Dark Chocolate Raspberry Smoothie
This post is sponsored by Almond Breeze Almondmilk.
Recipe At-A-Glance
Fruity, rich, and almost dessert-like, this Dark Chocolate Raspberry Smoothie is the perfect (healthy!) way to perk up your afternoon.
We are swimming in black raspberries. Literally, I think I could drain the pool of water, fill it back up with raspberries, and go for a very fruity (and squishy) swim. We're so fortunate to have acres and acres of wild black raspberry canes on our property, and this year, our raspberry "patch" is producing overtime.
You all know I love growing food, but I think I love foraging for food even more. Something feels very right about eating food that grows wild and right outside my front door. And my cheapskate side loves that it is completely freeeeee! No seeds. No fertilizers. No plant tags. No nothing. Just free, delicious, perfect black raspberries.
Because we have such a bumper crop of berries this year, it can be very tempting to just pick, pick, pick until we have every last berry in our possession, but I'm trying hard to fight that greedy urge, and only take what we can use in a year-and leaving the rest for the birds, deer, and other forest-dwellers.
I've got about a gallon of the berries set aside to turn into jam. We're saving another gallon for beer brewing. And we've put the vast majority of the rest of the berries directly into the freezer for eating throughout the year. We've got about four gallons worth in the freezer-and that, combined with other fruit we've frozen, should be enough for us to make as many fruit-tastic smoothies as we want (and maybe a cobbler to two).
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My usually smoothie M.O. is to just throw a bunch of stuff that I have on hand in the blender. Add some almond milk and honey, and call it a day. I don't do a lot of recipe-following. But every now and again, I want a more specific flavor to my drink.
This time around, I was craving something that really spotlighted how bright, fruity, and flavorful this year's raspberries were. And considering chocolate is one of my favorite raspberry pairings, it only made sense that I pulled the two together into this Dark Chocolate Raspberry Smoothie.
The chocolate adds some richness and depth, but it doesn't overpower the berry flavor. This smoothie is the kind of smoothie you want if you're having a really rough day and need an afternoon pick-me-up. This smoothie is like a healthy version of a milkshake. I love using slightly sweet, Original Almondmilk from Blue Diamond as the base for smoothies like this-it really lets the star ingredients shine, while still being creamy and rich.
If you don't have a swimming pool full of black raspberries (I'm guessing you don't), you can sub in fresh or frozen red raspberries without a hitch. If you're one of those weirdos that doesn't like seedy berries (ahemmysisterahem) you can puree the berries first, then run the puree through a sieve before proceeding with the recipe-all the raspberry flavor with none of the dreaded seeds. Enjoy.
📖 Recipe
Dark Chocolate Raspberry Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 ripe banana
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder heaping
- ½ cup fresh raspberries
- Handful of ice
- Honey to taste (optional)
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in the carafe of a blender. Blend on high until smooth and creamy. Taste, and add honey if necessary (depending on the sweetness of your banana).
Notes
Nutrition
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Yum! Looks delicious! Love the blueberries and almond milk combo. Also love the color!
best to use cacao powder instead of cocoa powder, simply because cacao powder is raw and has not been roasted, hence containing all of its natural nutrients and antioxidants
Do you know how many calories are in this drink?
I don't, but here is a really easy-to-use calorie calculator: caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
If you have a Ninja, you can make your own almond milk... See Kris Carr's "Crazy Sexy Juice". I've been doing it since the beginning of the year. Good stuff, And this way, I control the ingredients.
Raspberries are one of my favorite berries. I'll have to give this recipe a try.
I'm jealous you have so many raspberries available. It would be tough for me too to leave them for the animals.
Mmm those berries look delicious! We've still got loads of strawberries to work through, but I'm looking forward to blackberries... this smoothie sounds great, especially with dark chocolate!!
I've never tried black raspberries, but I'm intrigued -- they look similar to blackberries, but less messy and less seedy! Lucky you having such an ample (free!) supply. And while swimming would be squishy fun, stomping might be the better thing to do in a pool of berries...because wine 🙂