This chocolate avocado smoothie is super healthy, quick, simple and ultra creamy! Doesn’t taste a bit like avocados and can also be made as pudding. Naturally gluten-free with paleo, vegan and dairy-free options.
So for about 6 weeks, no matter where I went shopping, all I could find were rock hard, awful, turned-rotten-before-ripening avocados. As soon as the good ones returned, I just had to go and buy six of them.
A few days later and, “Oh… I have a lot of ripe avocados that need to be used immediately. Whoops.” But it didn’t turn out to be a problem because I just love throwing avocados into random things. It’s an art form that I’m continually trying to master. ;)
About a year ago, I was extremely dubious of this whole avocado in sweets thing. I thought those people eating avocado pudding were a bit daft, to put it quite nicely, but they had just seen the light before I had. Avocados in smoothies and desserts just works. If you haven’t tried it, you definitely should!
This avocado banana orange smoothie is a great place to start! These healthier raspberry truffles, chocolate peanut butter pudding, and raspberry avocado smoothie are also great choices.
I’ve been making a lot of smoothies lately, and always with frozen berries. They’re just so cheap and it’s a quick way to get in a few servings of fruit. But I’ve started to get sick of them and that’s why I just had to come up with something different. I wanted something chocolatey. And with banana. I am allergic to bananas but recently I’ve discovered that I can eat some and not others. It’s incredibly odd. But I like this banana allergy rebellion thing. It’s fun. :)
This chocolate avocado smoothie is almost on the verge of being pudding (I have another avocado pudding recipe you might like – this chocolate raspberry pudding). Actually, if you want pudding, just leave out the milk. And if you want this more liquidy like smoothies normally are, just add more milk and it’ll be thinner.
I sometimes see smoothie recipes with ice called for, but I never use it in my smoothies because I don’t like my smoothies icy. I like them like slightly runny yogurt. And creamy! This is super creamy with a banana and half an avocado in it. You can leave out the banana and have it just chocolate and avocado, but the problem with this is that you need a lot more added sugar to make up for the banana. Those suckers are just full of natural sweetness!
Oh, and you can’t taste the avocado in this. It’s all chocolate. And banana. I found it sweet enough without any added sweetener at all, but you can add honey or any other sweetener if you want. But the way the recipe is, I feel like I’m eating dessert when I’m actually eating something that’s completely guilt-free and totally healthy. Yes, a chocolate milkshake is tastier, but for those times when you don’t feel like consuming 500 calories and loads of sugar and unhealthy fat, there’s this. :)
Don’t have an avocado on hand? Try my chocolate cherry smoothie! This sunshine lemon smoothie from Wishes ‘n Dishes sounds amazing as does this rise and shine smoothie from A Beautiful Plate.
Chocolate Avocado Smoothie (paleo, vegan, dairy-free options)
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 1 large smoothie
Ingredients
- 85 grams cold avocado flesh (~ 1/2 Hass avocado)
- 2 tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 medium cold banana (mine was 120 grams without the peel)
- 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt or coconut cream for the paleo / vegan option (see below for more options)
- 2-4 tablespoons milk, optional (for vegan, dairy-free, or paleo - use non-dairy milk)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
- Blend everything together in a food processor (or a blender if you have a very good one - mine requires too much liquid for a thick smoothie like this) until it's very creamy. Add more milk until it's the desired thickness.
- Serve immediately or keep covered in the refrigerator for up to one day.
Notes
- Coconut cream (from a can of refrigerated canned coconut milk) or coconut milk yogurt will yield a thick smoothie like you see but you could also use coconut milk for a thinner version.
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184 comments on “Chocolate Avocado Smoothie (paleo, vegan, dairy-free options)” — Add one!
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Approx how many calories in this shake? Macros?
I don’t have that info but you could use this recipe analyzer for the nutritional profile.
Anyone know what the nutrition count on this? I sub almond milk and vanilla greek yogert. All added up to approx 452 cal.
