Chocolate-Cherry Smoothie with Almond

You'll love this Chocolate-Cherry Smoothie with Almond! It's healthy, vegan, sugar-free, and gluten-free! It's one of my favorite breakfast smoothies.

I'm just going to say it. This will be one of THE BEST smoothies of your life!

This chocolate-cherry-almond smoothie is at the top of my favorites list, tied with this honeydew smoothie.

Imagine a thick, cherry-infused chocolate shake with almond extract. Except it's guilt-free and loaded with goodness!

Recipe ingredients

Black Cherries: We're using frozen, pitted, dark cherries, also known as Bing cherries. They're juicy, sweet and so delicious. (I love them in this guacamole with cherries and this cherry amaretto drink!

Note, they aren't the same as the dyed, bright red Maraschino cherries.

Banana: It's best to use a ripe banana with at least a few spots to get some sweetness. Don't use a frozen banana, since we're already using frozen cherries. The smoothie would be too thick.

Oats: I use raw, rolled oats for a healthy addition of fiber. Quick-cooking oats also should work. Don't use steel-cut oats here because they won't blend as well.

If you need this smoothie to be gluten-free, you must use gluten-free oats.

Walnuts: Besides being good for us, they're delicious in smoothies. Here's more information about the health benefits of walnuts. But, this cherry-banana smoothie will still taste wonderful without the nuts if you need to omit them.

Almond milk: I use unsweetened, plain almond milk, but sweetened also works. You can substitute other non-dairy options like cashew milk, soy milk, or oat milk. Of course, dairy milk would be fine if you don't need this to be a vegan smoothie.

Cocoa: Unsweetened cocoa powder brings the chocolate flavor in this chocolate-covered cherry smoothie. I also love it in this chocolate-pecan smoothie!

Almond Extract: This brings the X-factor to our chocolate-cherry smoothie. If you need to substitute vanilla, you can, but almond flavor works best here.

How to make a chocolate-cherry smoothie

See the card at the end of this post for the full recipe, but here's an overview.

1. Add all of the ingredients to a high-speed blender, such as a Vitamix.
2. Blend until smooth, stopping once to scrape down the cocoa from the sides of the blender container.

Recipe tips

• If you have a high-speed blender like a Vitamix, you can add the oats with the remaining ingredients. You'll just need to blend the chocolate-cherry smoothie a bit longer to make sure it isn't gritty.
• If you don't have a high-speed blender, you can blend the oats first by themselves to break them up.
• Add one or two scoops of protein powder (use vegan if needed) to make this even more nutritious.

More smoothie recipes

• Espresso Smoothie
• Grape Smoothie with Strawberries
• Cinnamon-Apple Smoothie with Oats
• PB & J Smoothie
• Pineapple-Banana Smoothie with Coconut
• Carrot-Banana Smoothie (like carrot cake!)

If you try this Chocolate-Cherry Smoothie recipe, please leave a comment and a rating!

(Recipe Source: Cooking with Mamma C. Originally published on February 24, 2017 and updated now with new photos and additional information.)