Peanut Butter–Banana Smoothie Recipe

Why It Works

Mixing frozen bananas creates a thick, creamy texture.
Together with solely a contact of salt makes a satisfyingly salty-sweet beverage and highlights the flavour of the bananas and nut butter.

Peanut butter and banana are an iconic duo. Whether or not or not layered together with bacon and honey throughout the Elvis sandwich, develop into an ice cream take care of, or stirred into oatmeal, it’s a combination that I and plenty of others adore. The two arguably go collectively even greater than primary peanut butter and jelly: The nut butter’s rich creaminess and savory notes complement the fruit’s pure sweetness and tropical style, and each chew is delightfully salty-sweet. Peanut butter and bananas typically current up on my slice of toast at 11 p.m. after I desire a quick snack sooner than mattress, and throughout the morning, I ceaselessly attain into my stash of frozen bananas to whizz up a quick smoothie with the nutty unfold.

You may suppose a banana smoothie recipe is about as helpful as a PB&J recipe (…nobody requested for it, you notice exactly the way you need your smoothie, and so forth.), nevertheless there really are a variety of key parts and techniques that will take your smoothie from boring morning filler meals to 1 factor you really look forward to.

Ideas for the Good Peanut Butter–Banana Smoothie

Peel, slice, and freeze your bananas first. Whereas the drink will get creaminess from milk and nut butter, using a frozen banana makes it even thicker and helps maintain the drink chilly. I’d let you understand to utilize a day by day banana whenever you don’t have any frozen, nevertheless the drink is exponentially greater when thick and chilly, and it’s worth preserving a bag of bananas in your freezer merely to make this smoothie—and banana bread, in spite of everything. To make it less complicated for my blender to blitz up the frozen bananas, I peel and slice the bananas sooner than freezing them in a zip-top bag.

Use total milk. I am going for total milk so this smoothie feels additional like a milkshake, nevertheless you’re higher than welcome to utilize your favorite dairy-free milk as an alternative. Some people incorporate yogurt to make their smoothies creamier, nevertheless I found that yogurt provides the smoothie a tartness that doesn’t work successfully with the banana style. The neutral flavors of total and dairy-free milks corresponding to oat milk, then once more, allow the banana and nut butter to shine.

Use pure peanut butter. Crunchy or creamy? It doesn’t matter rather a lot proper right here, as a result of it’s all going to be blended until clear—so use regardless of you’ve got available. I do, nonetheless, advocate using nut butter with no added sugar or salt, as this may make the beverage cloyingly sweet or unpleasantly salty.

Swap out the peanut butter for a further nut butter whenever you’d like. If peanuts aren’t your issue, totally different nut butter or seed pastes like almond butter, cashew butter, or tahini are fantastic selections. Merely you must positively seek for the pure varieties with no additional sugar or salt, as that will affect the flavour of the smoothie. (If all you’ve got is salted nut butter available, merely skip the added salt throughout the smoothie recipe—or season to type.)

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

The highest consequence’s a smoothie that’s not pretty dessert for breakfast, nevertheless it’s so deliciously creamy that it’d as successfully be.

Vital Eats / Amanda Suarez