How To Make Healthy, Plant-based Smoothie Recipes

Learn how to make healthy plant-based smoothie recipes in just a few minutes that are perfect for busy mornings and pack a variety of clean eating, all plant-based ingredients all into one tasty meal. Whether you're experienced or new to smoothies, you'll find step-by-step instructions to create deliciously good plant-based recipes using whole foods, fresh fruit, leafy greens, and plant-based protein. Get your blenders ready and grab your favourite smoothie bowl, let's nourish together.

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MEAL PLANNING | How To Make Healthy, Plant-based Smoothie Recipes | by Eat Nourish Glow

As a Women's Nutritionist, I often recommend adding plant-based smoothies to the weekly meal plan as one of the easiest ways to increase your daily fibre, protein, fruit and vegetable intake. Smoothies are not only delicious and versatile, but they can also be sued to help treat diabetes, insulin resistance issues and even PCOS. Plant-based smoothies are very convenient way to pack a variety of healthy, clean eating nutrients into one meal, and make it so easy to consume the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables each day.

Smoothies can be tailored to meet your individual dietary needs and preferences, allowing for a personalised approach to clean eating nutrition. Here's why I find plant-based smoothies in particular, such a great way to improve your nutritional intake and feel your best:

Benefits Of Plant-based Smoothies

Eating more plants is one of the simplest ways to improve your diet and start eating clean. However, if you are not a big fan of vegetables, popping them into a nutritious smoothie with some of your favourite fruits is a ridiculously simple way to get more nutrients and veggies in your diet. Here's why plant-based smoothies are one of my top recommended ways to improve your diet and with very little effort:

The Convenience

There is no denying how fast you can make smoothies, usually less than a minute, and the recipes produce such a healthy, wholesome meal. Plant-based smoothies are super quick to prepare, making them a perfect lunch or main meal for those on the go, or to enjoy as a clean eating snack when your energy is crashing fast and you need a pick-me-up. By blending a variety of fruits, vegetables, and other nutritious ingredients, smoothies can become a delicious and effective tool for balancing blood sugar levels and helping to boost your weight loss efforts with very little fuss.

Dairy-free Menu

For many people, combing milk products with vegetables and fruit can trigger gut issues and fermentation that flares up IBS and digestive conditions. Since plant-based smoothies usually skip dairy, this makes them an excellent option for people with dairy and lactose intolerance, perfect for vegans, or those following a clean eating diet.

Essential Dietary Fibre & Gut Health

Plant-based ingredients are naturally rich in dietary fibre, increasing satiety and supporting your digestion by nourishing gut microbes. Including more plant-based smoothies into your weekly menu can help heal your gut and support natural weight loss as part of a clean eating lifestyle. If you are diabetic, have insulin resistance issues or suffer from PCOS, high fibre foods need to become a staple in your diet to support recovery and healing.

Hydration 

Smoothies made with plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit contribute towards to your daily fluid intake when prepared with hydrating ingredients like cucumbers or coconut water. Being mindful of this when creating smoothie recipes and choosing the produce you'll use, is such an easy way to boosts your hydration. Keeping fully hydrated naturally helps to reduce food and sugar cravings, lessen brain fog and gives your mood and brain a little pick-me-up boost.

Packed With Nutrients

Plant-based smoothies are bursting with clean eating goodness, and a convenient way to pack a powerful hit of nutrients into your weekly menu. Fruits, like berries and mangoes, provide natural sweetness and are loaded with essential vitamins and antioxidants that fight free radicals in your body. Vegetables, such as spinach and kale, add a dose of essential vitamins, minerals, and dietary fibre, promoting gut health and keeping you feeling fuller for longer. Nuts and seeds are a great source of healthy fats, protein, and additional fibre. With all the clean eating ingredients added a plant-based smoothie, it creates an excellent nutrient-rich meal.

