A rich and creamy tasting avocado smoothie that requires just 3 ingredients to make and is packed with nutrition. {Vegetarian, Vegan-Adaptable, Gluten-Free}
Avocado smoothies are having a moment, and it’s easy to see why. These creamy, nutrient-packed drinks are not only delicious but also incredibly versatile. Whether you’re looking for a quick breakfast, a post-workout refuel, or a refreshing snack, an avocado smoothie is the perfect choice. In this blog post, I’ll guide you through the benefits of avocado smoothies, share some tasty variations, and give you a simple recipe to try at home.
Why Avocado?
Avocados are often referred to as a superfood, and for good reason. They’re rich in healthy fats, particularly monounsaturated fats, which are known to support heart health. Additionally, avocados are packed with vitamins and minerals, including potassium, vitamin K, vitamin E, and B vitamins. The creamy texture of avocado blends beautifully into smoothies, adding a luscious consistency that’s hard to achieve with other ingredients.
Avocado smoothie ingredients
You only need three simple ingredients to make an avocado smoothie.
- Avocado
- Frozen banana
- Milk (or plant milk)
If using plant milk, I prefer oat milk or almond milk.
How to shop for avocados
I usually like to use Hass avocados, which are the most common type, in my avocado smoothies. Here are the things I look for in the best avocados:
- The skin color is very dark, almost black: This usually means the avocado is ripe and ready to eat. The skin will give slightly when you press it gently with your thumb.
- The avocado gives and feels soft, but is not mushy when gently squeezed: That means the avocado is ripe or nearly ripe. It should be ready to eat now or within a day.
- If the stem comes off easily and reveals green flesh underneath, the avocado is ripe and ready to eat.
If you’re shopping for avocados that you won’t use for a few days, choose ones that are still firm and bright green. Avocados will ripen naturally at room temperature, so you can control when they’re ready to eat. If you need ripe avocados immediately, look for those that are dark and slightly soft to the touch. When the avocado is ripe, transfer it into the fridge to slow down the ripening process. The avocado stays ripe and tasty in the fridge for a couple of days.
Other add-ons and changes
- Tropical flavor: Add a handful of frozen pineapple or mango for a tropical twist.
- Chocolate lover: For a decadent treat, add a tablespoon of cocoa powder and a splash of vanilla extract.
- Very berry: Toss in a handful of mixed berries for a refreshing, antioxidant-packed drink.
- Healthy green smoothie: Add a handful of spinach to boost your veggie intake.
How to make the avocado smoothie
How to cut the avocado
You don’t really need any fancy cuts, since the avocado goes into the blender. But here is my favorite way of cutting an avocado:
- Cut the avocado in half using a paring knife.
- Once you’ve made the cut all the way around the avocado, hold each half in your hands and gently twist them in opposite directions.
- Hold the avocado half with the seed. Carefully strike the seed with the blade of your knife so that the blade wedges into it. Twist the knife gently to loosen the seed, then lift it out of the avocado.
- Remove the avocado from the skin using a spoon, then dice the avocado on a cutting board. You can also slice the avocado with the skin on, then directly scoop the avocado into your blender.
Make the smoothie
When you’re ready to make the avocado smoothie, simply throw all the ingredients into your blender and blend until smooth.
Afterthoughts
Avocado smoothies are a fantastic way to incorporate more nutrients into your diet without sacrificing flavor. Whether you’re new to smoothies or a seasoned pro, adding avocado to your smoothie rotation is a must. Try the recipe and experiment with different ingredients to find your perfect blend. Cheers to your new favorite green smoothie!
Other delicious drinks
- How to Make Bubble Tea (Boba Tea, 珍珠奶茶)
- Matcha Boba Tea
- Chinese Jujube Tea (红枣茶)
- Easy Citron Tea (Made with Meyer Lemons)
Avocado Smoothie (3-Ingredient)
Ingredients
- 1 Avocado , cubed
- 2 frozen banana , chopped
- 400 ml (1 2/3 cups) milk , or plant-milk (Footnote 1)
Instructions
- Combine avocado, banana and milk in a blender. Blend until smooth.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
- Depending on the size of the avocado you use, you might want to adjust the amount of milk. Pour in a bit more milk if the smoothie is too thick to your taste.