I’m sorry for just now seeing your question! I don’t have that info but you could use this recipe analyzer for the nutritional profile. :)
Erin, I found it interesting that you can eat some bananas and not others. I used to think I was allergic to bananas, until I tried organic ones. Turns out I wasn’t allergic to the banana itself, but was reacting to the pesticides on them. I wonder if the same could be true for you?
I’m so sorry for just now seeing your comment! It landed in spam for some weird reason. We’ve only been eating organic bananas for the last few years and I haven’t had any issues for a long time. I wonder if pesticides were the issue! Thank you for taking the time to leave your comment. I really appreciate it! Sorry again for the slow reply.
I made it but a little different and it was absolutely phenomenal!!!
Thanks for the recipe :DDDD
Made my morning hike!
I’m so sorry for just now seeing your comment! A bunch of comments landed up in spam over the holidays for some reason. I’m so glad that you enjoyed it! Thanks for your comment. :)
I just discovered the magic of frozen avocado slices so I could make this every single day if I chose to! And I just might – can’t go wrong with chocolate. YUM!
I think you should give it try for sure! :D
Erin;
Hi,this is the first time I visited your website and I found your cholate avocado banana smoothie recipe,I copied your recipe and I just made it in my magic bullet blender.My mom and my brother’s new wife had a taste of your smoothie and they love my smoothie.i am now drinking your smoothie and it tastes really good and I love and enjoy drinking it.
I put chocolate agave in the smoothie along with the rest of the ingredients.
Kim
Hi Kim! I’m happy to hear that the smoothie was enjoyed. :) And good to know that it works well in a Magic Bullet! Thanks a bunch for your comment. I hope you’ll find some other recipes to try out!
I loved this! I’m just beginning to try avocado smoothie recipes and saw this one and just had to try. So glad I did it was delish! I added 1 tbsp maple syrup to add just a touch of sweet and it was perfect! Thanks so much for this wonderful heart healthy recipe!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy that you liked the smoothie. A little extra maple is never a bad thing. ;) Thanks for your comment!
Loved this! I added a spoonful of honey to sweeten mine up!
Yay! So happy you liked it. Thanks for your comment. :)
How to freeze avocado
Take out the flesh and put it in a small bag or container. :)
Whoa!! Now this was a huge hit with my very fussy, autistic son! Wonderful way to cram in some awesome nutrients without them realizing! We used frozen bananas and 2 tablespoons of honey, cultured coconut and fortified almond milk to make it GF & DF. This is going to be a staple for or “treat” menu!
That’s awesome! I’m so happy that you found something your son can enjoy and that fits his diet. :) Thanks a bunch for your comment and for sharing your adaptations!
LOVE THIS! I ended up adding 1 teaspoon maple sugar, just to make it a bit sweeter, and just because I was curious I looked at all the nutritional information (even though I’m very much like you Erin, in not counting calories but focusing on making healthier choices.) But for everyone who’s curious:
346 cal, 46 carbs, 19 fat, 8 protein, 57 sodium, and 23 sugar (which, the banana accounts for 14g sugar, but that’s obviously better than straight up refined sugar. :))
I’m surprised how filling it is! Had it after I went to the gym yesterday (so I’m definitely gonna try to protein powder version as well!) and I was full the whole night. Such a great recipe. Thank you!!
Thanks for sharing the nutritional info! I love the idea of adding maple sugar. I’ve been wanting to get some of that for a while! I’m happy that you enjoyed it and found it so filling. Thanks for your comment. :)
De-lish! I used whole fat coconut milk and a tad of chocolate almond milk with a bit of honey to sweeten it a bit. My avocado was not very ripe and I used a very old frozen banana. Absolutely delicious, even the kids wanted one.
Yay! I’m so happy that you and your kids enjoyed it. And awesome that you found a use for that very old frozen banana. :D Thanks a bunch for your feedback!
Add in a scoop of protein powder! You won’t regret it! It mixes so well with this smoothie and gives you an extra boost!