Boosts Natural Energy

With all the natural goodness packed in, plant-based smoothies are a fabulous and healthy way to get a burst of energy that lasts for hours. Wholefood-based smoothie recipes are not only refreshing but also jam-packed with essential nutrients that support overall well-being. Enjoying a plant-based smoothie can be smart addition to your weekly meal plan, fuelling your body with the wholesome goodness it needs to glow from within.

Nutritional Variety Becomes So Easy

You can throw in all sorts of fruits and veggies into smoothies, making them super versatile and healthy. Plant-based smoothies are also a fabulous way to use up leftovers and overripe fruit and veggies. If you blend well, you won't even taste the vegetables, making plant-based smoothies an excellent way to increase your veggie intake and eat more greens.

Successful Weight Management

Plant-based smoothies can support your weight loss goals, effectively curbing hunger and helping you to managing food cravings throughout the day. With the right blend of ingredients, plant-based smoothies not only taste great, but they can also support the metabolism, blood sugar levels and aid muscle recovery. So, whether you're hitting the gym hard and need a post recovery protein hit, or cleaning up your diet to eat clean and healthier, smoothies can definitely be part of your weight loss plan.

Adding even just a few plant-based smoothies into your weekly menu, can be a simple, nutritious, and effective way to improve your diet and eat clean. Plant-based smoothies are not only packed with essential vitamins and minerals, but they also offer a delicious and refreshing treat that you can enjoy any time of day. By adding these nutrient-dense beverages to your diet, you'll be supporting your overall health and well-being in a convenient and deeply nourishing way!

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Making Plant-Based Smoothies

The Best Ingredients For Smoothies

How do you make the healthiest smoothies? Well, short of having breakfast at my house every morning, the first thing to focus on is using wholefood ingredients from clean, plant-based sources. Choose fresh or frozen berries, fruits and vegetables, dark leafy greens and fresh herbs, nuts, seeds and your choice of plant-based or vegan liquid. This can be in any combination you like that suits your tastes and builds a balanced feed. There are only a few rules, the rest is up to your culinary imagination.

Key Smoothie Ingredients

With a variety of fruity flavours and endless combinations, there is a literally a smoothies recipe for everyone to enjoy. Here are the key ingredients used in plant-based smoothie recipes and things to consider when making your own:

• plant milk or water: the liquid you use can be simple tap water or something more nutrient-rich like coconut water, vegan protein shake, or unsweetened plant-based milk.

• fruits and veggies: this is where smoothies get their fibre-rich nutrients from and provide a powerhouse of plant-based nutrition all in one tasty meal.

• plant protein: this can be from the convenience of vegan protein powders, or by food combining to create a complete protein. Adding protein balances the macros and helps slow the digestion of fructose from fruit and sweet veggies.

Combining these key base ingredients makes for surprisingly delicious smoothie recipes which are suitable for those looking to heal and nourish the gut, clean up their diet and rebalance their body weight.

Always Start With The Right Base

The foundation of any great plant-based smoothie is in the base liquid. You'll want to choose a liquid that not only adds a little creaminess, but also provides essential nutrients without too many calories. My recommendation is to avoid dairy which can ferment in the gut, and choose low-calorie, plant-based options such as unsweetened almond or oat milk, thirst quenching coconut water, or creamy coconut milk. Which one you choose will depend on your dietary preferences and nutritional needs. These clean eating choices not only enhance the flavour of plant-based smoothies, but they also contribute to the overall nutritional value and consistency.

MEAL PREP TIP: pair thick milk ingredients, such as coconut milk with less dense fruits and vegetables. Save the more watery liquid options, like almond milk or vegetable broth, for mixing with thicker produce such as bananas or avocados. This approach will help you create a well-balanced consistency in your meals and maximise the nutritional benefits of each ingredient.

