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If you love chocolate but still want to make choices that help you feel good, this Chocolate Strawberry Green Smoothie is about to become your new favorite blend. It tastes rich and chocolatey—almost like dessert—yet it’s made with simple, plant-based ingredients, including a generous handful of kale.
This recipe proof that green smoothies don’t have to taste green. When you pair leafy green vegetables with the right fruits and flavors, they disappear into something sweet, creamy, and totally satisfying.
Table of Contents
Why This Green Smoothie Tastes Like Dessert
The secret is balance. Sweet strawberries and banana bring natural sweetness, cacao adds deep chocolate flavor, and almond milk keeps everything smooth and creamy. Kale blends right in (or sneaks in), adding nutrients without competing with the chocolate-strawberry combo.
It’s the kind of smoothie you make when you want something indulgent—but still want to nourish your body.
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Ingredients You’ll Need
- Kale: A leafy green in a dessert?! Kale yeah!!! De-stem before adding to the blender to cut down on the bite or use baby kale for a milder kale option. You can freeze kale and use later, too.
- Almond milk: Unsweetened non-dairy milk is a great way to thicken a smoothie. Almond milk provides a bit of protein and a mild, nutty flavor that compliments both the fruit and cacao. You can also make your own almond milk, which tastes amazing.
- Strawberries: During strawberry season, use fresh for the sweetest taste. If you’re blending this smoothie during the winter months, frozen strawberries will give you the best flavor.
- Banana: I love freezing bananas to have on hand for tasty treats. Bananas provide natural sweetness as well as the milkshake flavor and texture that I want.
- Cacao powder: Unsweetened cacao powder is a chocolate-lovers superfood. No need for extra sweetener since you’re using other fruity ingredients. Surprisingly, cacao also helps balance the bite from the kale.
How to Make a Chocolate Strawberry Green Smoothie
Before you blend this one up, if you’re new to smoothies or want to make sure yours turns out thick, creamy, and never gritty, I recommend starting with my how to make a smoothie guide. It walks you through the simple formula I use every time—what to blend first, how to balance flavors, and how to make leafy greens disappear into dessert-worthy smoothies like this one. Once you’ve got that down, this Chocolate Strawberry Green Smoothie is practically foolproof.
- Start by adding the kale and almond milk to your blender. Blend until completely smooth—this step helps avoid any leafy texture. If your blender struggles with kale, check out my list of recommended blenders for smoothies.
- Next, add the frozen strawberries, banana, and cacao powder. Blend again until thick, creamy, and dessert-like.
- Pour into a glass and enjoy right away.
Ingredient Swaps & Variations
This smoothie recipe is flexible and easy to customize:
- Sub spinach for kale if you prefer a milder green.
- Swap unsweetened cocoa powder for cacao powder if that’s what you have.
- Use ¼ banana + ¼ avocado to lower natural sugar while keeping it creamy.
- Replace almond milk with oat milk, coconut milk, or any plant milk you love.
- Boost protein, healthy fat and fiber by adding in homemade protein powder.
Why I Add Kale to Smoothies
Surprisingly, this dessert-like chocolate strawberry smoothie only has 15 grams of natural sugar. It also boasts 9 grams of fiber, helping to process that natural sugar into a smooth energy boost that won’t leave you jittery. This comes from the mighty kale leaves. Adding kale to smoothies provides protein and fiber to break down the sugar from the fruit into useable energy for your body.
Recipe Tip
Add 1/2-1 cup of leafy greens to any fruit smoothie to help cut down on the natural sugar spikes. If you’re new to leafy greens, start with a small amount! Then as you get used to adding them, start increasing the amount to a healthy giant handful (one cup).
More Chocolate Smoothie Recipes
I love the idea of a dessert that gives my body a natural energy boost instead of putting me to sleep. I have an entire collection of chocolate smoothies that taste like a sweet treat yet pack in the plant-based benefits. Here are a few more:
- Chocolate covered cherry smoothie has a handful of spinach
- Chocolate banana smoothie uses frozen cauliflower
- Shamrock shake blends spinach and mint
- Skinny mint smoothie combines fresh mint leaves and baby spinach
If you make this chocolate strawberry green smoothie recipe, I’d love to hear how it turned out in the comment box below. Your feedback helps me and all the readers in this community. And if you’re interested in more plant-based recipes (and exclusive content), sign up for my weekly recipe newsletter.
