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When I want a creamy smoothie, I turn to cashews or bananas. Well, I went a little crazy with this banana smoothie recipe and added BOTH. Get ready for a super creamy, super protein-charged smoothie that can jumpstart your day.
Table of Contents
How to Make a Banana Smoothie Recipe
When making a green smoothie I recommend blending the leafy greens + liquid first. Yet for a non-green smoothie, feel free to blend all your ingredients at once!
If this smoothie is too thick for your blender blades to handle, try adding a bit more liquid, stirring up the ingredients, then blending again. This should help.
If cashew milk isn’t your thing, then use the plant based milk of your choice! Oat milk will produce an equally creamy smoothie, while almond milk will make this smoothie a bit thinner.
Health Benefits of Bananas
This easily accessible fruit is incredibly versatile and delicious. Use it to naturally sweeten baked goods, make that smoothie creamier or naturally more sweet-tasting, or as a simple healthy snack dipped in almond butter.
Bananas are great sources of fiber, antioxidants, potassium, vitamin B6, and manganese. Bananas, while sweet, are actually a lower glycemic (low sugar) fruit. Unripe bananas have a GI (glycemic index) score of 30, while ripe bananas have a GI score of around 60. So if you want your banana smoothie to be naturally lower in sugar, use a less ripe banana!
Tips for storing bananas
Living in Florida means my bananas ripen in two days tops. I love having them on hand for a quick snack or easy smoothie ingredient, yet they turn brown too quickly! So I’ve learned a great trick- freeze them.
I leave bananas on my counter until they are the perfect ripeness for me (which I’m finding is different for everyone). Then I line a baking sheet with parchment, peel the bananas, and line them up on the baking sheet. Freeze for 1-3 hours, then toss those lovely frozen bananas in a freezer-safe bag.
Now I’ve got the perfect ingredient ready to go. If you don’t have gallon-sized freezer bags, then cut your bananas in half before freezing to maximize space. Prepping smoothies ahead also saves produce!
Low Sugar Swaps
While the sugar in this recipe comes from whole food, it might be a little high for some. If you need a lower sugar option, then here are some great swaps:
- Use plain cashew yogurt or swap for 1/4 cup cauliflower
- Swap yogurt for in 2 tbs cashews
- Swap banana with 1/4 cup cauliflower or 1/4 avocado
Make sure the collagen or protein powder you use doesn’t have any added sugar. Read the label on the yogurt you use as well! There are many great plant based yogurt brands on the market now, yet lots are loaded with added sugar.
FAQs
Yes, just make sure that smoothie is full of only whole food ingredients. No fillers, chemicals, added sugar, or fake ingredients!
I recommend changing up your daily shake or smoothie, so you can benefit from a variety of fruits and veggies. Bananas are a great regular addition though!
Bananas are a great source of fiber, and often help settle stomach issues naturally.
No! Well… it depends what you put in them. Strawberry banana is a popular smoothie flavor at restaurants, yet those smoothies are usually pre-made mixes full of processed sugar and chemicals. Stick to strawberry banana smoothies with real, whole food ingredients and soak in all the benefits.
8 More Healthy Banana Smoothies
I know that bananas are a polarizing fruit. People either love ’em or hate ’em. If you enjoy bananas in your smoothies, then check out some other delicious recipes below:
- Banana peach smoothie
- Strawberry banana smoothie
- Chocolate banana smoothie
- Banana oatmeal smoothie
- Avocado banana smoothie
- Pineapple banana smoothie
- Kale banana smoothie
- Berry banana smoothie
If you are a banana fan then be sure to make this smoothie! Don’t forget to rate + review once you’ve tried it.
Creamy Banana Smoothie
Ingredients
- 2 bananas frozen
- ½ cup vegan yogurt plain
- 1 cup cashew milk
- 1 serving collagen powder or 1 serving homemade protein powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Blend all ingredients until smooth
- Pour into your favorite glass and enjoy!
Equipment
Video
Notes
- To make this smoothie vegan, swap 1 scoop of collagen powder with 1 serving of homemade protein powder
- To reduce the natural fruit sugars, use 1/4 avocado and 1 banana
- You can swap in any kind of yogurt, just choose one that’s plain or with limited sugar
- The cashews can be swapped for almonds or oats
- The cashew milk can be swapped out for the dairy-free milk of your choice
If you love bananas, you’ll love this smoothie! It is delicious. It’s really a banana milkshake, but with only whole food, healthy ingredients.
I thought this smoothie was pretty good! You could step up the flavor with cinnamon or cacao powder to compliment the banana!
So creamy rich and yummy
I’m not crazy about strong banana flavor so I added some organic cocoa protein powder. Since I double these I used avocado and some cauliflower for the second set of bananas. Creamy and yummy.
Tastes like a Banana Milkshake…yum!
Eating 2 bananas in 1 day seems like too much to me, so I only made half the recipe. This smoothie tasted fine, but nothing outstanding about it. I probably would not make it again.
I loved this smoothie. I may omit the vanilla extract next time. It filled me up and was my lunch for the day. I will definitely make this one again.
I didn’t think I’d like this one so much, but it’s so creamy! I did sub in almond milk for the cashew, since I wanted to use it up, and added in some spinach for greens. Yum!
This smoothie was very creamy. This recipe made way too much for one person. I am not fond of yogurt but the yogurt taste was not overpowering. Substituted almond milk because I could not find cashew milk. Did add the collagen. Not my favorite during the 10 day challenge. May add cinnamon or cocoa powder to change the taste up.
Yummy, yummy in my tummy! It is so weird that I really enjoy this smoothie being that I am not a huge fan of bananas. I did only add one banana and the rest cauliflower but only because I had cauliflower left over that needed to be used and I didn’t have cashew yogurt. Luckily, I also realized my cashews had sea salt in them before adding them so I swapped them for Almonds. I also used Almond milk because that is what we had and 1/2 tsp of raw honey. All in all it was absolutely delicious!
Very Creamy & Pretty Tasty!
Made quite a few changes to this recipe as I have to be careful consuming too many nut products. Used vanilla oatmilk and lactose free yoghurt. Used one banana, 1 Tbl hemp seed, dash of cinnamon and turmeric, 1.5 teaspoons collagen powder, no vanilla, and a large handful of power greens. I liked my creation and hope to one day be able to actually follow the recipe as written.
I made it with coconut milk and no yogurt
Also added strawberries
I loved this banana smoothie. Soo creamy and delicious. I couldn’t find any cashew yoghurt so used i used Almond yoghurt and Almond milk.
I enjoyed this smoothie quite a bit more than I thought I would. Banana isn’t my favorite flavor by itself, but the vanilla in the recipe really changed the flavor into something nice. Kind of like a vanilla shake with a hint of banana.
Knowing that I’m not a huge fan of bananas, I went immediately for the 1 banana, 1/4 cup avocado/1/4 cup cauliflower. The texture was fabulous but I think because I only used one banana it wasn’t quite sweet enough and mostly tasted like yogurt. I added some mixed berries and liked it better. Not a bad smoothie, just not in my wheelhouse!