LOVE this smoothie and reading about how you came up with this recipe! I’ve totally done the same thing with eating an avocado before it was fully ripe. It was as hard as a rock!
Hey Maggie, the smoothie looks great and I’m sure it tastes delicious! Thanks for sharing your experience, I’ll make sure I never freeze yogurt for a smoothie! It is unbelievable how many things we have to go through in order do develop a simple, healthy recipe at times 🙂 Beautiful pictures!
This smoothie looks so creamy! Thanks for sharing your tips, I’ve done the same thing with freezing yogurt too 🙁 So glad you were able to come up with this recipe and share it with us! Love avocado smoothies!
I’m the kind of girl who would drink a smoothie everyday. This avocado smoothie looks so delicious and creamy! Definitely going to be trying this out next week! Thanks for the awesome (and super easy!) recipe. 🙂
Better than ice cream?! Then I’ve GOT to try this! lol I love your tenacity when it comes to creating something great from recipe failures. And your last lesson is my favorite…we tend to over complicate things, don’t we?
Hi Christine, before trying out the recipe, you really need some sleep! I saw the time when you left the comment, it’s already nearly early morning… Girl, you work too hard!
I love this recipe, Maggie. I make a similar one with banana, pineapple, coconut milk and yogurt.
This one has got to be tried! Some days I think we need everything to go wrong in order to appreciate the good days, don’t you think? lol.
I have such a hard time finding good avocados. I’m guessing it’s much easier where you live.
Thanks for a great recipe!
Hmmm, the banana pineapple version sounds so delicious! You should definitely post it! Sometimes I think the simple stuff is the best 🙂
It’s difficult to find avocado here too. Most of the time I have to purchase online. I always order a lot to get discount, and also to make sure I can pick out a few good ones!
I’ve never been brave enough to add avocado to my smoothie 🙂 I always wanted to though! This one is so easy, then I should give it a try!
Hi Shiran, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment! Yep, this smoothie is so easy and taste good. Hope you like it 🙂
I was so pleased to find this recipe! It takes me back in my mind to a Mexican vacation nearly 20 years ago. I remember enjoying fruit smoothies they call licuados. I don’t recall how I hit on the idea of a banana/avocado licuado, but I enjoyed the creamy, mildly sweet flavor. I had a hard time ordering them at the cafe I frequented because the woman there thought that combination sounded so awful. She would refuse to make it. I basically had to beg and promise to finish the darn thing. Good times!
Hi Eric, glad to hear you like avocado smoothie! Oh no, the combination of avocado and banana is not awful at all! Well, it might sound weird and I didn’t believe it’s a nice drink until I tried it once. It’s funny that they refused to make it at the cafe. But now you don’t need to convince them anymore, since you can easily make them at home 😉
This is a very intriguing-sounding recipe. I’m not sure it would fly with my husband. Although, if all he could taste was the banana, it might work. The other issue for me is finding a good avocado. I was spoiled for the majority of my life with generous neighbors with avocado trees. Now I have to buy them at the grocery store and I seem to have a hard time finding good ones. Sorry your Memorial Day got rained out.
Hi Susan, this drink tastes quite banana, only better. The avocado adds a nice fatty and creamy texture, and only a subtle flavor.
Wow, it’s amazing that you could get fresh avocado from a tree! I don’t even know what’s an avocado tree looks like. Comparing to the avocado in China, I’m quite satisfied with the selection here. But yeah, sometimes it’s a bit tricky to get good ones.
We’re planning to grill again tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will be better this time!
Have a great weekend 🙂
Hi Maggie,
Thanks for the info on the flavor. I’ll definitely try it (and subject my husband to it…) Here’s a link to a picture of an avocado tree: http://www.plantnurserytampa.com/tampa-tree-nursery/fruit-trees/avacodo/
They are usually very large, spreading trees, which grow well in southern California and in Florida.
Enjoy your grilling! And I hope it stays dry for you. I understand that most of Texas has been dealing with a lot of rain.
Hi Susan, thanks for sharing the picture of avocado tree. It’s great to know that they grow it in the US too. I’ll watch out for them next time when I visit southern California.
The grilling went great yesterday and the weather was perfect. I’ll post the recipe and share some pictures this week 🙂
Hope the smoothie turns out great and let me know whether you and your husband like it!
