Peanut Butter–Banana Smoothie Recipe

Peanut butter and banana are an iconic duo. Whether or not layered along with bacon and honey within the Elvis sandwich, became an ice cream treat, or stirred into oatmeal, it’s a mix that I and lots of others adore. The 2 arguably go collectively even higher than traditional peanut butter and jelly: The nut butter’s wealthy creaminess and savory notes complement the fruit’s pure sweetness and tropical taste, and every chew is delightfully salty-sweet. Peanut butter and bananas usually present up on my slice of toast at 11 p.m. once I want a fast snack earlier than mattress, and within the morning, I continuously attain into my stash of frozen bananas to whizz up a fast smoothie with the nutty unfold.

You would possibly assume a banana smoothie recipe is about as useful as a PB&J recipe (…no one requested for it, you understand precisely how you want your smoothie, and so on.), however there actually are a number of key components and methods that may take your smoothie from boring morning filler meals to one thing you really look ahead to.

Ideas for the Excellent Peanut Butter–Banana Smoothie

Peel, slice, and freeze your bananas first. Whereas the drink will get creaminess from milk and nut butter, utilizing a frozen banana makes it even thicker and helps maintain the drink chilly. I’d inform you to make use of a daily banana in case you don’t have any frozen, however the drink is exponentially higher when thick and chilly, and it’s price protecting a bag of bananas in your freezer simply to make this smoothie—and banana bread, in fact. To make it simpler for my blender to blitz up the frozen bananas, I peel and slice the bananas earlier than freezing them in a zip-top bag. 

Use complete milk. I go for complete milk so this smoothie feels extra like a milkshake, however you’re greater than welcome to make use of your favourite dairy-free milk as a substitute. Some individuals incorporate yogurt to make their smoothies creamier, however I discovered that yogurt provides the smoothie a tartness that doesn’t work properly with the banana taste. The impartial flavors of complete and dairy-free milks equivalent to oat milk, however, permit the banana and nut butter to shine.

Use pure peanut butter. Crunchy or creamy? It doesn’t matter a lot right here, because it’s all going to be blended till clean—so use no matter you’ve got available. I do, nonetheless, suggest utilizing nut butter with no added sugar or salt, as this will make the beverage cloyingly candy or unpleasantly salty. 

Swap out the peanut butter for an additional nut butter in case you’d like. If peanuts aren’t your factor, different nut butter or seed pastes like almond butter, cashew butter, or tahini are wonderful choices. Simply you should definitely search for the pure varieties with no extra sugar or salt, as that may impression the flavour of the smoothie. (If all you’ve got is salted nut butter available, simply skip the added salt within the smoothie recipe—or season to style.)

Add some salt. I wouldn’t describe this as a savory shake, however simply as you’d season a vanilla pastry cream or a chocolate mousse, utilizing a contact of salt merely helps to convey every part collectively and highlights the pure flavors of the banana and nut butter.

The tip result’s a smoothie that’s not fairly dessert for breakfast, but it surely’s so deliciously creamy that it’d as properly be.