Considering that today is officially the first day of summer (though we’ve been suffering through 100 degree summer temps for weeks), it seems fitting to share my new favorite frozen drink recipe. I tried this banana almond smoothie recipe for the first time yesterday and awoke this morning with a vicious craving for another.
Packed with vitamins, minerals and omega-3′s, this is a breakfast smoothie that sticks with you until lunch. It’s made with frozen banana, almond butter and milk, and made all the more substantial with the addition of flax seeds. The almond extract lightens up the flavor and makes it taste like a treat. Try it!
Banana Almond Smoothie
Author: Cookie and Kate
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1
This healthy banana almond smoothie is a delicious, creamy treat!
Ingredients
- 1 medium to large frozen banana (break your bananas into one-inch chunks before freezing)
- 1 heaping spoonful of almond butter
- 2 spoonfuls flax seed
- 1/2 cup almond milk, yogurt or regular milk
- drizzle of honey, agave nectar or maple syrup
- tiny drop of almond extract (or vanilla extract, but the almond extract makes the smoothie taste almost like candy!)
Instructions
- Toss all the ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour into a glass and enjoy.
Notes
- Adapted from the New York Times Recipes for Health.
- Since this smoothie doesn’t require any ice, just frozen banana, my inexpensive blender
blends it right up!
51 Comments
Lovely recipe! I just made a strawberry, banana PB smoothie and it was so good! but I’ve never tried just the banana almond combo. Great idea and BEAUTiful pictures.
I recently started eating more smoothies for breakfast. Just this morning I was looking for something different then my everyday banana berry, but came up with nothing inspiring until this one! I’m making it tomorrow.
This is my go-to smoothie, almost to a T — didn’t know there was a recipe out there for it! I love banana, almond and flax together. Sometimes I add a date or two to give it that extra exotic sweetness. Power packed, indeed!
Cheers,
*Heather*
It looks so delicious! I love your photos, you should be a food photographer!
<3 Belly B
Thanks, Belly! I’m seriously thinking about it. So much to learn.
Sounds like the perfect summer treat! :-)
wow. this looks so incredible. can’t wait to try it! thanks for sharing!
That sounds and looks so delicious, perfect for summertime! :)
I <3 your blog!!!! I google readered you — yay for finding sweet blogs through food gawker!
Welcome! I’m so glad you found my blog!
Bananas and almond butter—two of my favorite foods! This looks like a great recipe to use with my new flax seed. Thanks for sharing!
omg kate! i totally just made this and loved it! you are so right – the almond extract totally makes it taste like candy and i love how thick it is – almost like a shake :)
So glad to hear you loved the smoothie! It tastes so indulgent, it almost seems like dessert… but I’m still calling it a smoothie. :)
LOVE. I’d like to try this with cashew butter too, extra creamy!
I do something similar to this for breakfast in the mornings. Only addition i make is some bee pollen. Love it as it is tasty and great for seeing you though the morning. Beautiful shot as well.
I just tried bee pollen for the first time this weekend! I want to hunt some down at a health food store so I can get accustomed to the taste. My seasonal allergies get the best of me!
sounds exquisite!
I’m drinking this as I type, & it is super good! More like a dessert :) I used peanut butter & vanilla extract instead because I don’t have almond extract or butter on hand…but I do know, I want another smoothie!! …think of all the combanations ;)
I’m so glad you like it, Kathy! I can’t wait to try your version. Peanut butter is one of my favorite things. Yum!
Found this recipe thru another blog and had to try it. LOVE IT!!! I always see recipes with PB but am allergic so this was great. My 8 yo really liked it too. Will definitely because a staple here :)
Yay, I’m so glad to hear you love it! I make it for breakfast often. I’ve been meaning to post my favorite chocolate smoothie that also contains almond butter, so keep an eye out!
This became my favorite morning smoothie. I’ve made it twice now. DELISH!
Where is the almond butter located in the store? I’m having trouble finding it. Thanks for your help. Can’t wait to try this out!
Hey Stephanie,
I have only been able to find almond butter in local health/gourmet stores, located by the peanut butter. I haven’t seen it in standard grocery stores. If you can’t find any, you can make your own using a food processor—I haven’t tried it myself, but I know you could find lots of instructions on how to do it online. Hope that helps!
