This sweet and creamy avocado smoothie is perfect for a quick breakfast or an afternoon snack. It only contains three ingredients and tastes even better than ice cream!
Sometimes a great recipe doesn’t need to be complicated. This avocado banana smoothie is one of the best ideas that I came up so far! Although the recipe does not contain vanilla, it’s so creamy and tastes like vanilla ice cream. No, even better than ice cream!
The Epic Fail
Once again, a good idea came from a failed recipe. Since I made the avocado milkshake, which tastes amazing by the way, I started to ponder ways to make the recipe healthier. I came up with this idea to replace the ice cream with plain yogurt and use honey to add sweetness. I did it all wrong.
First of all, I made a bad call by freezing the yogurt. I wanted to make a cold drink and thought it’d be more convenient to add frozen yogurt instead of ice cubes. Turns out, freezing the yogurt alters the texture of the yogurt significantly, and it just doesn’t feel right. I also realized that I killed all the good bacteria in the yogurt by freezing it! First lesson learned: if nobody has done it before, there is probably a good reason.
The failure didn’t stop there. I picked an avocado that was not fully ripened. Oops! That was the only avocado left at home and I really wanted to try the recipe. So I used it anyway. The result? The avocado was so tough that it could not even be blended with the other ingredients after 5 minutes of mixing. There were small, chewy chunks of avocado in the finished drink. OUCH! Lesson 2: you can’t force something to happen before the time is right.
The failure didn’t end there, either. I used date flower honey in the smoothie. This type of honey has a dark amber color and a very unique date flavor. It works amazingly as a topper for Greek yogurt, but not at all in a smoothie. I could taste a strange flavor coming from the honey after the drink was blended. Lesson 3: not every ingredient needs to be healthy.
Heartbroken was the feeling after the epic failure of creating a healthy avocado smoothie. But luckily, I didn’t stop there.
Just Get Over It and Get Yo’ Feet Back on the Ground!
I remembered my boyfriend used to freeze ripe bananas and use them in smoothies, which tasted great. I tried the same. There were some very ripe bananas at home that I didn’t have time to finish before they became too ripe. I threw them in the freezer and decided to use them in a smoothie later. I think frozen bananas are really handy for smoothies, because they cool down the drink and add sweetness at the same time.
This time I decided to use milk instead of yogurt. The banana and avocado are creamy and thick in texture, so I needed something to dilute it. I didn’t add any sweetener at the beginning. I wanted to see how the smoothie went at first, and add sugar later if needed. Turns out it doesn’t need any! The ripe bananas were sweet enough and the smoothie tasted perfect!
There was one moment when preparing this, I thought, hmmm, this recipe is so simple, maybe I should add something else? But luckily, I couldn’t think of anything that I wanted to add into the smoothie. What a great decision! Lesson 4: sometimes less is more.
Here we are. You only need 3 ingredients and 5 minutes to finish up a quick breakfast, a post run snack, or a simple dinner. Oh wait, there’s an added bonus. You now have another way to get rid of overripe bananas, other than making banana bread! Isn’t it amazing? 😉
The Best Three-Ingredient Avocado Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 Avocado , cubed
- 2 frozen banana , chopped
- 400 milliliters (14 ounces) milk
Instructions
- Combine avocado, banana and milk in a blender. Blend until smooth.
- Serve immediately.
LOVE this smoothie and reading about how you came up with this recipe! I’ve totally done the same thing with eating an avocado before it was fully ripe. It was as hard as a rock!
Hey Maggie, the smoothie looks great and I’m sure it tastes delicious! Thanks for sharing your experience, I’ll make sure I never freeze yogurt for a smoothie! It is unbelievable how many things we have to go through in order do develop a simple, healthy recipe at times 🙂 Beautiful pictures!
This smoothie looks so creamy! Thanks for sharing your tips, I’ve done the same thing with freezing yogurt too 🙁 So glad you were able to come up with this recipe and share it with us! Love avocado smoothies!