Hi Maggie, I’ve been reading food blogs by you and several others so much recently. I live in the Caribbean, so many tropical fruits and veggies are plentiful, but most things are brought in from the U.S. and Canada. We also have these critters called monkeys that make it difficult to enjoy our fruits and veggies. I saw your comment about an avocado tree and that is one of the things that grows well here, and I don’t think the monkeys like.
I have 1/2 of a small avocado left and plenty of fozen banana’s so I may have this for breakfast tomorrow. It sounds very good.
Hi Cathy, Caribbean has great weather year round and I can imagine the fresh tropical fruits you can get easily. So envious! Very interesting to hear about monkeys. I seldom see them in the wild, but it’s not so fun if they eat all the fruits from the tree! I wish I can pick avocado from a tree in the future. I bet the avocado will taste so great!
Happy cooking and hope the smoothie turns out great 🙂
I saw this last night & made it first thing this morning! Amazingly the avocados I bought had one ripe one ready, plus I had frozen 5 bananas that were overripe for eating. I did add some vanilla protein powder to make it a complete breakfast, and my daughter & I love this! Will definitely make again!
I’m so glad to hear you like this drink Joan! Believe me or not, I just had a ripen avocado today and made this again too 🙂 Adding vanilla protein powder is definitely a great idea. I’ll try out next time. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Just made my first real smoothie. Thanks, Maggie!
I’ve been making milk shakes, just milk, cocoa powder, honey, and a couple of fresh raw organic eggs thrown in, but never made an actual smoothie until now. Having a few avocados that all got ripe at the same time, and an overripe banana, I googled for “banana avocado smoothie,” and your recipe came up. Marvellous!
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the smoothie! Happy New Year 🙂
Thank you for posting! I added a cup of baby spinach and almond milk to mine and it was wonderful.
Glad to hear you enjoy the drink Heather! LOVE the idea of adding baby spinach. It sounds so delicious and healthy 🙂
Banana is a good ingredient for lot of good smoothies.
you didn’t kill the good bacteria in the yogurt by freezing it? people who make yogurt (i.e. me, although i’ve not tried this trick yet) often freeze their yogurt starters to preserve the bacteria. not for very LONG, but for a month or so… the proof is in the fact that these starters will make new yogurt. people who’ve tried it claim it’s identical in quality to yogurt made with “fresh” bacteria. sometimes these sorts of organisms can be sleepy right after being taken out (i know sourdough has this problem), so it may not be as beneficial if eaten while frozen, but it is not dead unless your freezer was very abnormally cold or it was left long enough it would’ve died several times over in the fridge.
this looks like a lovely recipe! I always have trouble remembering to keep things simple with my smoothies, but when I do, they’re better for it.
Hi Milo, I don’t really know if the freezing process would kill the bacteria. Thank you for sharing your knowledge about yogurt making and I’m very intrigued. Will look into this more the next time when I develop yogurt related recipes 🙂
Great post! Have nice day ! 🙂 xejkz
Can i add egg to the combination.
I think so. Although you might want to add more liquid to dilute the smoothie. It will get quite thick.
Just made for myself and daughter (6) who will not eat avocado. I added a teaspoon of honey, my bananas were not very sweet and she is loving it. Thank yoy so much!
Thanks for the recipe, I don’t know where I went wrong, though, lol. Mine came out just like a cup of milk that tasted a bit like banana (I made sure it was 14oz of milk. I don’t know if there are different sizes of avocado, never used them before, but the lady upstairs insists on leaving me some on occasion, and so I thought instead of letting them go to rot like I usually do as I don’t really know what to do with them, I will try something with them. The avocados are Mexican and quite small. Also, I guess it wasn’t quite ripe enough as the end product was ‘bitty’. I strained it so I could at least drink the milk. Maybe I will try again when the other avocados are softer.
This intrigued me, and I took your guidance about not using yogurt. But I’m not a milk drinker. So I substituted coconut water. Delicious!
Thanks for the tip, Ruti! It’s always nice to know about these substitutions. And the drink is already quite creamy (in texture) because of the banana and avocado – I bet it’s extra refreshing with the coconut water!
I just made this and my boyfriend was not convinced this would be good. Turned out amazing and I will be making again in the future. My boyfriend tried it and was surprised how good it was. Our bananas were ripe, but not super ripe. I can only imagine how good it would be with super ripe bananas! Will be making again.