A Healthy Avocado Smoothie Recipe – Enjoy A Healthy Summer!

---

*Chop*, *crush*, *sprinkle*, *blend*, and there it is… Staring. Waiting for some ice. Waiting for your hand. A creamy, nutty, satiating, and freshly-made healthy avocado smoothie. You in?

---

Now that summer is here (at the time of writing), sometimes there isn’t much better to do than relax with a nice and cool beverage. How blissful! And no, I don’t mean alcohol (sorry)!

Today we are going to be trying our hand at a healthy avocado smoothie recipe. A smoothie works brilliantly as a milkshake alternative, and the best part is that you get to make and customise it – it’s good fun!

You’ll need a food processor or blender for this, which I know many of you will have somewhere! If you don’t have one yet, feel free to have a look at my review on the NutriBullet Pro Series (an upgrade on the blender I use myself).

Read: Is The NutriBullet Worth It? A Nutribullet Pro Review

First of all, I’ll share with you this – one of my favourite – recipes, and then we’ll get into the health benefits that this provides! It really is a guilt-free way to enjoy the Summer…

The Ingredients

It’s likely that you’ll have a few of these ingredients laying around already. You can also be creative with this and make it your own – which is something I love about smoothie recipes! This is how I like to prepare it, and it works wonderfully.

Produces: 600ml (3-4 Servings)

• Avocado – 1 Large (or 1½ Small)
  
• Black Pepper – ½ Tsp
  
• Goat’s Milk (Full Fat) – To Fill
  
  • OR preference* – To Fill
    
• Cinammon – 1 Tsp
  
• Brazil Nuts – 1 Handful (About 6 or 7)
  
• Sea Salt – To Taste
  
• OPTIONAL: Cultured Yoghurt – 1-3 Tbsp

*(Note: Avoiding Soy Milk and those with many additives is wise)

Variants or customisations that would work well include using other (or mixed) nuts, adding in some low/zero-sugar dark chocolate or roasted cacao nibs or powder, berries, seeds (including chia), or freshly squeezed lemon juice!

This can be made in both paleo and keto friendly ways. In general, unsweetened nut and hemp milks work for either of these diets.

You can even easily make your own homemade nut milk by soaking some nuts, blending them with water and a pinch of salt, then straining to remove particles.

Read: Why To Soak Nuts (And How) – A Traditional Preparation Method

The Method (Step-by-step)

So, whilst there isn’t much hands on work when using a blender or food processor, who doesn’t love lists? This is our step-by-step list for an awesome healthy avocado smoothie recipe.

1. Soak the Brazil nuts (3-4 Hours)
2. Quarter the avocado, then peel or scoop away from the skin.
3. Add all of the ingredients apart from the milk.
4. Pour in your milk to fill up to around 600ml.
5. Blend for 45-60 seconds.
6. Serve in small glasses (with ice) and enjoy! 🙂

Save or share the recipe here:

The Benefits

Here at Healthy Ronin, you know we’re going to speak about the health benefits of our recipes! This is full of nutritious ingredients, so let’s have a look their combined health benefits…

Overall, this smoothie will provide around 1614 Calories per 600ml – (About 400 per serving). This is a little high so is perfect for those who moderately or actively exercise, and for those trying to gain weight. For anyone wanting to lose weight, this could be a great meal substitute – especially if following keto (or if you aren’t doing full-time keto, feel free to add in some healthy protein powder like whey, collagen peptides, pea, or potato)!

Let’s talk about our main ingredients!

Avocadoes and Brazil Nuts

Two of the main ingredients of our healthy avocado smoothie recipe are avocadoes and brazil nuts. These provide many health benefits, making this smoothie not only delicious, but nourishing!

As we also mentioned in our post about the Best Oatmeal Recipes, avocadoes are well-known and consumed for their health benefits. They contain an abundance of nutrients, healthy fats, and fibre.

Correction to Nutrition Vitamin Label: Avocado does contain small amounts of Vitamin A – About 2-4% RDI. Vitamin K in avocadoes is K1 – this converts to its other form K2 at different rates, which is what we use. The following nutrition label is per one average avocado (about 150g).

Beneficial Fibre

We mentioned above that avocadoes provide fibre. In particular, they are quite distinct in that they are a great source of both soluble and insoluble fibre. On average, just over a third of an avocado’s fibre is soluble, but during the blending process, the insoluble fibres are greatly broken down.

The remaining soluble fibre helps to regulate digestion, promote healthy gut bacteria, and and prevent blood sugar spikes. However, no studies seem to have effectively demonstrated any correlation between soluble fibre intake and reduced type 2 diabetes risk (^).

