Hello dear smoothie fans! 🙋🏻
I have told you earlier that I love coffee and cherries, but what I haven’t mentioned is my third great weakness: chocolate. In this recipe, I combine two of these weaknesses, cherries, and chocolate, for a truly delicious and scrumptious cherry chocolate smoothie.
Combining cherries with chocolate is not something I’ve invented—it is a classic combination that never gets old. My chocolate cherry smoothie is obviously not the healthiest of smoothies, but if you follow my recipe you will notice that I didn’t exaggerate with the chocolate. Instead, I wanted the cherry taste to be stronger and not let the chocolate overtake. The cherries I used were fresh, but you can just as well use frozen ones. For the banana, however, I suggest freezing it beforehand. When blended, the frozen banana will give the smoothie a texture reminiscent of nice cream.
The final touch to this mouth-watering smoothie is granola and almonds. Both make the smoothie more filling and satisfying.
I want to warn you that this smoothie contains quite many calories but still, it is much healthier than many desserts or ice-cream. It is high in dietary fiber (36% of RDA), vitamins C (27%), B2 (32%) and A (90%), as well as magnesium (41%), phosphorus (28 %), Copper (82%) and manganese (63%).
Cherry Chocolate Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cup sour/tart cherries (or sweet cherries)
- 1 banana (preferably frozen)
- 1/4 cup dark chocolate
- 1 tbsp cacao powder (unsweetened and preferably raw)
- 2 tbsp granola
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 20 almonds
Instructions
- Wash and pit the cherries.
- Put the cherries, the banana, cacao powder and granola into the blender jar and add 1/2 cup of almond milk.
- Chop the chocolate bar into smaller chunks and add to other ingredients.
- Finally add the almond nuts into the blender jar. You can use the whole almonds if you don’t mind small nut pieces in your smoothie. If you want to achieve a perfect smooth texture, grind the almonds before adding them to other ingredients. Run the food processor or coffee grinder until the almonds are ground to a coarse meal or fine flour, depending on your preference.
- Process the ingredients until smooth.
- Pour the smoothie into glasses. Sprinkle with dark chocolate and top up with a couple of cherries.
Why my Cherry Chocolate Smoothie is good for you
- A serving (3.5 oz or 100 g) of tart/sour cherries contains 2 grams of dietary fiber, no cholesterol and vitamins A and C, as well as the minerals calcium, protein and iron. Tart/Sour cherries are low in calories and contains inflammation-reducing anthocyanins. Apart from their potential to reduce inflammation, anthocyanins are also associated with cardiovascular health.
- Eating chocolate has in one Swedish study been associated with a lowered risk of a stroke. It also has inflammation-reducing properties and can lower bad cholesterol in your body. Perhaps most importantly, studies have shown that chocolate helps relieve stress 🙂
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Have a great day and bon appetit! 😘
Looks fantastic! 🙂
Thanks Joanna 🙂
So yummy!
Thank you Leia! 🙂