Add Leafy Greens

For a high-fibre, nutritional boost, add a generous handful of leafy greens like beetroot tops, fresh spinach, micro-greens, shredded kale, watercress, or Swiss chard. Leafy greens are naturally rich sources of essential vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants while also adding vibrant colour to your smoothie. Don't worry; the grass-like taste of many greens is completely masked by all the other ingredients, so your plant-based smoothie will still taste delicious.

MEAL PREP TIP: A little helpful meal planning tip is to freeze your greens first. When you freeze spinach and kale, the frozen leaves shatter like glass if you squeeze them. I often wash and toss some in a Ziplock bag and freeze. When I need it for smoothies or other baking, I just crush the bag and tip out the flakes. So easy!

Experiment With Herbs & Spices

You might not think to flavour your smoothies with these, but clean eating herbs and spices can boost the nutritional profile of your smoothie recipes while offering additional health benefits. Try adding anise or cinnamon for a warming effect, turmeric and ginger for medicinal support, or fresh mint for a refreshing summer kick.

For Diabetics & Insulin Resistance

If you are diabetic like me, you can make blood-balancing recipes by swapping out high-GI banana for low-carb steamed cauliflower, cooked, cinnamon-seasoned sweet potato, a scoop of rolled oats, or creamed oats or quinoa in any recipe. This will create as close as you can get to that banana soft serve-like consistency in smoothies. It's also a great idea to do this for variety and not just rely on super sweet bananas to flavour plant-based smoothies every time. See recipe below on how to do this.

Fresh, High-Fibre Fruits

Fresh fruits are the super stars when it comes to plant-based smoothies. They provide natural sweetness, dietary fibre, and a wide variety of vital vitamins and minerals that makes your skin glow. Berries, bananas, mangoes, and avocados are popular clean eating choices, but don't be shy to experiment with different combinations to discover your favourite flavour combinations. Explore more exotic fruits as well such a dragon fruit, passion fruits, lychees, and coconut meat.

MEAL PREP TIP: frozen is just as good a fresh in smoothies. In fact, fruit that is flash frozen after picking is often more nutritious that fruits and berries that have been force to stay fresh on grocery shelves. Frozen fruit and produce can sometimes be much cheaper as well, so check for bargains in the freezer section for staples like banana, berries, dragon fruit, mango, lychee, and passion fruit.

Healthy, Plant-based Fats

Healthy fats are crucial for your overall well-being and are an essential part of a clean eating diet. I recommend adding in a source of healthy fat from almond butter, coconut oil, or an avocado to plant-based smoothies. These ingredients not only improve smoothie texture but also provide long-lasting energy and support brain health. Smoothies based on high fibre and healthy fats are also excellent meal replacements to help rebalance your body weight naturally.

Protein For Blood Sugar Balance

To make plant-based smoothies more satisfying and nourishing, include a source of plant protein. Adding this to your smoothies can help improve satiety, increase muscle mass and strength, and help with weight loss. Plus, protein is an easy way to get an extra boost of nutrition without having to spend more time on preparing meals. This is especially helpful for those on a lower carb lifestyle, who have blood sugar issues, or who are diabetic. Consider adding organic non-GMO tofu, an organic protein powder (such as a brown rice/pea or plant-based variety), pumpkin and chia seeds, and nut butters to your plant-based smoothies for extra nourishment. 

Natural Thickeners

Many people will add ice cubes or frozen bananas and other fruit to their smoothies to make the consistency thicker and more like that of soft-serve ice cream. This creates that thick, fold out into a coconut bowl style of smoothie you've probably seen temping you on Instagram. If you are diabetic, alternatives to high-GI banana include avocado, steamed cauliflower, yoghurt, and nut butters as mentioned above. If you prefer a more drinkable smoothie, use room temperature ingredients and pour the smoothie over ice to serve instead.

Superfoods In Smoothies

Superfoods like antioxidant-rich acai puree, nutritious bee pollen, omega-3 rich chia and flaxseeds, hemp hearts, and spirulina can take your plant-based smoothie next level with just a small sprinkling. These high nutritious, clean eating ingredients are jam-packed with essential nutrients and just a teaspoon or two can make a huge difference.

