Considering how often I’ve been making this smoothie recipe recently, it’s about time I shared it with you! This chocolate cherry protein smoothie bowl is so rich, thick, sweet, and delicious you will seriously feel like you’re eating ice cream or dessert for breakfast!!
I had to look back through the archives to double check, but I do believe this is actually the first smoothie recipe to post on this site!! Super exciting, right?! But yikes. I mean, it’s already towards the END of August. Like how did that happen? It seriously feels like summer should just be starting. My deepest apologizes for not bringing this recipe to you sooner so you could enjoy it all summer! While smoothies are super refreshing in the warmer summer months, I definitely am one to still make them year-round. I often go through spurts of making smoothies often, and then go for a long time without.
Cherries
Anyways, this smoothie was inspired when I bought some of these beauties earlier this summer at a farmer’s market! I ended up freezing a lot to have on hand then through the year. I love sweet summer cherries! Really any berries in summer. I’ll often buy lots of extra when they are on sale, and then portion them out and freeze them to have on hand for smoothies. I’ve also made this smoothie before many times with frozen strawberries, which is also delicious.
Zucchini
So, you’ll seen this soon enough when you get to the ingredients. This smoothie does have zucchini in it. Don’t fear! While trying to be resourceful in using up my plethora of garden zucchini, I chopped up extra and portioned it out to freeze for smoothies as well. Like in other recipes, zucchini doesn’t really have much flavor of it’s on. So why add it? (My younger brother would ask that at least haha). Well, to provide a creamy texture without using ice or making this smoothie taste like banana (which obviously tends to happen when using banana as a base smoothie ingredient). Using zucchini also keep this smoothie much lower in sugar. Not to mention adds volume to make this serving HUGE!!
Protein Powder
I can’t stress this enough: it’s important to use a protein powder that you actually like the taste of. If omitting the protein powder, you’ll likely want to add in some sort of sweetener (honey, maple syrup, sugar, etc) to make this sweeter. I’ve used both plant-based (such as Vega) and whey protein powders in this smoothie. My favorite flavor is using Quest chocolate protein powder (whey-based) in this smoothie. It literally tastes like I’m eating chocolate cherry ice cream since I like my smoothie bowls super thick!
Toppings
Speaking of smoothie bowls…I personally MUCH prefer super thick ice-cream like consistency and eating my smoothies out of a bowl versus drinking them when they’re gone in 0.5 seconds. But you can definitely add more milk and make this a drinkable smoothie if you wish! Aside from feeling like I’m eating ice cream, I’m ALL about the toppings. I love topping this with chocolate granola! This recipe is delicious, or my current favorite store-bought brand is Purely Elizabeth chocolate sea salt granola (not sponsored on either the granola or protein powder, just passing along what I genuinely love and eat regularly!). This is also delicious topped with nut butter and/or fresh cherries.
Hope you love this smoothie bowl! Seriously so simple AND delicious 😊 Let me know if you try this recipe by leaving a comment, rating it, or posting it on Instagram or Facebook and tagging audras_appetite!
- 1 cup frozen zucchini
- ½ cup frozen cherries
- 1 cup frozen (or fresh) spinach
- 1 scoop/serving chocolate protein powder*
- 1 tablespoon cocoa/cacao powder**
- ½-1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond or cashew milk***
- Optional but recommended for serving: chocolate granola! Or nut butter, fresh cherries, etc.
- Add all ingredients to blender (I use a Vitamix). Blend until completely smooth and creamy!
**I love using Hershey's dark cocoa powder, but any will work here!
***or milk of choice. I use ½ cup milk , but you may need 1 cup milk if your blender isn't as strong of if you want a drinkable smoothie.
One word: “AWESOME”..! 🙂
Thanks, hope you like it!
Chocolate + cherries is one of my favorite combos. What a great smoothie!
Thank you! Yes, it’s one of my newly discovered combinations as well!