Easy Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

If you’re a fan of Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream, this peanut butter banana smoothie is made for you! This protein-rich smoothie is thick, creamy, and tastes pretty much like a milkshake that’s good enough to even be a healthy breakfast smoothie.

Is This Recipe Actually Healthy?

It’s easy to second guess if a smoothie like this would be considered healthy with its ingredients: banana, peanut butter, and chocolate. But second-guess no more because it is!

Frozen bananas provide an amazing creamy, ice cream like base and complements a lot of different flavors. Bananas are a great energy booster with its complex carbohydrates, high potassium content, and B vitamins. It’s perfect for athletes and active people when it comes to electrolyte balance and recovery as well.

The natural peanut butter is a great source of protein, healthy fats, and fiber. Using natural peanut butter with less added sugar is key. Because of the nutritional benefits of peanut butter, it helps make this peanut butter banana smoothie more satiating. 

Cocoa powder is filled with amazing nutrients, especially in the minerals category such as iron, zinc, selenium, and magnesium. It also has polyphenols which are naturally occurring antioxidants. It’s also easy to get confused in knowing the difference between cocoa powder and cacao powder. They are pretty similar but the main difference is the temperature used during the processing stage. Cacao powder is processed at a lower temperature, whereas cocoa powder is processed at a higher temperature. Cacao powder tends to have a more bitter taste, whereas cocoa powder is less. 

Recipe Ingredients

For this peanut butter banana smoothie recipe, we’ll need: 

• 1 ½ cups frozen bananas (2 frozen bananas)
• 1 ½ tablespoon cocoa powder
• ¾ cup + 2 tablespoon almond milk
• ½ cup vanilla-flavored dairy-free yogurt
• 3 tablespoon natural peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon honey

How To Make This Smoothie

To make this easy peanut butter smoothie, it takes very little time! 

1. Take all the ingredients listed above into a blender and blend until well combined and smooth. 
2. Pour into 2 glasses and enjoy!

Bananas that were frozen when the peel had lots of brown spots is perfect for smoothies like this. If they were frozen while the peels were still green, it didn’t have enough time to ripen and won’t be as sweet. If your banana peels have turned from brown spots to completely black, it’s best to bake with those instead. 

How Do I Make My Smoothie Thicker?

When making your own smoothies, it’s tempting to add extra ice cubes to make it thicker. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with a few, however if you add too much it sometimes comes at the expense of your flavors tasting a bit watered down. Here are a few ways to make your smoothie thick and creamy -

• Starting with your liquid of choice inside your blender and then your fruits and/or vegetables. Start in a low speed setting and then as you blend, you can add small amounts of liquid to find the right consistency.
• If you’re using protein powders or leafy greens, add this right after your liquid so that it incorporates a whole lot better and prevents over-blending (especially if you have a high speed/high-powered blender). 
• Using or adding frozen fruit or frozen yogurt. The best options for frozen fruits are those with soluble fiber, meaning fruits that attract water and end up forming a more creamy, gel-like consistency. Some examples of these fruits are bananas, avocados, mangos, pears, and peaches. If you have extra Greek yogurt (or non-dairy yogurt), you can freeze them into ice cube trays to add into your smoothies.
• Using a creamier liquid base also helps. Although almond milk has its benefits, it is one of the more thinner non-dairy milk alternatives. Some options that you can swap with instead are coconut milk, cashew milk, and oat milk. 
• Adding a scoop of flax seeds, chia seeds or raw rolled oats into your smoothies. These superfoods are natural thickeners, provide a range of amazing nutrients and fiber, and easy to incorporate. Plus they’re very neutral in taste so they’re super versatile, and they incorporate very nicely into your smoothies providing a creamy and smooth texture; no one likes gritty smoothies!
• Incorporating nut butters like almond butter and peanut butter help thicken your smoothies, as well as adding plant-based protein. A tablespoon or so is enough to make it creamy!
• Making sure that your blender blade is sharpened and in the right condition. Sometimes if your smoothie is still coming out too thin no matter how many frozen things you add, it could be a sign that your blender blade is dull. This is where ice cubes come in handy! Before you blend anything, take a cup or two of ice cubes and put it in your blender. Blend or crush your ice cubes and you’ll be left with shaved ice and a sharpened blade. 

Expert Tips & Tricks

1. If you’re not dairy-free, feel free to use regular milk and yogurt to this smoothie.
2. Top the smoothies with chocolate flakes for a fun visual. You can also line the glass with peanut butter for some extra peanut-buttery goodness. 
3. Add more almond milk if your smoothie is too thick for your liking. 
4. Add more frozen banana if your smoothie is too thin for your preference.
5. If using frozen bananas, use 1 ½ cups. If you are freezing your own bananas, cut up 2 cups worth of banana slices, which is normally equivalent to 2 bananas. As the bananas freeze, they shrink in size so this would be the perfect amount once they are frozen. 
6. I used sweetened almond milk, but you can use unsweetened almond if you prefer.
7. You can use coconut yogurt in place of vanilla yogurt for a fun twist!

Recipe Variations

This classic peanut butter banana smoothie can be modified in a variety of ways! If you’re not a fan of chocolate, it’ll still taste good as a plain peanut butter smoothie by omitting the cocoa powder. 

You can also add a handful of spinach for some extra nutrients if you don’t mind the color changing. Don’t worry - it won’t change the flavor at all! Or even riced cauliflower.

Using other frozen fruit like strawberries, blueberries or raspberries will be delicious as well but it won’t be as sweet without the banana. If you do want a bit of the sweetness, the honey in the original recipe will help, or you can swap it for a pitted Medjool date or vanilla extract.

If you’re allergic to peanuts or peanut butter isn’t your favorite, you can easily swap out the nut butter for something like almond butter or a seed butter like tahini.

For the liquid, you can add some cold brew or chilled coffee with the almond milk for more of a caffeine boost.

For nutrition boosters, some of the favorites to add are flax seeds, chia seeds, protein powders, collagen, coconut/MCT oil, or even a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie Recipe

By: Abbey Rodriguez

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If you're a fan of Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey ice cream, this peanut butter banana smoothie is made for you! This protein-rich smoothie is thick, creamy, and tastes pretty much like a milkshake that's good enough to even be a healthy breakfast smoothie.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Servings: 2

Ingredients

• 1½ cups frozen bananas (2 frozen bananas)
• 1½ tablespoon cocoa powder
• ¾ cup + 2 tbsp almond milk
• ½ cup vanilla-flavored dairy-free yogurt
• 3 tablespoon natural peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon honey

Instructions

• Take all the ingredients listed above into a blender and blend until well combined and smooth.
• Pour into two glasses and enjoy!

Notes

1. If you’re not dairy-free, feel free to use regular milk and yogurt to this smoothie.
2. Top the smoothies with chocolate flakes for a fun visual. You can also line the glass with peanut butter for some extra peanut-buttery goodness. 
3. Add more almond milk if your smoothie is too thick for your liking. 
4. Add more frozen banana if your smoothie is too thin for your preference.
5. If using frozen bananas, use 1 ½ cups. If you are freezing your own bananas, cut up 2 cups worth of banana slices, which is normally equivalent to 2 bananas. As the bananas freeze, they shrink in size so this would be the perfect amount once they are frozen. 
6. I used sweetened almond milk, but you can use unsweetened almond if you prefer.
7. You can use coconut yogurt in place of vanilla yogurt for a fun twist!