This smoothie is totally inspired by my Vegan Basics Part 3 post on Why and How to Eat Nuts and Seeds. Eating a handful of (raw, unsalted, no added oil) nuts a day is considered a pretty healthy habit. So I made munching nuts very easy by incorporating a small handful of them into this chocolate-berry nut smoothie. I chose my favorite nuts: pecans, cashews, walnuts and almonds, but if you want to make this healthy creation yourself, you can choose whatever nuts you like. I tend to blend smoothies which could easily be considered lunch, but are still as tasty as dessert. This smoothie falls exactly into that category 🙂
Making this delicious lunch smoothie requires some passive waiting time as I warmly recommend you to soak the nuts before blending the smoothie. Not only does soaking make nuts easier to digest, it also makes them softer and effortless to blend (especially with a high-speed blender like Vitamix, but other blenders work well too!). When you blend soaked nuts with water, they miraculously turn into a lovely, smooth cream. You can read more about soaking nuts & seeds and nut & seed based recipe tips in my Vegan Basics Part 3. Apart from the (passive) soaking time, this smoothie is a quick one to blend. Basically all you need is nuts, berries and raw chocolate (or raw cacao powder)! And edible flowers to make it pretty 😉
- Smoothie base
- 1 frozen banana
- Small handful of soaked nuts, for example:
- 4 pecans
- 4 walnuts
- 4 cashews
- 4 almonds
- 2 pitted dates
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup of water
- Blueberry smoothie
- ½ cup of frozen or fresh (wild) blueberries (NOTE: other berries would work well too!)
- Chocolate smoothie
- 1 tbsp melted raw chocolate/few pieces of chocolate (or 1 tbsp raw cacao powder)
- Toppings
- More blueberries (or other berries)
- Raw chocolate
- Edible flowers
- Preparations: Start preparations the day before you want to make the smoothie. I soaked about 1 cup of each - pecans, walnuts, cashews and almonds in their own separate jars covered with warm water and 2 tsp of sea salt. I soaked cashews for ~4 hours and all the other nuts for ~10 hours. Then I drained and rinsed the nuts well, took a handful of them for the smoothie and dehydrated the rest of them in the oven at the lowest possible temperature (about 50C/120F) for about 12 hours or until the nuts were completely dry. I use the nuts in granola, pie crusts, nut butters etc.
- Smoothie base: blend frozen banana, soaked (and rinsed) nuts, dates, vanilla and water until completely smooth and creamy. Divide smoothie into two.
- Melt raw chocolate in a double boiler until liquid. Blend chocolate with half of the nut smoothie and pour into a jar.
- Blend blueberries with the other half of the nut smoothie and pour on top of the chocolate smoothie.
- Decorate with melted raw chocolate, berries and flowers.
- Enjoy:)
Smoothies really do blur the lines between all meals and snacks and dessert, they are just perfect always. The best part about sweet decadent but healthy meals like this is that they don’t leave your craving something sweet afterwards. All tastebuds are satisfied 🙂 And nutty nutritional needs are satisfied too! I really like that you used a blend of many different types of nuts in one smoothie, since they all have so many good things to offer health wise and of course plenty of creaminess! Such a lovely lunch-ssert 🙂
Yay for inventing a new word – lunch-ssert is now officially my fav meal of the day 🙂 Lately I’ve been having a fruity (and nutty) lunch-ssert almost every day. The fruitier the better, right 😉 And you’re so right about smoothies, they really are perfect ALWAYS! Don’t know how I’d survive without them, and glad I don’t have to 🙂 Have a lovely day <3