If you have a Kroger, it is located near the regular peanut butter, usually on the lower half of the shelf.
In some of our grocery stores, the almond and cashew butters are found in their health food section. They also have Sunbutter(sunflower seeds).
This looks yummy! I only have ground flax seed. Do you think that will work?
Mary: Yes, I think ground flax would be fine but I would use a very small amount at first (maybe 1/2 teaspoon) and add more to taste. Great question!
I made this smoothie for breakfast this morning. So delicious! I used minced flax seed which blended well.
Really yummy! Nice and creamy. I used regular milk because I didn’t have any almond milk. Instead of almond butter I used peanut butter because I didn’t have any almond butter either. I used room temperature bananas, vanilla and agave nectar as well. I’ll definitely be using this for breakfast! thanks for the great recipe!
I’ve had this smoothie for the last two mornings and I absolutely love it. Its easy, healthy and tastes great, which I’m ALL about. It sort of tastes like banana pudding, or at least, it reminds me of banana pudding because it was a childhood favorite. Anyway, I could see children really digging this as well! Thank you very much!
This smoothie looks so good and a bit (well tiny bit) similar to the one I just made and posted. Mine had spinach, banana, walnut butter, flax seed & almond milk.
I am going to give this one a try as well as I love nut smoothies! They are full of protein and really keep me filled up!
Blegh this was awful. Followed directions exactly and it did not taste like candy to me. Will not try again.
I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the smoothie, Jess. Is there any chance you added more than just a little dash of almond extract? Assuming that you enjoy banana and almonds, that’s the only thing that I can think of that could go wrong here.
I LOVE this shake! I add a scoop of vanilla whey protein powder to it and have this a few times a week. YUM!
I am new to all of this what is almond butter and how do I get it? Do I just blend up some almonds?
Hi Marlyn, you can make your own almond butter by blending almonds in a food processor. I prefer to buy it at health stores or big grocery stores. Almond butter is usually near the peanut butter, and sometimes in the health food section of larger grocery stores. You can substitute peanut butter in the smoothie but I think almond butter is better.
Chanced upon your absolutely beautiful blog today. This is just the kind of smoothie my kid would love especially for these hot summer days. I am going to add a dash of cardamom spice powder in place of the extract.
I just made this and it was delicious!!! I used vanilla almond milk and maple syrup…I also tried a teeny experiment. I made one for me with peanut butter, and one for my boyfriend with the almond butter…and we both preferred the one with almond butter. My boyfriend, who is NOT a health food fan by any means, loved it so /much he was using a spoon to scrape out every last bit! Thank you for this!
That’s awesome that you both enjoyed the smoothie! It’s totally healthy and still so rich and creamy that it doesn’t taste like “health food”… that’s always my goal! I agree, I much prefer mine with almond butter over peanut butter. Something about it is just so right.
And just so you know…he requested it again this morning for breakfast ;)
I am addicted!! A friend sent me this link last week and I had one a day until I ran out of bananas! Replenished the banana supply yesterday and all I could think of when I woke up this morning was making another smoothie! (a refreshing break from my regular berry smoothies).
Thanks for commenting, Karen! So happy to hear you enjoy the smoothie.
I’m so thankful you posted this recipe. Honestly, this is my second morning of having this smoothie, and I’m just… hook, line, sinker. I made mine thicker this morning and with maple syrup, but honestly, I don’t think this could ever not taste good. No matter what modifications you make, as long as you don’t go too overboard on the almond extract, this smoothie is going to be pretty lip-smacking divine. Anyway, thank you so much for this. I really appreciate it. Especially since this smoothie is going to be making my regular rotation.
Thanks for commenting, Ms. Ahlborn! I’m happy you enjoy the smoothie, it’s my go-to smoothie recipe and I don’t think I’ll ever tire of it!
Whoa. I just made this and it is amazing!! It’s definitely going to be added on to my morning smoothie routine. Thanks!
I love this! Thank you for sharing.
Mhm… I’m defiantly making this as my afternoon snack, even though it’s kinda cold-ish outside. I just can’t resist. Will be blogging about this :)
Do you know the calories, fat, carbs of this smoothie?
I don’t, sorry!
Made it this morning. It is fast, easy, and delicious! Thanks.
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