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing. :)
This was SO GOOD. I dreamt about it all morning, heh. I did feel hungry pretty soon after that, though, will try to put more greek yogurt next time.
Haha. So happy you liked it! And great idea to add more Greek yogurt. Thanks for your feedback! :)
This was delicious! It would solve any chocolate craving. I threw some chia seeds in as well to give it a bit of protein boost. Thanks for the recipe!
Adding chia seeds is a great idea! Thanks for the tip and for the feedback. :)
We don’t like bananas so I put in 2 big dates. Very tasty! xoxo C
That’s great that it came out without the bananas! Very good to know. Thanks for the feedback. :)
It was really great, thanks for the recipe! I think it works with any kind of cacao powder, just have to make sure it’s healthy enough! :)
I’m sure it would, too! I just like the dark chocolaty-ness that the Dutch-process adds. :) Thanks so much for your feedback!
Unsweetened cocoa …right.?
Yup! As far as I know, sweetened cocoa powder is only intended for making hot chocolate. Hope you’ll enjoy the smoothie!
These recipes will be such a blessing when I have surgery on my esophagus next month. I will have to be on a liquid diet for a week and a soft food diet for another. It was that week of having a liquid diet that was a cause of concern. The dietician recommended lots of jello, pudding and ice cream, etc. I felt like I had a sugar-high just reading the list of allowed foods. The only healthy options offered chicken broth, yogurt and lots of milk….sigh.
Yes, I will need to tweak things just bit with some of these recipes. I will strain the orange juice for the Orange Banana Smoothie and substitute a wee bit of orange extract for the orange zest. The raspberries will also need to be strained for the Raspberry Smoothie. But those are easy adjustments. The Chocolate Avocado Smoothie is good to go as it is. And it is SO delicious!
Upon researching nutritional info, it was delightful to find that the avocado will bring some much needed protein and fiber into what was a nutritional abyss.
Thanks so much for being some food-joy (and nutrition!) to my life at a time when it could have been kind of hard. :)
That diet sounds like it’d be fun for a day and then even I would get sick of all the sugar. :( I’m so happy that you’ve found these recipes so that you can have something with a little nutrition for that first week! I like your ideas on making the smoothies liquid diet okay. :) Thank you so much for your very kind comment and I wish you a successful surgery and a super quick recovery!
Love this smoothie!! It’s become a very frequent afternoon treat for me. :)
I’m so happy that you like it! Thanks for the feedback. :)
I always eat avocados in sweet things. It’s really common to eat them that way in my home country. In fact it’s a little bit weird to eat them in savoury things for us. There are a lot of restaurants in my country selling “jus alpokat” which means avocado juice. No banana and milk are included. Just avocado, sugar, water, and ice. Usually we add liquid coconut/palm sugar or chocolate sauce on top of it. It’s really yummy. Sometimes we chunk the avocados, add the liquid coconut sugar, then just eat them that way. Sometimes we mix them in our tradisional sweet dessert. So this is not a new thing for us actually :). I’m happy that you also like it.
That juice sounds good! And I didn’t even know that liquid coconut sugar was a thing. Thanks for the tip! The only way I’ll eat avocados is in sweets. I don’t like the flavor so sugar and cocoa powder help cover up the taste. ;) Thanks so much for your comment!
Hi,
What is the importance of using DUTCH Cocoa? Can i use regular Hershey’s or is it not the same??
Thanks!
Dutch-process isn’t necessary here but it’s the only cocoa powder I have access to so it’s just what I always list. Regular Hershey’s will work here. It won’t be as dark or chocolate-y but it’ll work. ;) There’s some more info on Dutch-process cocoa powder here if you’re interested! While it’s not important for this recipe, it does amazing things for baked goodies.
You can use Sunfood(r) Cacao powder as well:
You can purchase from Amazon or The Vitamin Shoppe
Thanks a bunch for the tip. :)
Hey! I was going to make this and then freeze it into Popsicle molds. Do you have experience with freezing avacados? Do they stay somewhat soft (similar to bananas? My goal is to make it like a fudgesicle!
