Chocolate Peanut Cauliflower Smoothie

Chocolate Peanut Cauliflower Smoothie may sound bizarre. But trust me: frozen cauliflower makes a fantastic neutral base for all sorts of smoothies.

Besides adding a portion of vegetables, it will help thicken your smoothie and give it a wonderful silky texture.

And I guarantee you won’t be able to taste cauliflower!

Flavoured with cacao or cocoa powder, peanut butter and cinnamon, sweetened with dates or date syrup, this smoothie tastes rich, creamy and indulgent.

Serve for breakfast, as a nutritious snack, or even for dessert.

Jump to Recipe

If I said, ‘Have a cauliflower smoothie’, would you hold it against me? 😄

Apologies to those who don’t get the cheesy, dated musical reference, but using cauliflower as a base for smoothies really is a good idea!

And I think my Chocolate Peanut Cauliflower Smoothie is a perfect example.

For a smoothie such as this, you might be tempted to reach for the ubiquitous frozen banana. Perfect for making it thick, creamy, and cold, right?

But do we always want that banana taste?

Swapping in frozen cauliflower (which you honestly cannot taste) lets your chosen flavours shine through.

In this case, it’s chocolate, peanut and cinnamon. But I’ve included frozen cauliflower in berry smoothies too, and it’s undetectable there as well.

Depending on your own dietary needs, you might also like to know that cauliflower has around a quarter of the calories, carbohydrates, and sugar of bananas.

FROZEN CAULIFLOWER

Adding frozen cauliflower to your smoothie will make it thick, silky, and cold.

These days, you can buy bags of frozen cauliflower florets from the supermarket. But I prefer to freeze my own.

I think fresh cauliflower benefits from a light cooking before freezing. This should make it more digestible and easier to blend smoothly.

I break the cauliflower into florets and steam them for 5-7 minutes. The rawness should be gone, but the florets still firm.

To freeze, I put the florets on a tray covered in baking parchment, making sure there’s a gap between them.

When frozen, I transfer the florets to a freezer bag where they’ll now stay nice and separate.

This means, when it’s smoothie time, I can just take out as much or as little cauliflower as I need. Easy.

CHOCOLATE PEANUT CAULIFLOWER SMOOTHIE

With your prepped cauliflower in the freezer, I reckon you can make this smoothie in about five minutes.

Start by putting the cauliflower in your blender along with a tablespoon each of peanut butter and cacao or cocoa powder.

The smoothie will benefit from something to sweeten it. I use date syrup as I think it goes well with chocolate. If you prefer, add chopped dates instead, or any other sweetener. I like a touch of cinnamon in this smoothie too.

The only other ingredients are some milk (or yogurt) and ice cubes. How much you need of each of these will depend on how thick you like your smoothie. Do you want to be able to drink it through a straw? Or do you like to dig in with a spoon?

I recommend adding the lower amounts of liquid and ice shown in the recipe, whizzing everything for a few seconds, then adjusting as necessary.

If you want to add some protein, a tablespoon of hemp hearts or chia seeds are good.

Then you just blend until the mixture’s completely smooth.

To serve, I like a sprinkle of crunchy cacao nibs plus some more hemp seeds for colour contrast. If you added chia seeds to your smoothie, then milled chia on top would be apt.

GIVE CAULIFLOWER SMOOTHIES A GO

If you haven’t tried cauliflower in smoothies before, I think Chocolate Peanut Cauliflower Smoothie would be a great place to start.

With a rich, indulgent flavour and silky, creamy texture, I’m certain you wouldn’t know it contained cauliflower if you hadn’t put it there yourself!

If you’ve made this smoothie, let me know by leaving a comment.

And don’t forget to rate the recipe!

Print

Chocolate Peanut Cauliflower Smoothie

A smoothie with rich, indulgent flavour and a silky, creamy texture. But no one will guess the secret ingredient is frozen cauliflower.

Course Breakfast, Snack, Drinks

Cuisine World

Keyword quick

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 0 minutes

Total Time 5 minutes

Servings 2

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

• 160 g frozen cauliflower florets see Recipe Notes
• 2 rounded tbsp peanut butter
• 2 level tbsp cacao or cocoa powder
• 2-4 tsp date syrup or other sweetener OR 30-40g chopped dates
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 150-200 ml milk or yogurt
• 2 tbsp hemp hearts or chia seeds optional
• 1-2 handfuls ice cubes

To serve (optional)

• 2 tsp cacao nibs
• 2 tsp hemp hearts or milled chia seeds

Instructions

1. Put all the smoothie ingredients in a blender (add the smaller of the suggested amounts for the sweetener, the milk/yogurt, and ice to begin with) and blend for a few seconds.

2. Taste, and add more sweetener if needed, plus more milk/yogurt to thin, or more ice to thicken, then blend until completely smooth.

3. Divide between two glasses, sprinkle with the garnishes if using, then serve immediately.

Recipe Notes

To make raw cauliflower more digestible and easier to blend, I recommend steaming florets for 5-7 minutes or until no longer raw but still firm.

Freezing the florets on baking parchment with space between each one before transferring to a freezer bag means you can take out exactly the amount needed.

Enjoyed this recipe? Try Beetroot, Blueberry & Mint Smoothie