This chocolate kefir smoothie is the perfect recipe for turning your kefir into a delicious and healthy dessert-like drink with just 4 wholesome ingredients!
This smoothie is so quick and easy to make, and its nutritional benefits are pretty impressive. From probiotics, to antioxidants, to protein and nutrients, this smoothie has it all!
Let’s get into how to make it…
How to Make a Chocolate Kefir Smoothie
Step 1: Gather ingredients
This simple smoothie calls for just 4 delicious and nutrient-dense ingredients:
1. Kefir
If you’ve had kefir before, you probably know that kefir is a probiotic fermented milk drink. Essentially, kefir is a bacteria/yeast culture that eats the sugars in dairy, leaving behind carbonation, acidity, and probiotics. It is an incredibly healthy drink with plenty of health benefits (which we’ll get into below).
You can buy kefir from the store, or if you get your hands on kefir grains, you can easily make it at home (this is the cheaper option for sure).
If you make kefir at home, you know that kefir can change in consistency as it ferments, from thinner milk-like liquid to thicker yogurt-like creaminess. The thicker the better in my opinion, but you can really use it at any stage of thickness for this smoothie since it gets blended and liquified very quickly in the blender.
2. Cocoa powder (or cacao powder)
Next is the ingredient that brings the flavour to the smoothie – chocolate!
You can use either raw cocoa powder or cacao powder. The reasons we want to use these raw forms of chocolate is that they do not contain any added sugar or extra ingredients. We will be adding some natural sweeteners to this smoothie, but it’s nice to be able to control how much sugar you are putting in your drink. These raw forms of chocolate also offer many health benefits (see below).
3. Banana
Banana is one of my favourite ways to naturally sweeten a smoothie. Not only is it sweet, but it’s also quite creamy and helps thicken up the smoothie, especially when frozen. Sweet, well-ripened banana helps counter some of that sourness and acidity from the kefir, while also working well with the chocolate flavour.
Frozen banana is definitely best for this smoothie to make it cold and slightly thicker.
4. Dates
Finally, for additional natural sweetness, toss a date or two into the blend. Medjool dates in particular are soft and gooey so they will blend nicely, and have a slight caramel-y flavour that goes well with the flavours of this smoothie.
Depending on how much you want to drown out the sourness of the kefir and the bitterness of the chocolate, you can add more dates to your taste.
That’s it! This simple combination of ingredients makes for a lovely chocolatey, slightly sweet, slightly tangy smoothie.
Optionally, you can always jazz this smoothie up further with additional flavours and ingredients, such as:
- Vanilla extract
- Coconut oil
- Nuts/nut butter
- Fresh orange
- Berries
Step 2: Blend!
Add all ingredients to your blender and blend for about 30-60 seconds until thoroughly smooth.
Pour into glasses and enjoy!
Chocolate Kefir Smoothie Benefits
Thanks to its wholesome ingredients, this chocolate kefir smoothie is rich in:
- Probiotics
- Antioxidants
- Protein
- Vitamins and minerals
Kefir is, of course, a probiotic powerhouse. It is full of “good” bacteria and yeast that help establish and maintain a healthy balance of microorganisms in the gut.
A healthy gut microbiota is a crucial component of overall health. Having the right bacteria in your gut helps the immune system, digestive system, and all other systems of the body function properly.
Kefir has many associated health benefits, including improved digestion, blood sugar regulation, reduced inflammation, and even anti-cancer effects.
Kefir is also made with dairy, usually milk, so it contains plenty of protein, healthy fats, and micronutrients such as calcium, zinc, phosphorus, vitamin D, and B vitamins, to name a few.
Cocoa/cacao powder is an antioxidant powerhouse. Both cocoa and cacao powder come from cacao beans, which contain flavanols. Flavanols are a type of polyphenol – they are antioxidants that help reduce harmful oxidation and inflammation in the cells and the body.
Studies have shown that the antioxidant properties of cacao may benefit many aspects of health associated with inflammation, such as cardiovascular health.
Banana is mainly added as a natural sweetener (which reduces the need for added sugar), but also offers fibre and important vitamins and minerals such as vitamin C, potassium, and magnesium.
Dates are another nutritious natural sweetener with loads of nutritional and health benefits. Like cacao, dates are high in antioxidant compounds, including flavonoids, carotenoids, and phenolic acid.
Dates are also high in fibre (great for regulating digestion and blood sugar) and micronutrients such as vitamin C, vitamin B6, selenium, potassium, magnesium, copper, phosphorus, and others.
Need I say more?! Give this simple, delicious, and incredibly healthy chocolate kefir smoothie a blend, and let me know how you like it in the comments below!
Other Kefir Smoothie Recipes
If you like this smoothie and want more tasty kefir smoothie recipes, here are some you might enjoy:
Strawberry Banana Kefir Smoothie
Chocolate Kefir Smoothie
This chocolate kefir smoothie is so simple to make with just 4 wholesome ingredients! It tastes like dessert but is incredibly healthy thanks to its nutrient-dense, gut-friendly, immune-supporting ingredients!
Ingredients
- 1 cup kefir
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder (or to taste)
- 1 banana (frozen)
- 1 Medjool date (or to taste)
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a blender.
- Blend until smooth (about 30-60 seconds on high).
- Serve and enjoy!