Superfood Smoothie Ingredients

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Plant-based Smoothie Recipe

Easy Step-By-Step Guide

Below I have created a simple plant-based smoothie recipe that is an excellent starter for anyone wishing to eat more plants and experiment with smoothies. Once you are used to making basic smoothies, you can then add in a superfoods like chia or flax seeds, psyllium husk or LSA keeps your gut happy, and a scoop or two of collagen for glowing skin, and others. But for now, blenders ready? Let's try it!

Basic Plant-Based Smoothie Recipe

PREP: 2 minutes | SERVINGS: 1-2 NUTRITION: 370 kcal | 4 g Protein | 8 g Fibre | 6g Fat | 40g Carbs

Ingredients

• 1 banana, chopped and fully frozen

• 250ml almond milk, unsweetened

• 1 cup of fresh or frozen greens, organic

• 1/2 cup fruit of choice, fresh or frozen

• 1 scoop (30g) plant-based protein powder (vanilla recommended)

• add a handful of crushed ice (remember this makes a thick smoothie texture)

The Low Carb Option

• replace the banana with 1/4 cup steamed cauliflower

• choose lower carb berries as your fruit

• include 1 tbsp almond butter or 1/2 avocado

Cooking Instructions

Add the liquid first, then all the remaining ingredients to a blender, and process on high until all the ingredients are well combined, about 2-3 minutes. Spoon or pour into a serving bowl and top with your favourite crunchy and fruit toppings. If using the Low Carb Option, steam a head of cauliflower in water seasoned with a few drops of vanilla extract. Wait until the cauliflower has fully cooled before blending. In a high-powered blender, add all the ingredients together.

Try this yummy plant-based smoothie recipe rotating a mixture of healthy greens like beetroot tops, spinach, kale, or watercress. Add a little nut butter and seeds to up the protein content, or try it with a scoop of chocolate or other flavoured, vegan protein powder. There are literally so many ways to make this smoothie recipe and in a variety of plant-based flavours so you'll never get bored. Pop down in the comments and share your thoughts. Did you enjoy it as is, or add more to it?

Tips For Perfect Plant-Based Smoothies

Make Smoothies Like A Pro

Getting plant-based smoothies just right takes a bit of practice, but these tips will help you create consistently delicious results every time. Whether you're just starting out or looking to perfect your smoothie game, these techniques will make all the difference.

• always liquid first: this helps the blender process ingredients smoothly, avoids clogging the blades

• balance flavours: sweet fruits pair well with earthy vegetables to mask bland flavours

• don't overdo It: remember, you can have too much of a good thing; keep your portions balanced for the best nutritional benefit rather than stuff it all in one smoothie

• hide your vegetables: start with mild greens like spinach, which blend well and have minimal flavour then work you way up to more noticeable greens as you practise making good tasting recipes

• no added sugar: it's really not required when you make well-balanced recipes; if you must add a touch of sweetness, go for a few organic dates or a pinch of stevia and monk fruit

• prep ahead: portion smoothie ingredients into freezer bags for grab-and-go convenience during busy mornings, I call these "drop bags" and share how to make them here.

Adding even just a few plant-based smoothies into your weekly clean eating menu can be a simple, nutritious, and effective way to improve your diet. By adding these nutrient-dense beverages to your diet, you'll be supporting your overall health and well-being in a convenient and deeply nourishing way. If you'd like a quick guide on making smoothies, check out this post called, How To Make The Perfect Smoothie Every Time and quickly learn how to blend like a pro.

FAQs About Plant-Based Smoothies

Can I get enough protein from a plant-based smoothie?