Yup! Try my chocolate avocado popsicles. It’s basically this smoothie in popsicle form. :) Avocados freeze well and they’re similar to bananas when frozen! Hope you’ll enjoy the popsicles. :)
Kind of in love with this idea! I think I would mash the avocado and freeze it into ice cubes to make it super cold. Thank you for the recipe!
Love that idea! Avocado freezes great so I’m sure that’d come out really well. Hope you’ll enjoy the smoothie! :)
Hi, what are the nutritional facts for this smoothie partially? But even all of them? Thank you.
Hi there! I intentionally don’t include the nutritional info (I focus on making healthier choices rather than low calorie / fat / etc.) but you can copy and paste the recipe here for that info, if you like. :)
Just made this tonight and loved it! I used whipped creamy cottage cheese instead of yogurtand it turned out like pudding! So, I served it with a little whipped cream as dessert!
That sounds amazing! I’d never heard of whipped creamy cottage cheese. Interesting! Thanks so much for the tip and the feedback. :) So happy that you liked it!
LOVE that I found your site…One question on the Smoothies, anything I could use to replace the yogurt? Cant have the dairy. Thank you
Sorry for my slow reply, Angie! You could just leave it out (it’ll still be quite thick) but I recommend finding So Delicious Dairy-free Greek yogurt. They have it using almond milk and coconut milk! It’s really the only good sub I’ve found for yogurt. I hope you can find some! :)
Coconut cream makes a great substitute for yogurt! As long as you don’t mind it being higher in [good] fat and lower in protein. If you’re making it meal you may want to add some protein powder or nuts to increase the protein content
It’s good to know that coconut cream works well! Thanks for the tip. :)
Hi, I lie the look & sound of your smoothies, especially the chocolate one! However I too have an allergy to bananas & therefor have had to miss out on some very nice smoothies. How did you come to realise you could eat certain bananas & is it a particular one please. I need to be very specific as my allergy so far does not in any way tolerate even the slightest hint of banana.
Thank you for any help you can give me. It would make my day to be able to drink one of your smoothies.
Suzy
I’m afraid there’s no specific type of banana I can eat. It sounds like my banana allergy isn’t nearly as serious as yours. So up until recently, eating bananas would make my throat and ears (or rather, the inside of my ears?) really itchy, give me a drippy throat, and sometimes it’d develop into something like a little cold (without the coughing). Why I can eat bananas now I have no idea. But every now and then, I’ll eat one and have the same weird reaction. The next day, I’ll eat another from the same “batch” of bananas and not have the problem. Have you tried avocados? They’re great for smoothies! But I’ve heard that people who are allergic to bananas are often allergic to avocados. :( So sorry I couldn’t help more! I totally get how bad a banana allergy is when you want to eat healthy. Very frustrating and annoying!
Have you tried organic bananas?
I actually haven’t. I’ll pick some up next time I’m at the store! Thanks for the idea. :)
Could it have something to do with the ripeness? My experience is you can add a little zucchini and/or dates to taste to get the right texture and sweetness. It still won’t have the banana flavor, though
Do you mean you use zucchini and dates in place of bananas? That’s an interesting sub! I’ll have to try that. Thanks for your comment. :)
This was great. Thanks. I froze a few whole bananas and I just “shot” it out of the peel. (squeezed, lol)
Hehehe. Shooting bananas sounds fun! :D So happy that you liked the smoothie. Thanks a ton for the feedback and the rating!
This looks great! Fortunately, I have all the ingredients, so I’m gonna make this for lunch. I’m lactose intolerant, so I’m substituting Greek yoghurt for soy yoghurt and the milk for soy milk. Do you think it’ll still work?