I’m the kind of girl who would drink a smoothie everyday. This avocado smoothie looks so delicious and creamy! Definitely going to be trying this out next week! Thanks for the awesome (and super easy!) recipe. 🙂
Better than ice cream?! Then I’ve GOT to try this! lol I love your tenacity when it comes to creating something great from recipe failures. And your last lesson is my favorite…we tend to over complicate things, don’t we?
Hi Christine, before trying out the recipe, you really need some sleep! I saw the time when you left the comment, it’s already nearly early morning… Girl, you work too hard!
I love this recipe, Maggie. I make a similar one with banana, pineapple, coconut milk and yogurt.
This one has got to be tried! Some days I think we need everything to go wrong in order to appreciate the good days, don’t you think? lol.
I have such a hard time finding good avocados. I’m guessing it’s much easier where you live.
Thanks for a great recipe!
Hmmm, the banana pineapple version sounds so delicious! You should definitely post it! Sometimes I think the simple stuff is the best 🙂
It’s difficult to find avocado here too. Most of the time I have to purchase online. I always order a lot to get discount, and also to make sure I can pick out a few good ones!
I’ve never been brave enough to add avocado to my smoothie 🙂 I always wanted to though! This one is so easy, then I should give it a try!
Hi Shiran, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment! Yep, this smoothie is so easy and taste good. Hope you like it 🙂
I was so pleased to find this recipe! It takes me back in my mind to a Mexican vacation nearly 20 years ago. I remember enjoying fruit smoothies they call licuados. I don’t recall how I hit on the idea of a banana/avocado licuado, but I enjoyed the creamy, mildly sweet flavor. I had a hard time ordering them at the cafe I frequented because the woman there thought that combination sounded so awful. She would refuse to make it. I basically had to beg and promise to finish the darn thing. Good times!
Hi Eric, glad to hear you like avocado smoothie! Oh no, the combination of avocado and banana is not awful at all! Well, it might sound weird and I didn’t believe it’s a nice drink until I tried it once. It’s funny that they refused to make it at the cafe. But now you don’t need to convince them anymore, since you can easily make them at home 😉
This is a very intriguing-sounding recipe. I’m not sure it would fly with my husband. Although, if all he could taste was the banana, it might work. The other issue for me is finding a good avocado. I was spoiled for the majority of my life with generous neighbors with avocado trees. Now I have to buy them at the grocery store and I seem to have a hard time finding good ones. Sorry your Memorial Day got rained out.
Hi Susan, this drink tastes quite banana, only better. The avocado adds a nice fatty and creamy texture, and only a subtle flavor.
Wow, it’s amazing that you could get fresh avocado from a tree! I don’t even know what’s an avocado tree looks like. Comparing to the avocado in China, I’m quite satisfied with the selection here. But yeah, sometimes it’s a bit tricky to get good ones.
We’re planning to grill again tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will be better this time!
Have a great weekend 🙂
Hi Maggie,
Thanks for the info on the flavor. I’ll definitely try it (and subject my husband to it…) Here’s a link to a picture of an avocado tree: http://www.plantnurserytampa.com/tampa-tree-nursery/fruit-trees/avacodo/
They are usually very large, spreading trees, which grow well in southern California and in Florida.
Enjoy your grilling! And I hope it stays dry for you. I understand that most of Texas has been dealing with a lot of rain.
Hi Susan, thanks for sharing the picture of avocado tree. It’s great to know that they grow it in the US too. I’ll watch out for them next time when I visit southern California.
The grilling went great yesterday and the weather was perfect. I’ll post the recipe and share some pictures this week 🙂
Hope the smoothie turns out great and let me know whether you and your husband like it!
Hi Maggie, I’ve been reading food blogs by you and several others so much recently. I live in the Caribbean, so many tropical fruits and veggies are plentiful, but most things are brought in from the U.S. and Canada. We also have these critters called monkeys that make it difficult to enjoy our fruits and veggies. I saw your comment about an avocado tree and that is one of the things that grows well here, and I don’t think the monkeys like.
I have 1/2 of a small avocado left and plenty of fozen banana’s so I may have this for breakfast tomorrow. It sounds very good.