Absolutely. By adding a plant-based protein powder, nut butter, seeds (chia, hemp, flax), or oats, you can easily create a balanced smoothie that provides 20–30g of protein per serving. The key here is to choose a high-quality, vegan protein powder that blends different plant-based ingredients to provide all the essential amino acids typically found in animal protein sources. For example, pea protein combined with brown rice protein creates a complete amino acid profile, and other combinations such as beans with whole grains, or hemp with chia seeds, can also help form a complete plant-based protein.

Do I need to use frozen fruit in smoothies?

Honestly, the choice is yours. While frozen fruit isn't a must for smoothies, it definitely provides flavour and helps give smoothies that soft-serve ice cream texture. You can add fresh fruit along with crushed ice or yogurt to get the similar, creamy texture you get with frozen fruits like banana, mango or lychee. Enjoy experimenting with the fruits and other ingredients you like best to create the perfect creaminess.

Are smoothies good for weight loss?

Most definitely, you just need to bare in mind a few things. Smoothies are nutrient-dense and when the macros are well-balanced with protein, fibre, and healthy fats, they can help control cravings, boost energy and boost the metabolism and help with fat burn. Start with a clean protein powder that is at least 30g of protein per serving. Add 1-2 low carb, high fibre fruits to this and a low calorie milk such as unsweetened almond to balanced out the nutrition. Combined with nut and seeds for add healthy fats, smoothies can help support your weight loss goals.

Can I replace a meal with a smoothie?

Yes, but best if it is properly balanced. A good meal-replacement smoothie should include clean, lean protein from protein powder, seeds, nut butter, a small portion of healthy fats such as avocado, chia, or flax, and plenty of dietary fibre (think berries, leafy greens, chia seeds or rolled oats). These provide plenty of micronutrients and a well rounded meal replacement when needed. If you want a smoothie meal plan to get started, come try my detox smoothie cookbook where you feast on two smoothies per day and clean eating dinner for a gentle detox.

What’s the best liquid to use for a plant-based smoothie?

Depending on your dietary preferences, try an unsweetened almond milk, oat milk, coconut water, or soy milk if you are plant-based or vegan. Stick with the unsweetened varieties to avoid extra sugar and choose brands that have minimal ingredients. There is nothing wrong with just plain water either, don't be shy to experiment to find what works best for you.

Can kids have plant-based smoothies?

Most definitely, kids can enjoy nutritious smoothies too! Plant-based smoothies are a fabulous way to sneak in extra fruits and veggies for those fussy eaters in your household. Just skip protein powders with artificial ingredients for young children, they aren't necessary or recommended for children under 12 years old. Focus on high fibre fruits and veggies, a little natural sweetness from dates or berries, and a little healthy fats from avocado. Always provide kids with a glass a of water after enjoying their smoothie to help with digestion and assimilating the extra dietary fibre.

Do I need a high-speed blender?

Not necessarily, but it sure helps. A high-speed blender like this one I love by Smeg or a robust Ninja Blaster Portable Blender will make smoothies extra creamy and prep time less than a minute to blend. However, a regular food processor can also work fine, just blend longer and use smaller chunks of frozen fruit. If you are new to smoothies, I'd work on creating a little recipe collection you'll find in my detox smoothie cookbook fist, then decide what type of blender will suit your needs morning forward. You might like to check out this article I shared called, How To Make The Perfect Smoothie Every Time

to help you get started.

Healthy + happiness,

Emma Lisa xx

HEALTH & NUTRITION PRACTITIONER

Emma Lisa, Nutritionist & Women's Practitioner

Emma Lisa is a Nutritionist & Women's Health Practitioner with over 14+ years experience in wholefood nutrition, meal planning and health coaching. She is a published cookbook author, passionate food recipe creator and lifestyle blogger, and an advocate for women's health and anti-diet culture. When she's not in clinic, Emma is mum to five kids, in her test kitchen and sharing her creative talents as a wellness digital creator. She lives in Sydney, Australia. FOLLOW: Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest 

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