Peanut Butter, Spinach and Banana Smoothie--an Allergen Friendly Recipe

Creamy, satisfying, and green--this peanut butter, spinach and banana smoothie has it all. A smoothie you drink because you want to AND because you want to feel good about what you're eating.

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Ready for a fresh meal in a glass? One that you can meal prep, too?

I've got a yummy green smoothie for you--it's what I've been living on the past few weeks. I figured it's a good time to republish this recipe post.

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If you are already a green smoothie person skip this paragraph. If you're not, why not? I used to drink green smoothies (spinach or kale combined with fruits in an attempt to make the greens palatable) and feel virtuous, not satiated, so I understand the lukewarm feeling towards the green smoothie. But I would like you to try this one, if you've got spinach and banana lying around and feel so inclined.



In Ohio I'd walk down to the farmer's market each Saturday to buy a bag of spinach and make this. It's that good. It's NOT like the other green smoothies I used to drink. I drink it because I enjoy the taste and feel satisfied after a glass. My kids ask me to make this. Our whole family enjoys this smoothie.

I've moved on to my neighbors and my spinach guy in my quest to change the perceptions of the green smoothie. The 5th time I said to someone, "oh it's easy, just throw a banana, a handful of spinach and a big spoonful of peanut butter into a blender" I clued in that maybe this recipe wasn't too simple for the blog.


I never thought I'd share a smoothie recipe, period, but here's my second. Want a terrific idea for (most recently) teachers, or new moms, or anyone recovering from oral surgery who may need an easy nutrition boost? Check out my Make and Take Smoothies post.

I mentioned allergen friendly in the title, and yet this smoothie contains peanut butter and dairy products, two of the big players in the food allergy list. Guess what? THIS SMOOTHIE IS DELICIOUS DAIRY FREE AND/OR PEANUT FREE! Yeah, I'm shouting.

Spinach, banana and ice are the common ingredients, but I've had it swapping cultured vanilla soy milk 'yogurt' and vanilla almond milk for the dairy ingredients and my neighbor liked a dairy and peanut free preparation using sunflower nut butter (she let me borrow her jar for the photo op).

So many brands, so little--as in zero--sponsorship. This is what I bought. Or my neighbor did.

So, are you going to try this green smoothie? If you eat peanut butter you'll love this flavor. If you are peanut free use the nut butter of your choice. Are you dairy free? Use a vanilla-flavored nut milk and cultured soy milk for an absolutely scrumptious smoothie.


[After making dairy-free smoothies for my daughter's teacher recovering from throat surgery, I was going to hand over the rest of the almond milk carton to my neighbor. I could use the room in the fridge. However, once I tasted a smoothie I was smitten and kept the rest of the carton.]



Sometimes I feel like I'm cheating on my Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farmers. I have a weekly Saturday morning rendezvous with my Spinach guy because, quite frankly, he gives me what I crave. It's a mindset switch. Instead of only eating from the farm share and the garden, I'm eating what I want in addition to the produce from the farm share and garden. And I want spinach. For this.

A selection of dairy free smoothies for the teacher.

For other recipes using spinach, please see my Spinach Recipes Collection, part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.

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This recipe makes enough for 1 very large serving or 2 servings. Smoothies are easy to keep for several days (I use a 1 pint canning jar with these reusable caps (Amazon affiliate link). Simply store in the fridge, take out and shake up to combine the settled out flavors, and enjoy.

Peanut Butter, Spinach, and Banana Smoothie
By Kirsten Madaus

Recipe for an allergy-friendly smoothie. Creamy, satisfying and green, this peanut butter, spinach and banana smoothie has it all.

Prep time: 00:05
Cook time: 00:00
Total time: 00:05

Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients:
½ cup vanilla yogurt--if using plain yogurt, add a dollop of honey (cultured soy milk works great)
2 Tablespoons peanut butter (sunflower butter works great)
1 ripe banana
1½ cups milk (vanilla nut milk works great) plus a splash more if you need to help the blender go
2 cups spinach leaves (baby or grown up, the age of your spinach does not matter)
6-8 ice cubes

Instructions:

Layer ingredients in the order shown into a blender capable of crushing ice into tiny drinkable bits. I use my ancient Vitamix.

Cover the blender, plug in and turn on [I write this way for me, not you, appliances and I have issues]. Slowly bring up the speed of the blades after you start to see spinach pieces spinning around.

Blend at full power until ice is silent (fully incorporated) and you can't see any more pieces of spinach--it's pure green. Serve and enjoy, or pour some into a storage container for another day.