If you’re a fan of chocolate covered strawberries, then this chocolate strawberry smoothie is for you. A naturally sweet, indulgent dessert.
I love mixing flavors and coming up with new combos for delicious smoothies. Don’t let the leafy greens in this one scare you. This chocolate strawberry smoothie has the texture of a milkshake and will satisfy all those sweet chocolate cravings.
Smoothies with a milkshake texture are my jam, but dairy is not my friend. Most of my smoothie recipes use plant-based ingredients, yet still blend together into a creamy treat.
Table of Contents
Chocolate Strawberry Smoothie Ingredients
- Kale: A leafy green in a dessert?! Kale YEAH. Massage the kale and de-stem before adding to the blender to cut down on the bite. Tip: Baby kale is a milder kale option.
- Almond Milk: Unsweetened plant 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.
- 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 I want.
- Cacao Powder: Unsweetened cacao powder is a chocolate-lovers paradise. No need for extra sweetener since you’re using other fruity ingredients. Surprisingly, cacao also helps balance the bite from the kale.
Simple Ingredient Swaps
This dreamy chocolate smoothie will stay dreamy, even with a few easy swaps. Use the dairy-free milk of your choice in place of almond milk. Strawberries can be swapped with any berry you choose. Use unsweetened cocoa powder in place of cacao powder.
Cut back on natural sugar by using 1/2 the banana and adding 1/4 an avocado. Boost protein, healthy fat and fiber by adding in this homemade protein powder.
Why I Add Leafy Greens 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 leafy greens to smoothies provides protein and fiber to break down the sugar from the fruit into useable energy for your body.
Pro Tip: Add 1 cup of leafy greens to any fruit smoothie to help cut down on the natural sugar. 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).
Tips for Blending
Smoothies can sometimes get a little thin, which is harder to enjoy (in my opinion). I always make sure to blend an ingredient that naturally thickens my smoothie. This chocolate strawberry smoothie uses almond milk as the base (thicker than water) and banana.
Other easy thickeners include vegan yogurt, cauliflower or avocado. You can also swap out almond milk for cashew milk, oat milk or coconut milk for a creamier liquid base.
Chocolate Strawberry Smoothie FAQs
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.
My version of a chocolate strawberry milkshake uses a banana as a natural sweetener and thickener and cacao powder for a less processed, yet still chocolatey flavor. Plant milk makes this delightfully dairy free.
Yes! Just make sure the cocoa powder is 100% unsweetened and the only ingredient listed is cocoa powder.
More Dessert Smoothie Recipes
I love the idea of a dessert that gives my body a natural energy boost instead of putting me to sleep. Smoothies like my chocolate strawberry smoothie taste like a sweet treat yet use plant-based ingredients. Here are a few more favorite ‘desserts’.
- Strawberry ‘Milk’shake
- Chocolate Covered Cherry Smoothie
- Raspberry Smoothie
- Shamrock Shake
- Skinny Mint Smoothie
- Strawberry Smoothie
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake
- Cinnamon Roll Smoothie
I’d love to know how this smoothie turned out for you; will you leave a rating + review once you’ve tried it?
Chocolate Strawberry Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 cup kale
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 cup strawberries frozen
- ½ banana
- 2 tbsp cacao powder
- 1 serving homemade protein powder optional
Instructions
- Place kale and almond milk in blender. Puree until smooth.
- Add fruit and cacao, and blend again.
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.
I didn’t want to buy a big bag of cacao powder, since I didn’t think I’d use it for other things. I ended up just having this smoothie for lunch and replacing the cacao with chocolate plant-based protein powder. It was filling and tasted yummy although I think the chocolate flavor was more toned down than it would have been with actual cacao.
This is a smoothie I could make regularly! My blender is able to really make this smooth and the flavor is great! Love this one!
Yummo!
This was delicious, I really like this one
I had this first thing in the morning and 2 tbsp of cacao powder was too much for me I think. I’ll likely try it again with a little less after a workout bc it has great potential to be tasty!
I’m giving up coffe while I’m participating in this challenge. The cacao powder provided the missed coffee flavor for me so this smoothie is my favorite.
Hey, even my littlest (super picky) smoothie drinker drank it! I did have to quite a bit of extra liquid bc my blendtec didn’t like that all the berries and bananas were frozen.
Loved this smoothie! It was like a milkshake.
This Chocolate Strawberry smoothie was much better than it looked. The cacao turned it a very ugly brown. However, I loved the mix of the strawberry, chocolate and slight added flavor of the almond milk. It was super thick and I needed to add a little water to blend it but really good!
I love feeling decadent with the chocolate in this recipe!
One of my favorites, although I did use a little less cacao powder. With both frozen strawberries and frozen bananas, it was thick like a (healthy) milkshake.
I don’t know if the fact that the ingredients were not frozen and that I waited a while before drinking my smoothie somewhat affected the taste but this was not my favorite. Didn’t really like the bitter after taste from the cocoa. I just saw that I’m not the only one who didn’t enjoy this too too much. I would make it again though just for the great health benefits from the cocoa and will tweak it a bit to make more enjoyable for my taste.
Hey Sheera,
If you ever feel like your smoothie is too bitter you can always add some all natural sweeteners. Sometimes if the fruit isn’t just ripe they are missing their delicious flavor.
Check out our recommendations for all natural sweetners:
Ok I may be the only one but this was not easy to go down. There was nothing bad about it, just didn’t love it like the first two. Will def try again and see with different strawberries. But I did make it and drank it so that’s a win!
Hey Marilyn,
I am sorry this wasn’t a win for you… That is why we love offering so many different recipes to everyone, so you know what you like and don’t like. After these 30 days you will have a list of favorites that will be able to keep you going with your daily smoothie habit 🙂
I really enjoy this recipe, but you need to use super ripe and sweet strawberries for it to shine! Otherwise, it’s pretty tart. Defrosting strawberries a little helps to bring out their flavour too.
Hey Mireille,
You are exactly right! If your fruit isn’t perfectly ripe you might have a bitter tasting smoothie on your hands. You can always add some honey to your smoothie if that happens so it doesn’t taste soo bitter.
Not my favorite… If i repeat this recipe I’ll add less cacao powder…
Strawberries! Chocolate! Yum!