Avocado Spinach Smoothie – Your Fitness Fix! | Hurry The Food Up
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This avocado spinach smoothie is a high protein vegan breakfast inspired by Ben Greenfield – a nutrition and fitness expert, triathlon and Spartan Race competitor, as well as New York Times Bestseller! So I think we can trust that it’s going to be pretty darn healthy!
It’s definitely quick and easy too, on top of being vegan, which is great.
It’s Ben’s new daily breakfast and he swears it makes him feel full straight away without being drowsy and keeps him going all day long.
We have added a small amount of syrup to his healthy avocado smoothie, to add some sweetness. Ben’s original recipe is VERY SERIOUS and not for the faint of heart.
But seeing as we are just trying to improve our day to day health (not compete in Spartan Races!), we thought we could get away with a bit of extra sugar!
The avocado spinach smoothie is especially good for people who have little to no time in the morning and want to make sure they get all the important macro and micro nutrients to set them up for the day.
One serving contains around 300 calories, a big ol’ meal and (almost) enough to keep you going till lunch time. If you think it’s too much for you, just make two servings out of it!
It makes a great post workout smoothie too, because it contains plenty of protein and carbs!
Want to know how to make avocado smoothies? Easy! Pop everything in the blender and go!
A health breakdown of the avocado spinach smoothie
Ben Greenfield wrote a very insightful article about what elements an ideal breakfast should contain. In short they are:
- A carbohydrate that is unrefined and unprocessed
- Protein to increase blood levels of amino acids
- Healthy fats
This smoothie incorporates all three. It contains the natural unrefined carbs present in avocados, 9.9g protein per serving and 25.8g of healthy unsaturated fats per serving! WOW!
It packs high amounts of loads of other nutrients too – vitamins A and C, potassium, iron, calcium, to name a few.
It really is the ultimate avocado smoothie recipe!
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Why try this avocado smoothie for weight loss?
So we’ve established that this is a great breakfast, post workout drink and all round crazy healthy smoothie – but what about as a weight loss smoothie?
There are a few things that we think make food good for weight loss. And no! Those things are not low calories and low fat!
We think that good weight loss foods are healthy foods that fill you up for as long as possible. If you are full, you won’t want to snack, therefore you are more likely to maintain a slim calorie deficit and lose weight consistently, without going hungry!
Protein and fibre are two essential things that make a food filling. Fibre is high in volume and slow to digest, while protein literally suppresses production of the hunger hormone ghrelin.
As shown above, this avocado spinach smoothie has plenty of both protein and fibre, which is why we think it is a good weight loss food (in fact vegetable smoothies in general are a great option!).
You should check out our free weight loss meal plan if you want to learn more about how to eat healthy, filling foods to achieve your weight loss goals!
Smoothies are generally a pretty good weight loss option. You should check out our spinach and banana smoothie or our blueberry banana smoothie for more inspo!
How to make avocado smoothies
To be honest, that heading is a bit of red herring – because all you have to do for this simple avocado smoothie is whack the ingredients in a blender and WHIZZ!
However, there are a few tips and tricks we can give you to make sure your avocado spinach smoothie is as yummy as possible.
Firstly, we recommend making sure you use a ripe avocado. It should feel lightly soft but not mushy to the touch and be a very dark green almost black colour.
We also want to highlight that while this is technically a chocolate avocado smoothie, the recipe specifies pure cocoa powder and dark chocolate nibs. None of that nesquik rubbish!
Real cocoa powder has numerous health benefits! It contains nutrients that can help strengthen your immune system, improve muscle and nerve function and even reduce risk of heart disease.
Lastly, you’ll have noticed that we put adding protein powder as an option – we would strongly suggest you do this (but if you don’t want to , try our protein powder free high protein breakfast ideas instead)! It’s super helpful to drink high protein smoothies for weight loss, so that extra hit of protein will do you a world of good!
But for now – enjoy your delicious avocado spinach smoothie!
Ingredients
- 1 handful spinach
- 1 tbsp parsley, fresh
- ½ avocado
- 1 tsp cacao powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ⅓ tsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp walnuts (almonds are fine too)
- 1 tsp dark chocolate nibs
- 2 tsp coconut flakes
- ½ cup water (maybe a bit more)
- ½ tsp maple syrup (honey, if you are fine with that)
- ½ cup soy milk (milk would work too – just keep it gluten-free if necessary)
- 1 serving protein powder
Instructions
- Throw everything into a blender and blend for 60 seconds.1 handful spinach, 1 tbsp parsley, fresh, ½ avocado, 1 tsp cacao powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, ⅓ tsp sea salt, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp walnuts, 1 tsp dark chocolate nibs, 2 tsp coconut flakes, ½ cup water, ½ tsp maple syrup, ½ cup soy milk, 1 serving protein powder
- Done.
NOTES
Nutrition
This article has been medically reviewed by James LeBaigue MSc Learn More
James LeBaigue MSc
James has a Masters Degree in Sport and Exercise Nutrition, as well as an Advanced Diploma in Human Nutrition.
He loves combining his scientific knowledge along with food in the real world, and these recipes are the result.
He’s on top of all the latest evidence and guidelines to make sure our nutrition advice on the website is as accurate as it can be.
By day he works as an Advanced Clinical Practitioner in a busy NHS GP Practice.
Each recipe is tested and then eaten (much to James’ delight), many times before it is deemed worthy to be published. Bon appetit!
Comments
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22 comments
What protein powder did you use? Considering how much other protein there is in those ingredients, that doesn’t seem like a lot in the protein powder.
Good question! We used regular protein powder, one serving of which is about a quarter cup, or 1-2 scoops, that’s usually provided inside the package. That one serving normally equals 25 grams of protein, so 12.5g per glass of Avocado Spinach Smoothie. The rest protein comes from spinach, milk and other ingredients!
This smoothie is delicious! Be wary of your protein powder, mine made the smoothie way too thick. Other than that, this smoothie is sure to keep you full and fit!
This is awesome!!! Chocolate and spinach may not seem compatible, but they’re a match made in smoothie heaven. It’s a refreshing and delicious way to offer your body quality nutrition. I so love it!
I just had this smoothie as well!! It somehow became my go to smoothie almost every day! Glad you liked it 🙂
Hi Henry, that would depend a lot on what else you eat. The smoothie alone wouldn’t make you gain weight, and when combined with other healthy meals and regular exercise (like you already do) it would make for a very balanced diet. The smoothie incorporates a huge amount of protein, fiber, vitamins, potassium etc and certainly goes a long way to making sure that you get all the nutrients your body needs. That being said, it’s relatively high in energy and calories and is a pretty large meal – I tend to split it into two. One serving for breakfast, and the other as a morning snack, or even for lunch. If you’re planning on a workout then it’ll definitely give you a big energy boost! Enjoy!
Is this smoothie more for highly active people that exercise a lot? I exercise 30 to 45 minutes four times a week. Would this recipe make me gain weight ( which I don’t need). Or lose weight.