If you love carrot cake, you are going to love this carrot banana smoothie recipe! It’s thick and creamy and so easy to make! Best of all you can drink it like a smoothie or you can make a carrot cake smoothie bowl out of it and really have fun with the toppings!
Why you will love this recipe
- Smoothies are a great way to get in lots of fruits and veggies in your day pretty easily! This smoothie has easy to find ingredients, is loaded with nutrition and is just the perfect amount of sweetness for a breakfast smoothie!
- If you love the idea of smoothies but really like to sit down and eat your meals with a spoon or fork, I’ve got you covered! This carrot banana smoothie is super thick and can easily be made into a vegan carrot cake smoothie bowl instead! Simply pour it in a bowl and top it with your favorite toppings (see ideas below).
- A filling, simple breakfast you can make in less than 5 minutes for busy mornings. Smoothies are great for drinking on your way to work or as you hop on your computer in the morning. This carrot smoothie is a great mix of carbs, protein and healthy fats to help keep you full longer.
Carrot smoothie ingredients
- Carrots – you can use whole carrots you cut into coins or to save time, shredded carrots you buy from the store.
- Banana (frozen) – I like to freeze my bananas early in the week to use in smoothies. This helps the smoothie get nice and cold when blending.
- Greek style yogurt (I use dairy free Kite Hill Brand) – use whatever Greek yogurt you love. If you do not tolerate yogurt, omit and use more dairy free milk and optional protein powder.
- Walnuts (or any nut or seed you like) – the nuts help to add healthy fats and thicken the smoothie a bit.
- Dairy free milk – use your favorite dairy free milk (or regular milk if you are not dairy free)
- Chia seeds – these help to thicken the smoothie. You could also use flax seeds but I prefer chia in smoothies.
- Ground cinnamon and ground ginger – these spices help to give the smoothie a carrot cake flavor.
How to make a carrot banana smoothie
- Peel the carrots if needed. Cut them into coins.
- Add the carrots, frozen banana coins, Greek yogurt, walnuts, dairy free milk, chia seeds and spices to the blender in that order.
- Blend on high for about 1 minute (or until smooth). Don’t over blend as the blender will start to warm up the smoothie if you blend it too long.
- Check the consistency. If you love a thinner smoothie, add more milk or water. If you love a super thick super cold smoothie, add a few ice cubes and blend again.
- Pour your smoothie into a cup or into a bowl and enjoy!
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Top tips
- Prep ahead: Spend a few minutes over the weekend prepping ahead for your weekday smoothies. For this smoothie that would mean peeling and chopping the carrots and peeling and slicing the bananas and putting them in the freezer. This makes prepping in the morning so much faster!
- Check the thickness of the smoothie before you run out the door. This smoothie is thick, so if you like a more drinkable smoothie, add 1/4 cup water or dairy free milk and stir or blend it up before you leave for the morning.
- Make it into a smoothie bowl to change things up! You can add your favorite toppings and eat this vegan carrot cake smoothie in a bowl instead! This changes the entire experience and is a great reason to make granola!
Other fruits and veggies you could add:
I love how simple this recipe is. If you love to really pack in the nutrition in the morning, you could add more fruits and veggies depending on what you have on hand. Here are some great additions:
- Add 1/4 – 1/2 cup frozen cauliflower rice
- Add 1-2 handfuls of baby spinach (it will change the color) or 1/4 cup frozen spinach
- Add 1/2 cup frozen zucchini coins
- Add 1/2 of a avocado (fresh or frozen)
Toppings to add to the smoothie or smoothie bowl
This carrot banana smoothie tastes just like carrot cake. These toppings help take that carrot cake smoothie flavor to the next level:
- Granola
- Raisins, chopped dates, chopped dried figs
- Walnuts, pecans, sliced almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp hearts
- Coconut flakes or toasted coconut flakes
- Almond butter, cashew butter, peanut butter, sunflower seed butter
- Coconut butter – this tastes like frosting and will actually harden into a shell when added to a freezing cold smoothie.
Common questions
How to sweeten this smoothie (if needed)
- Add 1-2 tablespoons of honey or maple syrup
- Blend in 1-2 medjool dates (pitted) or ¼ cup of raisins
- Blend in ½ cup pineapple or ½ -1 apple (cored)
How to make smoothies more filling
Not all smoothies are created equally. Many smoothie recipes are simply just a bunch of fruits blended with some yogurt or milk, which can actually make you feel extremely hungry pretty quickly. This is because the sugars in the fruit will quickly raise your blood sugar, which will lead to a blood sugar crash pretty quickly. This is when you feel hangry even though you just ate.
To combat this, it’s important that you build your smoothies for satiety, not just to taste good. Here are some tips on how to build a smoothie that will actually fill you up:
- Add some fiber: This typically comes from adding in veggies. They are lower in sugars and high in fiber. You can also add chia seeds, ground flax, rolled oats or even cooked beans (no salt) for added fiber.
- Add protein: Protein is an essential element in a meal that will help keep you feeling full for hours. Protein can come from many places: Greek yogurt, protein powder, hemp hearts, collagen peptides (not vegan) are all easy to find options that are great in smoothies. Nuts and seeds have some protein but they are mostly fats.
- Healthy fats: Fats are super satisfying and can help make sure that smoothie lasts you until lunchtime. Some great healthy fats include: nuts or seeds, avocado, hemp hearts, nut butter or seed butter, coconut flakes or coconut butter.
