This healthy chocolate banana smoothie is like a chocolate milkshake that powers up your morning. It increases energy, balances mood, boosts your brain, and helps you sail through daily stress. Ready for a dose of chocolate goodness? Grab your blender and let's fix those chocolate cravings in a healthy way.
I've been drinking smoothies for more than twenty five years and continually come up with new recipes to keep breakfast interesting. This chocolate smoothie not only tastes like it's too good for breakfast but provides more than just tasty protein.
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Why You'll Like This Recipe
- Easy to make, healthy smoothie that tastes amazing.
- Powers up your morning or post-workout routine.
- Healthy ingredients.
Want to make more healthy smoothies? Here's a guide to making healthy smoothies that really breaks down how to make smart choices.
Recipe Ingredients
Here's what you need to make a healthy chocolate banana smoothie.
- Chocolate: Unsweetened raw cacao powder or unsweetened cocoa powder provide great chocolatey flavor and health benefits.
- Milk: Use what works best for you, either a plant milk like hemp milk, oat milk, almond milk, coconut milk, or regular milk.
- Healthy fats: A tablespoon of coconut MCT oil is terrific, or a little canned coconut milk for rich smoothness.
- Flaxseed: An excellent way to add protein and fiber but you can't use it whole. It must be ground, and fresh ground is best. If you don't want to go through that, use a quality brand like this that is cold-milled to preserve nutrients. I grind mine right before using with this little grinder.
- Ground maca powder: Optional, but for energy and balanced stress levels. It's an adaptogenic herb from Peru. This is my secret ingredient. Add it to easy overnight oats with chia seeds too.
- Cinnamon: a little ground cinnamon is a nice flavor blend with the chocolate (optional).
- Sweetener: Try a little maple syrup, sugar-free maple syrup, plain sugar-free simple syrup, or chocolate stevia drops depending on your taste buds.
- Banana: Helps make a creamy drink, adds sweetness, and a rich source of potassium and B6.
- Protein powder: Choose what type of protein powder works best for you in terms of grams of protein you need. Read labels carefully for potential unwanted ingredients. A good rule is the shorter the ingredient list, the better. Buy unflavored and unsweetened and add yourself for better control.
See recipe card for measurements.
Chef's tip: About bananas. Choose greenish bananas for lower sugar levels and resistant starch, a type of starch than functions more like fiber. Ripe bananas have more sugar. For frozen banana, peel and chop the banana into chunks and freeze on a small sheet pan in a single layer. When frozen, store in a zip bag for using in smoothies. They are like banana ice cubes!
Substitutions and Smoothie Variations
- Want a little crunchy garnish? Sprinkle the top with raw cacao nibs.
- Want a chocolate peanut butter smoothie? Swap the coconut oil for a tablespoon or two of creamy peanut butter. Cashew butter, almond butter, and sunflower seed butter all work too!
- Swap the flaxseeds for chia seeds. Try a tablespoon or two to start as chia thickens upon standing.
- Skip the banana and add a little avocado.
- Add a little vanilla extract.
- For a simple chocolate smoothie use just milk, cacao, banana, protein powder, and a little sweetener.
Chef's note: What is maca? Maca is an adaptogenic herb that help the body manage environmental stress. Research on maca is in early stages, but reports show maca may help increase energy and stamina, balance hormones, plus reduce stress and anxiety. With a caramel-y flavor, its a terrific add for smoothies, overnight oats with chia, and Greek yogurt.
Recipe Instructions
Simply add all ingredients for this chocolate banana smoothie to a high-speed blender and blend until smooth. If you want an icy cold smoothie, add a couple of ice cubes.
Another option is a personal size blender like this model complete with a smoothie container. I use mine to make salad dressings too like this creamy lemon tahini dressing.
Is it Cacao or Cocoa?
Is it cocoa or cacao? Cocoa and cacao are different but start from the same source; the cacao tree with a chocolatey but different flavor. Cacao is raw and minimally processed so retains more nutrients. It's a little bitter flavor wise. Cocoa powder is milder and more processed, like what you bake with.
