6 Essential Ingredients for Great Vegan Smoothies

So, you’re new to a plant-based diet, or perhaps you have been a vegan for a while, but you hear about all this smoothie making. In the stores, like Whole Foods, or restaurants, they are crazy expensive – that’s not good.  At Full of Beans we are about making this lifestyle easy, accessible, and affordable.

That’s the reason for this list. If you have these essentials (and maybe a few special items) on hand you can easily make yummy, nutritious smoothies that everyone will love.

Of course, you need a blender. Any blender will be OK, but if you start doing this a lot you might consider this one.

Vegan Smoothies

1. Bananas. These are the universal base. No, seriously, they are. Just make sure they are ripe.
2. Spinach (kale adds a nice green punch, too, but the taste is different and some folks need time to warmup to it)
3. Frozen mangos
4. Frozen blueberries
5. Dates (Agave syrup can stand in, but its really not the same)
6. Water or…
7. Soy or almond milk (adds a creaminess, but you can always use water, of course)

Special Items – a few ingredients that really add an extra touch.

• Cinnamon
• Peanut Butter
• Ginger (we freeze a whole root and it lasts a long time)
• Cacao powder – pricey, but a little goes a long way. We love Navitas brand.

Smoothies are a fantastic way to pack a lot of nutrition and calories into an easy to manage form. You can take them with you, you can drink them while you are getting ready for work, and you can consume a lot of fruit and veggies a lot faster than if you had them on a plate (checkout this video about how much I put in my green machine smoothie). Lots of people experience trouble with simply not consuming enough calories when they transition to a plant-based diet (I did) so smoothies can really help. Plus, they are delicious and there is lots of variety.

Enjoy your smoothies!