Chocolate Strawberry Green Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 cup kale
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 cup strawberries frozen
- ½ banana
- 2 tablespoon cacao powder
Instructions
- Place kale and almond milk in blender. Puree until smooth.
- Add fruit and cacao, and blend again.
Helpful Tools
Notes
- Use at least one frozen fruit to make the smoothie cold.
- Swap in unsweetened cocoa powder for cacao powder.
- To lower the natural sugar, use 1/4 banana and 1/4 avocado.
- Use the plant milk of your choice in place of the almond milk.
- Use the leafy greens of your choice in place of the kale.
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review for a chance to win signed copies of my cookbooks!No. The chocolate and strawberries completely mask the flavor of the kale. When you blend the kale with almond milk first, it becomes smooth and neutral, letting the dessert-like flavors shine.
Yes! Just make sure the cocoa powder is 100% unsweetened and the only ingredient listed is cocoa powder.
Yes! While this might be an opinion, chocolate typically goes well with most berries. Strawberries provide a sweet balance to the bitterness of cacao powder.
Kale is more nutrient-dense and holds up well to bold flavors like cacao. Its slightly earthy taste disappears once blended, making it a great green for rich, chocolatey smoothies.
Delicious! My 9-year-old and I loved it.
Favorite one so far! Used homemade almond milk (just almonds and H2O), and it was nice and creamy. Could only find cacao nibs at the store so I tossed them in the coffee mill. A little more textured than powder but in a good way. It’ll definitely be one of my freestyle smoothies this week!
Love it
This smoothie was really lovely! My frozen strawberries aren’t the sweetest, but I imagine with nice froze strawberries (or fresh ones!) it’d be wonderful!
Hey Liz,
If you have perfectly ripe strawberries, this smoothie tastes like a dessert!!
Feel free to add some extra sweeteners for when your fruit isn’t ripe and leaves that bitter taste.
Mmm mmmmmm. This is good. I used a mixture of leaves from my garden (beetroot, lettuce, spinach and rocket) as well as some kale. I’m going to try it again without the rocket as that came through a bit too strongly.
Can’t wait to try this one, just a question, I’m sharing all of this with my daughter who is pregnant. My cacao powder comes with a warning for pregnant women, any suggestions for a cacao substitution?
Subbed 1/2 as much frozen kale and switched 1/2 the strawberries for frozen mango and frozen cherries since we were almost out. Still delicious!
Thus is my favorite one!!
Really helps with the sweet tooth! I love chocolate and this does not disappoint!!
I actually HAVE had this smoothie before — you shared it before with Kale…so basically the same thing. THIS. SMOOTHIE. IS. DELICIOUS. 😀
I don’t usually go for sweeter, chocolat-ey smoothies in the morning, but this is great suggestion for sweet tooth cravings! For me, this would be late evening or specifically, after a workout. I, too, would add protein for the extra benefits! Thanks Jen!!
Ops!, forgot to rate recipe.
I started today with this one because I was in a hurry this morning and I was not sure how to add the 1 and 1/2 orange for the citrus smoothie. The smoothie was a bit bitter and I added some Manuka honey, maybe next time I would use only a bit less of the cacao, but did like it. For the orange on the citrus smoothie though, does it mean squeeze an orange in a half or peel it and add it?
Another question the challenge is to have a smoothie a day only or to replace a meal or is it up to us as long as we have a smoothie a day?
Peel the orange and add the whole fruit to the smoothie. The challenge is to add one green smoothie a diet to your normal diet. You don’t need to replace a meal with a smoothie.
This is my second time doing this challenge and I still have my recipes from the last time a couple yreas ago! My husband always picks at me when I break them out for a break for the yuck!! This time I signed up for new recipes and begged him to take the challenge too. He finally caved and is doing it with me. He was very impressed with the flavor after yapping about the spinach!! This I alter cause I’m not a chocolate person. Instead I add peanut butter powder… It’s like a PBJ !! The rest of the recipe is great!! Tastes great
Tried this one first because I didn’t have any fruit frozen for the first two. Overall I liked the taste, but it was a little bitter for me. I will reduce the cacao next time.
Love this one! I started with it during the challenge because I already had all the ingredients ready, and it did not disappoint. I’m looking forward to trying the others!