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The health benefit from cacao is from from a type of phytonutrient called flavanols. Published studies show that consuming cocoa flavanols improves cardiovascular function and lessens the burden on the heart that comes with the aging. It also helps lowers blood pressure, improve blood flow to the brain and heart, and prevent blood clots. If that isn't good news for chocolate lovers I don't know what is!
Cacao adds important minerals such as magnesium, manganese, chromium, phosphorus, iron, potassium, zinc, and copper.
Chef's tip: For homemade milks that are better then the store and easy to make from your pantry, try my homemade almond milk and homemade hemp milk in photo above).
Protein Powder Notes
Protein powder makes it easy to add protein to your smoothie. It's best to choose unflavored, unsweetened powder with minimal additives.
There are many options available today from whey and egg white protein powder to plant-based protein powder options. Read the labels for a clean product looking for additives, fake flavors, and added sweeteners that you may not want.
For more suggestions, read this post on How to Choose a Protein Powder and alternatives to powders for adding protein.
Servings Suggestions
Enjoy a chocolate banana smoothie right after blending for the best flavor and texture. If you're taking on the go, store in an insulated bottle and shake before you consume to re-blend if needed. Garnish with a sprinkle of cacao nibs, a few banana slices, a little shredded unsweetened coconut, or hemp seeds.
This chocolate smoothie recipe makes one serving. It works good for after school snacks as well as breakfast meal replacement or a post-workout re-fuel.
Recipe FAQs
For a no added sugar smoothie, start with unsweetened milk. Dairy milk contains natural sugars, 13 grams in an 8-ounce glass of low fat milk. To lower sugar, switch out to an unsweetened plant milk. They are delicious for making smoothies. For example, homemade, unstrained almond milk is creamy and makes a terrific smoothie with only 1 gram of natural sugar.
Be sure to choose an unsweetened protein powder, and if using fruit, choose low sugar fruit like berries and use only a small amount. One other tip for low sugar smoothies, use monk fruit to sweeten instead of maple syrup or honey.
A variety of milks work well in a chocolate smoothie, all adding their own flavor nuances. Try different ones to see what you like best, then occasionally trade them out and do something new. Try almond milk, hemp milk, coconut milk, cashew milk, organic soy milk, and dairy milk. Rice milk works but as it is so thin and flavorless it doesn't add much as these other milks do.
Simply put, no. Don't use chocolate syrup for a chocolate smoothie. It's best and healthiest to use raw cacao powder or unsweetened cocoa powder for the chocolate flavor.
The famous chocolate syrup in the brown bottle contains high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, sugar, water, cocoa, preservatives, salt, mono and diglycerides, Polysorbate 60, xanthan gum, and artificial vanilla flavor. Do you really want that in a healthy smoothie? I don't think so.
More Healthy Smoothie Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Healthy Chocolate Banana Smoothie Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups almond milk preferably homemade
- 2 tablespoons raw cacao powder
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
- 1 tablespoon coconut MCT oil
- 1 tablespoon ground maca powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 small greenish banana
- 1 scoop protein powder of choice see notes below
- 2 teaspoons monk fruit (for no sugar) See notes below
Optional Garnishes
- 1 tablespoon raw cacao nibs
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened coconut thread
- 2-3 slices banana
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Instructions
- Add all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
- If you prefer a cold smoothie, add a couple of ice cubes. Garnish as desired.
Notes
- Swap 2 tablespoons of canned coconut milk for the MCT oil, adds nice creamy richness.
- I use a monk fruit simple syrup for sweetness with no added sugar. You can also use maple syrup or honey but they add their own flavor. Granular mink fruit works too, or chocolate stevia drops.
Nutrition
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Sally Vargas says
This will definitely get me back on the smoothie train, Sally. I tend to avoid them in winter, but I am always looking for something I could have to jumpstart the day!
Thanks for a great recipe.
Sally Cameron says
Hey Sally. I know if you live in a cold area smoothies can be tough, when you might perfer something warm. I don't drink my real cold, they are more room temp. I have another one I need to post real soon. A golden milk smoothie with turmeric and ginger, warm spices, which might sound good to you! So nice to see your comment. Thanks.