Chocolate Almond Smoothie Recipe (Dairy Free, Sugar Free)

This chocolate almond smoothie is dairy-free and sugar-free yet has a fabulous ice-cream/milkshake consistency. I created this smoothie during my 30 day sugar free challenge to survive chocolate cravings. I was allowed to eat fruit during the no-sugar challenge, so this smoothie uses frozen banana.

Frozen bananas are a brilliant way to give an ice-cream texture to a dairy-free smoothie. We call them Frobas in my family. A good way to keep frozen bananas fresh and on hand is to peel a couple ripe bananas, wrap in parchment paper, and freeze overnight. Then when you unwrap the bananas to use them, wrap up a couple more bananas reusing the same paper and toss them in the freezer so you’ll have a constant supply of Frobas for your smoothies.

Chocolate Almond Smoothie Recipe (Dairy Free, Sugar Free!)

1 frozen banana
½ cup unsweetened chocolate flavored almond milk
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (I recommend Scharffen Berger for uber deep rich dark chocolate flavor)
½ tsp almond extract
1 small handful of almonds

Toss everything except the almonds into your blender and blend until smooth. Then add the almonds and pulse a few times so they break into nice little crunchy bits throughout the smoothie. Pour into a pretty glass and serve with a spoon!

Some variations on this chocolate almond smoothie:

• If you use ripe bananas this smoothie should be sweet enough, but if you want it sweeter it also tastes good with half of a Medjool date. The date should be soaked ahead of time so that it blends up smooth and not chunky (this step may not be necessary if you have a high speed blender). Just take the pits out of a few dates, put them in a container, and pour in almond milk until the dates are covered. Let sit in the fridge for several hours before using so the dates get nice and soft. You can also use the soaking milk in your smoothie.
• This recipe uses unsweetened chocolate almond milk for the extra depth of chocolate-almond flavor, but you can use different milk if you prefer. It will change the flavor a bit, but experiment with what works for you. So Delicious coconut milk is a good dairy-free milk option. It isn’t too thick and doesn’t have a distinct coconut flavor (compared to coconut milk in a can which is thick and has a strong coconut flavor).
• Less milk will make this chocolate almond smoothie ice-cream thick, or you can use more milk if you want a light, frothier milkshake-style smoothie.
• Vanilla extract is okay to use if you don’t have almond extract, but almond extract gives it a richer marzipan fancy dessert flavor. I recommend Frontier Alcohol-Free Vanilla extract or Almond Flavor because they don’t add any alcohol to your smoothies.
• Try different nuts! Macadamia nuts add delicious tropical twist to this chocolate smoothie. Walnuts make it a bit more savory.

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