Hi Cathy, Caribbean has great weather year round and I can imagine the fresh tropical fruits you can get easily. So envious! Very interesting to hear about monkeys. I seldom see them in the wild, but it’s not so fun if they eat all the fruits from the tree! I wish I can pick avocado from a tree in the future. I bet the avocado will taste so great!
Happy cooking and hope the smoothie turns out great 🙂
I saw this last night & made it first thing this morning! Amazingly the avocados I bought had one ripe one ready, plus I had frozen 5 bananas that were overripe for eating. I did add some vanilla protein powder to make it a complete breakfast, and my daughter & I love this! Will definitely make again!
I’m so glad to hear you like this drink Joan! Believe me or not, I just had a ripen avocado today and made this again too 🙂 Adding vanilla protein powder is definitely a great idea. I’ll try out next time. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Just made my first real smoothie. Thanks, Maggie!
I’ve been making milk shakes, just milk, cocoa powder, honey, and a couple of fresh raw organic eggs thrown in, but never made an actual smoothie until now. Having a few avocados that all got ripe at the same time, and an overripe banana, I googled for “banana avocado smoothie,” and your recipe came up. Marvellous!
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed the smoothie! Happy New Year 🙂
Thank you for posting! I added a cup of baby spinach and almond milk to mine and it was wonderful.
Glad to hear you enjoy the drink Heather! LOVE the idea of adding baby spinach. It sounds so delicious and healthy 🙂
Banana is a good ingredient for lot of good smoothies.
you didn’t kill the good bacteria in the yogurt by freezing it? people who make yogurt (i.e. me, although i’ve not tried this trick yet) often freeze their yogurt starters to preserve the bacteria. not for very LONG, but for a month or so… the proof is in the fact that these starters will make new yogurt. people who’ve tried it claim it’s identical in quality to yogurt made with “fresh” bacteria. sometimes these sorts of organisms can be sleepy right after being taken out (i know sourdough has this problem), so it may not be as beneficial if eaten while frozen, but it is not dead unless your freezer was very abnormally cold or it was left long enough it would’ve died several times over in the fridge.
this looks like a lovely recipe! I always have trouble remembering to keep things simple with my smoothies, but when I do, they’re better for it.
Hi Milo, I don’t really know if the freezing process would kill the bacteria. Thank you for sharing your knowledge about yogurt making and I’m very intrigued. Will look into this more the next time when I develop yogurt related recipes 🙂
Great post! Have nice day ! 🙂 xejkz
Can i add egg to the combination.
I think so. Although you might want to add more liquid to dilute the smoothie. It will get quite thick.
Just made for myself and daughter (6) who will not eat avocado. I added a teaspoon of honey, my bananas were not very sweet and she is loving it. Thank yoy so much!
Thanks for the recipe, I don’t know where I went wrong, though, lol. Mine came out just like a cup of milk that tasted a bit like banana (I made sure it was 14oz of milk. I don’t know if there are different sizes of avocado, never used them before, but the lady upstairs insists on leaving me some on occasion, and so I thought instead of letting them go to rot like I usually do as I don’t really know what to do with them, I will try something with them. The avocados are Mexican and quite small. Also, I guess it wasn’t quite ripe enough as the end product was ‘bitty’. I strained it so I could at least drink the milk. Maybe I will try again when the other avocados are softer.
This intrigued me, and I took your guidance about not using yogurt. But I’m not a milk drinker. So I substituted coconut water. Delicious!
Thanks for the tip, Ruti! It’s always nice to know about these substitutions. And the drink is already quite creamy (in texture) because of the banana and avocado – I bet it’s extra refreshing with the coconut water!
I just made this and my boyfriend was not convinced this would be good. Turned out amazing and I will be making again in the future. My boyfriend tried it and was surprised how good it was. Our bananas were ripe, but not super ripe. I can only imagine how good it would be with super ripe bananas! Will be making again.
Just found your site when doing a search for avocado smoothies, and I’m so glad I did! Who knew such a simple recipe would yield such great results!? So creamy, so smooth, and other than the slightly greenish color, you’d never know it had avocado in it. Simply lovely! And, it seems like it would be a great base for other flavors, like cocoa, cinnamon, coconut, pineapple, Etc. Thank you for your sticktoitiveness to come up with such a great recipe, and thank you for sharing it. Looking forward perusing the rest of your site!