How to add more protein to smoothies
If you want to add more protein, you can add a serving of your favorite protein powder. You may need another 1/2 – 1 cup of dairy free milk depending on the protein you use and your preferred consistency.
You can add 1-2 scoops of collagen peptides (not vegan) without adjusting the liquid in this recipe.
How to freeze bananas for smoothies
To freeze bananas, peel them, slice them into coins and freeze them on wax paper or parchment paper on a baking sheet or cutting board until frozen solid. Once frozen, you can transfer them to a freezer safe bag for 1-2 weeks.
Can you make smoothies ahead of time
Making smoothies ahead can be tricky as they tend to separate if stored in the fridge for too long. One thing you can do is pack your blender the night before (with everything but the frozen bananas) so you can make the smoothie in just a minute in the morning if you are short on time.
Typically smoothies will hold up well for 2-3 hours in a well-sealed cup. You may want to invest in a cup that is meant to hold in cold beverages to prolong the chill on the smoothie for as long as possible.
If you are looking for tips on how to prep smoothies for meal prep, you can also portion out everything but the yogurt and milk in freezer safe bags and freeze the ingredients all together. This way you can just dump the bag into the blender, add the milk and yogurt and blend for a quick smoothie that was prepped over the weekend.
How to store leftover smoothies
The best way to store leftover smoothies is to pour them into ice cube trays and freeze them into ice cubes. Then you can pop them out of the ice cube trays and store them in a freezer safe bag for up to 1 month.
The next time you are making a smoothie, pop a few of these smoothie cubes in with the new smoothie and it will help make it cold and add some extra nutrition.
Substitutions:
- Carrots: You can use chopped carrots, shredded carrots, carrot chips in this recipe, whatever you have on hand. If you don’t want to use carrots, you could add any of the veggies listed above (riced cauliflower, spinach, zucchini) but these will likely change the flavor of the smoothie.
- Banana: If you don’t have banana on hand or prefer not to use banana, you could also use frozen pineapple, frozen mango, apples, dates, raisins, or figs in place of the banana to add sweetness to the smoothie.
- Dairy free Greek style yogurt: I use Kite Hill yogurt, you could also use a thicker coconut yogurt to keep it dairy free as well. If you don’t want to use yogurt, you could add ½ – 1 cup additional dairy free milk + protein powder of choice to make sure there is still enough protein in the smoothie to keep you full. If you can only find regular yogurt, you can use that as well but the smoothie will not have the same protein or texture.
- Dairy free milk: you could also use apple juice, orange juice or water in place of dairy free milk. The apple juice and orange juice would add some sweetness.
- Chia seeds: these help to thicken the smoothie and add some healthy fats. You could also add ground flax or rolled oats.
- Walnuts: walnuts are a great healthy fat and are thought to be great for your brain! You could also use pecans, sliced almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp hearts, coconut flakes or whatever nut or seed you love in place of the walnuts.
- Ground cinnamon and ground ginger: Ground cinnamon and ground ginger help to give that carrot cake flavor to the smoothie. To replace the cinnamon you could also use ground cardamom (perhaps about ½ tsp) ground nutmeg (1/4 – ½ tsp). The ginger would be hard to replace but you could try ¼ tsp. nutmeg in place of ginger.
If you love this smoothie recipe, you should try:
- Strawberry Banana Green Smoothie
- Apple Banana Spinach Smoothie
- Blueberry Smoothie
- Mango Kale Smoothie
- Low Carb Peanut Butter Smoothie
- Coffee Banana Smoothie
Carrot Banana Smoothie
$3.26 Recipe/$3.26 ServingIngredients
- 1 cup carrots (in coins or shredded) - $0.22
- 1 medium banana, frozen in coins - $0.19
- 1 5oz container greek style yogurt (dairy free) - $1.99
- 5-6 walnut halves - $0.33
- 1/2 cup unsweetened dairy free milk - $0.29
- 1 tbsp. chia seeds - $0,11
- 1 tsp. cinnamon - $0.10
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger - $0.03
Instructions
- Peel the carrots if necessary. Cut into coins.
- Add all the ingredients to a high sped blender in the order listed above.
- Blend on high about 1 minute until thick and creamy (don't over blend or the smoothie can get hot).
- Check the consistency – you may need to add 1/4 – 1/2 cup more dairy free milk if you prefer a thinner smoothie.
Notes
- Add 1-2 tablespoons of honey or maple syrup
- Blend in 1-2 medjool dates (pitted) or ¼ cup of raisins
- Blend in ½ cup pineapple or ½ -1 apple (cored)
Maureen Carney
Thursday 13th of May 2021
Really good recipe, i would of never thought of putting carrots with bananas, blown my mind!
Jamie
Monday 13th of June 2016
That sounds amazing! Thank you for sharing it with us at the #HomeMattersParty
Ginger Wroot
Monday 13th of June 2016
Happy Birthday my dear! Love your unique carrot cake smoothie bowl idea! I gave my daughter carrot cake for her 2nd birthday, and she's asked for it every single birthday since- and she's 21 now! Pinned your rockin' recipe! --Ginger http://gingerwroot.com
Cassie
Sunday 12th of June 2016
This is lovely! I have to try this out something :)
Victoria @DazzleWhileFrazzled
Saturday 11th of June 2016
I've yet to try a smoothie bowl but since yours sounds like a dessert, I'll have to try it. Thanks for linking up with Funtastic Friday.