph her wedding and if you want to sneak a peek at the pics you can see them here!)
So despite the lack of tropical ingredients, this takes me bask to smoothie sippin’ mornings in Hawiian paradise. Followed by long walks by the beach, sun bathing with a cocktail in hand, and then dreaming of tomorrow morning when I could wake up and start the next day with this Mad Cacao Smoothie. I would wakeup, barefoot walk down to the hippy dippy smoothie shop right by our hotel and order the same smoothie every day.
Now that I have perfected this Mad Cacao Smoothie at home, I have been slurping it up on the regular.
While this smoothie might not come with a side of paradise, it is some tasty breakfast fuel to get you through the day.
The base of this drink is frozen banana, the smoothie queen. Banana gives great creaminess, lends a bunch of natural sweetness, and plays well with our other ingredients.
To that creamy base, we will add almond butter
for protein and flavor. It adds 14 grams of protein to this recipe for some super staying power. This smoothie might taste like dessert, but it will get you through to lunch.
Then we dress up this Mad Cacao Smoothie real good. Cinnamon adds gourmet sweetness and a touch of cacao powder gives it a light chocolate flavor. The real magic is in the raw cacao nibs. We send them for a quick go-around in the blender, just to slightly break them up. When you slurp them up they taste like little bites of chocolate chips.
Get your blenders ready.
Mad Cacao Smoothie
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
- Category: Beverages
- Cuisine: gluten-free, oil-free, vegan
Description
This 5 minute Mad Cacao Smoothie is flavored with almond butter and chocolate. It tastes like dessert and is full of protein to start your morning right!
Ingredients
- 4 frozen bananas
- ¼ cup almond butter
- 2 teaspoons cacao powder
- 1 cup almond milk ((more for a thinner consistency))
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons cacao nibs
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients but the cacao nibs into a blender. Blend until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary or using a tamper. Add in the cacao nibs and blend again to break them up into smaller pieces – like chocolate chips. Serve topped with more almond butter and cacao nibs.
Looks delicious. Is that 4 frozen bananas for 1 smoothie correct?
Hi Tiffany! 4 frozen bananas is correct, but the recipe should make enough for two smoothies :) Feel free to cut the recipe in half if needed!
Instead of vanilla extract or in addition to if you love vanilla like me, you can get ground vanilla bean powder which has fiber in it. It’s very vanillaey and delicious. It also tastes sweet by itself so it adds a little sugar free sweetness to your recipes. I like adding it to Greek yogurt.
I also make homemade vanilla bean paste and syrup with organic demerara sugar and vanilla bean power. It’s so much better than anything I’ve bought.
★★★★
Sounds AMAZING! I’ll definitely have to try it with vanilla bean powder!