Hi Maggie, I have two avacado trees at my house (one of them is not as productive)and we usualy end up throwing them away because noone knows what to do with them but Im so glad I came across your recepie! Ive tried it a few times without the milk and it tastes great too.Do you have anyother avacado recepies? I would love to know. Thanks!
Great job on the recipe. It’s perfect
Your way of giving tips abt do’s and don’ts s fabulous. Thank you so much I didn’t end up with a disaster just because of them.
Love this smoothie! I added some dark chocolate cocoa powder (!) chia seeds and sliced almonds and it is just divine.
First of all, I must make it clear how much I love this smoothie. I leave for work M-Sat at 430am and this smoothie is something quick to make in the morn and plenty filling to last me almost til lunchtime. I must ask if there is a way to pre make it and store it just for a couple hours? It would be really helpful
Hi Sean, I think you can store the smoothie in the fridge for a couple of hours without any problems. It might thicken quite a bit so you might want to add more liquid (water or milk) to dilute it.
Surprising delight!!
Do you freeze the bananas peeled and chopped or keep them whole?
Best wishes
I always peel and chop the bananas before freezing.
Hey Maggie, the smoothie looks delicious! I would drink a smoothie everyday.! I’ve done the same thing with freezing yogurt too.. Thanks for sharing the lovable avocado smoothies..
Used almond milk in the recipe and it is vert delicious.
Added my daily dose of collegen powder and an ice cube or two.
Yum.
Thanks for getting me started on this smoothie!
Hi Maggie, his was so easy to make and was excellent! Highly recommend everyone try this recipe!
Thank you for the insight on Avocado smoothies. I’m going to try it. The only problem is I have frozen cubed Avo that I stored because I had so much on my tree and didn’t want it to be waited. So do you think I can use frozen Avocado with frozen banana? Thank uou
Hi Kemi, I think the frozen avocado will work just well!
It is nice to hear about this nice taste
My smoothie has a few more ingredients but it so yummy it’s like having a milk shake for breakfast I use the frozen banana, avocado, frozen strawberries a handful of red seedless grapes, milk and sometimes canalope. Tomorrow I am going to add some benefiberand flax seed. What do you think?
I added a dash of cinnamon to the recipe & hands down :THE best smoothie I’ve ever had in my entire life! Way to go!
I really enjoyed this smoothie. Mine was kind of bland so I added some lemon juice and honey!
Hi MAGGIE, I made this last night and it was amazing.
Thank you!! I halved the recipe and used a frozen banana. So creamy and delicious!
Awesome recipe! Thanks!
Went to the store today and got avocados, bananas, and milk. Going to test this recipe ASAP.
Absolutely delicious…just wish the calorie count was a bit lower, but while it may be a more calories than my normal ice cream indulgent dessert, I love the all natural / no added sugar ingredients!
Goes great with 2% FairLife milk – very creamy (and yes, like a soft ice cream) and the FairLife lowers the sugar and gives a bit of a protein boost
This smoothie looks healthy and easy to make. Thanks for this nice recipe.
avacado.love it.i put in scrambled egg when make french toast w/raisin cinn bread delicious! and homemade fruit &avacado popsicles !! Yummm.Our baby loves them all ..Avacado &spinache go in almost all my soups,makes creamy delicious…. its better then potatoe for me, i cant eat potatoes.you can tell i make alot of homemade baby food..We eat it too..stay healty and safe 💜💜👍
Great simple recipe I do add just a little bit of vanilla protein powder which I enhances it.
Truly appreciate the way you made this delicious smoothly. Everything is so nicely described that really helped me to make the recipe at home. Thanks for the lovely treat.
This was fantastic!! Added some honey for extra sweetness too
Pretty sure you did not come up with this. My mom was making this back in the 50’s. Exact ingredients. I have been making it ever since.
This is delicious. I have a bit of a sweet tooth, so added some maple syrup
Loved the recipes and the thickness was just perfect. i added little cinnamon for flair. Thanks