Healthy Chocolate Smoothie

Get your chocolate fix in smoothie form! This healthy chocolate smoothie is smooth, rich & chocolatey, yet full of good-for-you ingredients and super-satisfying too. It's the best way to start the day!

Is there a better way to start the day than with chocolate? I don't think so! And this healthy chocolate smoothie is incredible. It truly tastes like dessert and is really kid-friendly.

The taste and the texture is just the best. It's velvety smooth, thick, creamy and so satisfying and you can feel good about it because it's packed with healthy ingredients.

Jump to:

• What ingredients do I need?
• How to make a healthy chocolate smoothie
• Freezing bananas
• Cooking sweet potato
• Possible variations
• Hungry for more?
• 📖 Recipe

What ingredients do I need?

For detailed measurements and instructions, see the printable recipe card.

This healthy chocolate smoothie is super simple to make. Here's what you'll be needing and why:

• Banana - Preferably frozen but if you only have fresh just add a big handful of ice cubes along with it. Adds sweetness, thickness and creaminess to the smoothie.
• Cooked sweet potato - The flavour works so well with chocolate and it makes the smoothie extra velvety and creamy. It also adds lots of extra nutrition and sweetness. Yam is fine to use instead, as is pumpkin. Details about how to cook sweet potatoes are included a bit further down.
• Cocoa powder - Or cacao powder. To make it chocolatey.
• Flax seeds or ground flaxseed - Flax is such a good source of healthy fat and fibre. You could use chia seeds instead or you can omit if you don't have either of them.
• Non-dairy milk - Any variety will do. My cashew milk or oat milk work well, as does any store-bought milk.
• Maple syrup or a date - Totally optional, for extra sweetness if you want it. The banana and sweet potato are already pretty sweet though so blend everything else up first then taste and add only if necessary.

You will also need a blender. A high-speed blender is such a good investment if you make a lot of smoothies. They come out so deliciously smooth!

How to make a healthy chocolate smoothie

Making this vegan chocolate smoothie is as simple as adding everything except the date/maple syrup to a blender and blending it up until smooth. Then taste and add the optional date/maple syrup if you need a little extra sweetness. Then serve!

Freezing bananas

Want some frozen bananas on hand for making this vegan chocolate smoothie? Be sure to let your bananas get super ripe and spotty, then peel them and break each one into 3 or 4 pieces and lay them out on a lined baking tray. Pop them in the freezer and when hard transfer them to a container or freezer bag.

They will last for months in the freezer and you can reach in and pull out as many as you need exactly when you need them for making smoothies, ice-cream bars or nice-cream.

Cooking sweet potato

I always have some cooked sweet potato on hand. It's so handy for throwing in smoothies, making vegan sweet potato pancakes, falafel, hummus or gluten-free sweet potato bread.

• To cook in an oven - If the oven is on for something else, I cut my sweet potatoes in half and lay them cut-side down on a lined baking tray and cook until very soft. They take about 40 minutes depending on the size. Then they will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for a week.
• To cook in a microwave - If you want a quicker option you can pierce the sweet potato a few times with a sharp knife and microwave on full power until cooked through. Depending on the size they can take anything from 5 to 10 minutes.
• To cook in an Instant Pot - They also cook really well in an Instant Pot. I follow this method.

Possible variations

This healthy chocolate smoothie is great as it is but you can switch it up by reducing the milk to make it extra, extra-thick, then serve it as a smoothie bowl or soft-serve with all the toppings you fancy!

Try using pumpkin instead of the sweet potato, or adding some extras like vegan yogurt, some greens, coconut, cinnamon, a shot of espresso, nut or seed butter or a handful of oats, cacao nibs, nuts or seeds for extra staying power. A spoonful of extra cocoa or some chocolate chips to make it even chocolatier would be awesome too!

Hungry for more?

If you love smoothies that taste like dessert you might also enjoy my Lemon Cheesecake Smoothie, Banana Smoothie and my Chocolate Tahini Pumpkin Smoothie.

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📖 Recipe

This recipe was originally published on March 29th, 2016. I've updated the post with new photographs and information and now I am republishing it for you. The recipe itself remains the same. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for following A Virtual Vegan!