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This chocolate banana smoothie tastes like a healthy chocolate milkshake! Get your fix with these good for you ingredients.

Chocolate banana smoothie
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Here’s a way to get your chocolate fix and eat something healthy at the same time: try a Chocolate Banana Smoothie! This smoothie is full of good for you ingredients, but tastes like a healthy chocolate milkshake. It’s sweet enough to make you feel like it’s a treat, but not so intense it feels like dessert. Bananas, cocoa powder, and Greek yogurt make magic in the blender with just a little maple syrup for sweetener. This recipe is perfect for when you’re craving a treat (and our kid thinks it’s actual ice cream!).

Ingredients in the best chocolate banana smoothie

There’s not a lot to this chocolate banana smoothie. In fact, we developed it around ingredients we always have in our pantry and fridge. Here’s what you’ll need to have on hand:

  • Bananas: Here’s the best part: no freezing necessary! You can use room temperature bananas; you’ll just need lots of ice to get that perfect creamy texture.
  • Greek yogurt: Greek yogurt is ideal for adding to smoothies because it’s packed with protein and it has probiotics for a healthy gut. You can skip this if you’d like a vegan smoothie.
  • Milk: You can use any type of milk here, dairy or non-dairy. Add more non-dairy milk for vegan.
  • Cocoa powder: Cocoa powder gives that signature chocolate flavor, in combination with the sweetener.
  • Maple syrup: Maple syrup is our sweetener of choice; you can also use honey or agave syrup.
  • Ice: Add quite a bit of ice, and it all comes together into a smooth, chocolaty puree.
Chocolate banana smoothie

Amp the protein with add-ins (like peanut butter!)

Want to add a little more protein to you chocolate banana smoothie? Here are our best recommendations, both plant-based and dairy protein:

  • Peanut butter: What could a better pairing? Peanut butter goes hand in hand with chocolate and banana (it also adds a hit of plant-based protein). Start with 1 to 2 tablespoons. Adding peanut butter increases the calories, but also makes this smoothie more filling.
  • More Greek yogurt: Double the quantity of Greek yogurt in this recipe for an even more filling smoothie. This is great for breakfasts or post-workout snacks.
  • Protein powder: You can always hide protein powder in smoothies! Typically we prefer to avoid it because it can leave an odd aftertaste. But this smoothie would be a good one since the chocolate flavor is strong enough to mask it.
Chocolate banana smoothie

Variation: vegan chocolate banana smoothie

Prefer to have a vegan smoothie? You can easily make this chocolate banana smoothie plant-based by doing the following:

  • Cut the Greek yogurt.
  • Use oat milk or almond milk, adding a little more as needed until it blends.
  • Consider adding peanut butter for added plant-based protein.

Variation: dark chocolate banana smoothie

Are you a dark chocolate lover like me? Here’s what you can do turn this into a dark chocolate banana smoothie: use Dutch process cocoa powder (sometimes labeled dark cocoa powder or Dutched cocoa). Start with 3 tablespoons Dutch process cocoa powder and add more to taste. You also may need to add a little more sweetener to combat the darkness of the cocoa.

Dutch process cocoa powder is essentially like a dark chocolate version of cocoa powder. It’s been treated with an alkali to make it pH neutral, which gives it a darker color and milder flavor. We use it in lots of our recipes to get a rich chocolaty flavor, like Flourless Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Banana Muffins.

Dutch process vs regular cocoa powder
Here’s the difference of cocoa powder vs Dutch process cocoa powder

More chocolate snacks

This chocolate banana smoothie is near and dear to my heart because…confession. I’m a chocoholic! I’m not against chocolate in any way: but I also love to have healthier ways to get my chocolate fix. Here are a few more of my favorite healthy-ish ways to enjoy chocolate:

This chocolate banana smoothie recipe is…

Vegetarian and gluten free. For vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free, use the variation in the recipe.

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Chocolate Banana Smoothie

Chocolate banana smoothie
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5 from 2 reviews

This chocolate banana smoothie tastes like a healthy chocolate milkshake! Get your chocolate fix with these good for you ingredients.

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 0 minutes
  • Total Time: 5 minutes
  • Yield: 2 small smoothies or 1 large 1x
  • Category: Smoothie
  • Method: Drink
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegetarian

Ingredients

Scale
  • ⅓ cup milk of choice (dairy or non dairy)
  • ¼ cup Greek yogurt (for vegan, omit and add more milk until it blends)
  • 2 medium ripe bananas (room temperature)
  • 1 ½ cups ice
  • ¼ cup cocoa powder
  • 1 ½ tablespoons maple syrup (to taste, depending on the ripeness of the bananas)
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Optional mix in: 1 tablespoon peanut butter

Instructions

  1. Place all ingredients in a blender in the order listed, breaking the banana into pieces. Blend until creamy and frothy, stopping and scraping down the sides as necessary, and adding a bit more liquid if necessary. Serve immediately or store in a covered jar in the refrigerator for 2 days.

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About the authors

Alex & Sonja

Hi! We’re Alex & Sonja Overhiser, authors of the acclaimed cookbooks A Couple Cooks and Pretty Simple Cooking—and a real life couple who cooks together. We founded the A Couple Cooks website in 2010 to share seasonal recipes and the joy of home cooking. Now, we’ve got over 3,000 well-tested recipes, including Mediterranean diet, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, smoothies, cocktails, and more!

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2 Comments

  1. Sonja Overhiser says:

    Let us know if you have any questions!






  2. k l says:

    Really good