Cocoa Banana Smoothie

Name: Cocoa Banana Smoothie
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 2
Cuisine: Healthy
Ingredients: 3 cups frozen bananas, sliced; 2 cups almond milk; 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons cocoa powder; 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract; 2 dates, pitted and chopped or 2 teaspoons honey

by Deborah // February 10, 2015 (updated March 11, 2021)

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This Cocoa Banana Smoothie (chocolate banana smoothie) is a healthy chocolate banana smoothie recipe to pull together. It’s made with frozen bananas, cocoa powder, pure vanilla extract, almond milk and a couple of dates for added sweetness. And this frozen banana smoothie is rich and luscious and loaded with nutritional benefits.

I love everything about this rich decadent frozen banana smoothie with cocoa powder! It tastes like dessert, but it’s healthy enough to make for breakfast. If you want to add a little protein to this chocolate shake, just add a tablespoon of peanut butter or almond butter to the mix.

This Cocoa Banana Smoothie is one of my favorite frozen banana smoothie recipes. I keep a stash of frozen bananas in my freezer to add to all my smoothies because frozen bananas gives smoothies a creamier and more decadent texture than freshly peeled bananas (at room temperature).

Chocolate Banana Smoothie Recipe

This healthy chocolate banana smoothie is made with just 5 ingredients.

Frozen bananas
Almond milk
Cocoa powder (or cacao powder). Cocoa is rich in iron, calcium and magnesium. Once cacao is ingested, the body releases serotonin, a hormone that helps reduce stress and modulate your mood.
Pure vanilla extract
Dates. This natural fruit is a good source of antioxidants, B vitamins, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium and zinc.

Variations

Use cacao powder instead of cocoa powder
Add a heaping tablespoon of almond butter or peanut butter if you want to add a little more protein to this healthy Cocoa Banana Smoothie
Replace the almond milk with another nut milk or oat milk.

How to Make a Chocolate Smoothie

This Cocoa Banana Smoothie comes together in about 5 minutes. Almond milk replaces dairy making this a healthy vegan smoothie. The banana and date provide sweetness so there’s no refined sugars added. Adding a little pure vanilla extract makes this chocolate smoothie taste like dessert!

Place frozen banana, almond milk, cocoa powder, pure vanilla extract and dates in a blender (or NutriBullet).
Blend together until smooth and creamy. Add more almond milk for a thinner smoothie or add a few ice cubes to the blender if you want a slushier smoothie.
Pour in glass and enjoy!

What We Love About this Cocoa Banana Smoothie

Nutritious. This Cocoa Banana Smoothie is made with almond milk (giving you an assortment of vitamins and minerals), cocoa (which is rich with antioxidants) and frozen bananas (rich with potassium).
Delicious. It tastes like dessert but it makes a perfect wholesome breakfast or mid-afternoon snack.
Easy to make. We use just 5 simple ingredients for this smoothie

Benefits of Cocoa

Cocoa is one of the richest sources of polyphenols and flavanols which have powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. It’s always best to purchase non-alkalized cocoa powder and dark chocolate containing more than 70% cocoa to maximize nutritional benefits.
Anti-inflammatory properties
May help lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. (1) (2) (3)
Improves levels of nitric oxide in blood, which helps to relax and dilate arteries and blood vessels helping to improve blood flow (4)(5)
May help to lower LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) (6)
Provides flavanols and conversion of tryptophan to serotonin which ay help improve mood. (7)(8)(9)

Cacao Powder vs Cocoa Powder

So what’s the difference between cacao powder and cocoa powder?

The only real difference between Cacao powder and cocoa powder is that cocoa is processed at a much higher temperature losing some of its nutritional value, and it may often contain added sugar and dairy.
Both cacao and cocoa come from cacao plant beans.
Cacao powder is made from fermented beans that haven’t been roasted. The beans are processed at a lower temperature and then milled into powder Cacao is a little more bitter tasting than cocoa and it is richer in nutritional properties than cocoa.
Cocoa beans are fermented and roasted and processed at a high temperature losing some of the nutritional value.
Cocoa typically has a less bitter taste than cacao.

More Healthy Smoothie Recipes

Here are a few of my favorite vegan smoothie recipes.

Yield: 2 Smoothies