Creamy Vanilla Chip Smoothie
This creamy vanilla chip smoothie is naturally vegan, perfectly sweet, loaded with fragrant vanilla bean powder, cacao nibs, rich cashew and coconut butters, and is thickened with frozen pear instead of banana!
Key ingredients in this vanilla chip smoothie:
Vanilla Powder & Extract: We go double on vanilla and the results are warm, fragrant, and comforting. I love the Giddy Yo vanilla powder. Seeing those little flecks is just so beautiful! If you don’t have vanilla powder, just double up the extract to ½ teaspoon.
Cashew & Coconut Butters: Both of these ingredients enhance the creamy richness. Coconut butter is a product that contains both the flesh and oil of the coconut. It’s such a special ingredient! I absolutely love using it in hot chocolate.
Diced Frozen Pear: I love freezing ripe pear as an alternative to banana in my smoothies. It’s a milder taste that works well in a lot of combinations. I just line a baking sheet with parchment paper and then chop up some ripe pear (peeled or not–whatever your preference), and lay it out in a single layer on the baking sheet. I place the baking sheet in the freezer and freeze until solid. Once solid, I transfer the frozen pear pieces to a sealable silicone bag.
Cacao Nibs: These are small, crumbled pieces of dried cocoa beans. The flavour is chocolate-like, but also a bit wine-y and acidic. In this smoothie they are blended for a few seconds to give us crunchy little “chips.”
This recipe makes a smaller smoothie than what I typically post here, but it does have a richness to it! Ground cinnamon, nutmeg or ginger would all be nice additions to this one. I’m also curious to try it with a shot of espresso next time. I’ll report back if I have good results.
Ingredients:
- ¾ cup unsweetened non dairy milk (I used oat)
- 1 Medjool date, pitted
- 2 teaspoons raw cashew butter
- 2 teaspoons coconut butter
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla powder
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup diced frozen pear
- 2 teaspoons cacao nibs, plus extra for garnish