Love xx
Thanks, Signe! It should still work. It’ll be just a little thinner but the smoothie so thick I don’t think you’ll notice. I hope you’ll enjoy it! :)
Erin,
After sitting here on the computer looking through your recipes, I am excited to try a whole bunch. I love that you have gluten/grain free ones on here. I discovered I now need to be pretty much gluten free for different reasons, but all your stuff is fun and yummy. Not to mention, I have several children and I think they are going to enjoy some of it too. Tonight, we are going to try your peanut butter dough bites. If I can tomorrow, I am going to try these avocado smoothies. Way yum!!! What I like best about you is that you make me laugh. I love to laugh. And your writing is enjoyable to read. I also like what you said about the cookie dough bites and being self control challenged. Perhaps when I need to work on my self control, i will make them (hahaha…good reason, right?) maybe i will need to make them every couple hours…j/k. but haha. And avocado is a FRUIT??? who knew. dumb dumb dottie. bummer. oh well. it will taste yummy, i’m sure. Thank you for taking the time to write all your yummy stuff and post pretty photos. I appreciate it and now I should get going. However, i might have some self control issues, b/c i don’t know if i can stop bopping around here on your blog. :)
Hi Angela! I’m happy you found the blog. :) I hope that you and your children will love the recipes! And thanks for your comment about me making you laugh. That’s actually the first time anyone has said that on here! I hope that you get a chance to make the avocado smoothie and that it’ll come out well. And haha… I love you for saying that you need to make cookie dough bites to work on your self control! :D
And yeah, I would have never figured avocado as a fruit! But I guess it doesn’t matter because they’re so very healthy. By the way, I just answered your comment on the brownies post! Thank you for your very nice comment. It made my day. :D
I thought this was really yummy! Mine looked lighter than yours. Reminded me of chocolate mousse. My daughter thought it was too bitter. My husband thought it tasted like vegetables. More for me!
I can see bitter if you didn’t add a lot of sweetener but vegetables? Haha. Well, like you said, more for you! :) I’m so happy that you liked it. Thanks a ton for the feedback!
Hi Erin,
I just got a whole bunch of bananas and I freeze them too but WITHOUT the peel. Just put them in a container and scoop out what you want when you make your smoothies. I’ll go back to the store and pick up the avocados. I love to try anything chocolate on your site. YUMMO! Thanks for the healthy idea for bananas, avocados and chocolate. Sounds great!
Happy (almost) New Year! Susan/AZ/USA
Hi Susan! I freeze my bananas without the peel, too. It’s just so easy! I’m interested in trying Sharon’s way, though. I hope you’ll enjoy this smoothie! Thanks and happy almost New Year to you, too! :)
I just freeze my bananas whole in the peel — then when you defrost you have a lovely sweet liquid with the banana flesh that helps to sweeten recipes — I can have absolutely no sugars (I have too much insulin) but I can use banana or applesauce in my baking with no adverse reaction — love your recipes.
I love that idea! My only problem with freezing whole bananas is that I like the banana to be slightly frozen when I put it in my smoothie. And it’s just too hard to peel them that way! But I’ll definitely keep your tip in mind when I have bananas that I need to freeze that aren’t for smoothies. Thanks a bunch! :)
no problem Erin — just defrost as you would normally in the microwave until still slightly frozen and peel — works great — ps love your tip about freezing my avocados — did not know you could freeze them
Ooh, great idea! Thanks. :) And yup, freezing avocados (just the flesh!) works wonders. I’m the master of buying oodles of avocados when they’re on sale and then they all start to ripen all at the same time and then I’m in a panic. So they all go in the freezer! I only use them in my smoothies and they’re perfect for that. :)
This came out grt, it was a little bitter for my taste so I sweetens it with clover honey. Delish!
Honey sounds great! Thanks for the feedback. :)
I just tried this and it was delicious. I added a little unsweetened almond milk the recipe. I also added honey as it was a little “bitter” to me as well. Very good. Thank you!
I’m happy it came out well! And you can never go wrong with honey. ;) Thanks so much for your feedback!