Cacao Smoothie

Other than the cacao, most of the other ingredients in this smoothie—plant milk, dried fruit and nut butter—are considered foods we should limit on a whole food plant-based diet. 

So while I enjoy a cacao smoothie on occasion as a treat, I’d recommend limiting them like I would any other dessert.

One of my favorite parts about this cacao smoothie is how simple it is to make. You basically just dump everything in a blender and process on high speed. In fact, my Vitamix has a smoothie setting, so I just choose that, make sure the lid’s on tight, and wait.

Because I like to use sweet potatoes in my cacao smoothie, a little cooking is required. (It takes about 8 minutes to boil a diced sweet potato.) And your cacao smoothie with be thicker and creamier if you start with frozen banana and/or sweet potato, which takes a little bit of planning.

So now, I just keep frozen bananas and sweet potatoes in the freezer, so we can whip up a smoothie whenever we want one.

A lot of people make their chocolate smoothies with banana alone, but I find you can really taste the banana. I wanted to create a recipe where the chocolate flavor would dominate—and also that didn’t rely so much on bananas, because Hemant eats them almost every day for breakfast.

I personally love this cacao smoothie with just the sweet potato—and no banana at all. I find that I still get a nice thick smoothie, and I don’t really taste the sweet potato.

But for the official recipe, I went half and half. I think this variation is likely to please most palates.

I usually make this smoothie with soy milk or oat milk, because that’s what I tend to have on hand. I know a lot of people drink almond milk these days, so that’s what I note in the recipe. But really, any plant milk is fine here.

And, it’s your choice whether you use plain or vanilla plant milk. I’ve tried both and don’t notice much difference.

Again, I’d just go with whatever I have on hand. However, you can add a drop of pure vanilla extract if you like for a hint of vanilla flavor.

If you're trying to cut calories, you can make this recipe without nut butter, for a lower fat treat. For this version, I just increased the ice and the sweet potato a little to keep it thick.

It was delicious—though definitely not as rich. More like a thick, cold glass of chocolate milk.

But if you like nut butter and don’t mind the fat, almond butter and peanut butter both work well. The peanut butter's flavor is more pronounced, while the almond butter is subtler, letting the other ingredients shine through.

Of course, you don’t have to use plant milk at all! Since plant milk is a food we limit on a whole food plant-based diet (and I probably already drink more than I should!), I'll sometimes just make this cacao smoothie with water.

I usually increase the ice a little to thicken it, use a little more banana or sweet potato, and use about half as much water as I would plant milk, but it works fine.

Can you tell I've been making a whole lot of cacao smoothies?