High Amounts of Healthy Fats

Oleic acid – a type of Omega-9 fatty acid – makes up the largest proportion of the avocado’s fat content. Similarly, The Almighty Olive Oil is rich in this monounsaturated Omega-9. Here are some of its health benefits:

• Anti-inflammatory (^);
• May support the immune system (^);
• Reduced blood pressure (^);
• Regulates insulin levels (type 2 diabetes preventative) (^);
• Antibacterial (^)(^)(^);
• Promotes brain health and prevents neurodegeneration (^)(^)(^).

Brazil nuts are also a great source of polyunsaturated fatty acids and some saturated fat, which may favourably increase HDL Cholesterol and reduce total LDL in combination. HDL cholesterol protects the heart, combats atherosclerosis, boosts circulation through arteries, and helps to transport antioxidants and vitamins throughout the body.

The fats found in avocadoes also increase the bioavailability of fat-soluble vitamins. For example, it may increase vitamin A absorption up to four-fold!

Because of this, you should avoid eating avocadoes with particularly high sources of vitamin A such as any animal liver or king mackerel on a regular basis. On that note, don’t eat too much organ meat (especially liver) as a rule.

Selenium from Brazil Nuts

Selenium is an essential mineral abundant in brazil nuts, fish, meat, poultry, and eggs.

Considerable plant sources include oats, brown rice, spinach, mushrooms, and different legumes. Some vegetarians or vegans could possibly do with more of it in their diet.

It is an extremely powerful antioxidant with many well-studied benefits.

However, it is also important not to overdo it!

Try to limit daily brazil nut consumption to at most 4-5 nuts (especially if you have them often), as they are very rich in Selenium. Too much selenium can be toxic. When enjoying this healthy avocado smoothie recipe often, you can also reduce the brazil nut content.

Selenium may help to promote heart health, reduce inflammation, significantly “boost” immune system function, prevent ageing, and support the thyroid, skin, brain, and mental health (^)(^)(^)(^)(^)(^).

Brazil nuts are also rich in other antioxidants and minerals. In particular, they provide considerable amounts of copper, zinc, iron, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, vitamin E, and vitamin B1 (Thiamin).

Vitamin K

Avocadoes are especially rich in vitamin K1. Per average avocado (about 150g), you will receive about 52mcg of this vitamin, of which we only use a small amount. This is because we need to convert it into vitamin K2 (which we find in animal sources), and this conversion rate seems to vary a lot but may be below 10% (^).

However, vitamin K in any form can be beneficial, and K1 is uniquely beneficial.

Its primary role is in the production of prothrombin, which is a protein essential for proper blood clotting. Additionally, vitamin K can help with calcium absorption and regulations, making it important for bone health (^) and heart health (^), respectively. It can help bones to absorb calcium, and prevent calcium from depositing in arteries.

That’s one reason why leafy greens high in this vitamin (like dandelion greens!) are true superfoods.

We mostly use Vitamin K1 in blood coagulation (clotting), so getting vitamin K2 in the diet can also be important.

Vitamin C

Avocadoes are also a good source of vitamin C. The most essential vitamins the human health, and plays hundreds of different important roles. These include benefiting nutrient absorption, the immune system, connective tissue creation and maintenance, blood sugar, blood pressure. It also helps to prevent aging and degeneration by acting as a powerful antioxidant – this is great for brain function and health, the skin, and more!

B-Vitamins

This smoothie as a whole is a fair way to boost your B-vitamin intake. Whilst it provides no vitamin B12, you will be provided with a considerable amount of B1, B6, and B9. These wonderful vitamins are important in keeping your nerves, brain, heart, muscles, and metabolism functioning healthy.

Gut-friendly Goat’s Milk

If you decide to use goat’s milk for this healthy avocado smoothie recipe, here are some of the benefits this delicious ingredient provides.

Arguably, it may be better for you than the standard cow’s milk many people consume today, so we’ll discuss that briefly.

Also, note that pasture-raised (not the same as pasteurised, which means heated to kill bacteria) and grass-fed goat milk – even more so if organic – is best.

Safe for Mild Lactose-intolerance

For those of you with mild lactose intolerance, goat’s milk may be a good alternative.

This is because it contains slightly lower levels (about 3 quarters that of cow’s) of lactose – the dairy sugar that some people struggle to digest. These lower levels have helped some people still consume dairy, despite having some discomfort with cow’s milk. To try it, you should start with only a small amount and see how you feel.

Prebiotics

Goat’s milk also contains oligosaccharides – a type of carbohydrate also found in human milk. What’s more, the type and amount found in goat’s milk is much closer to human milk than other land animals’ (such as cows).

These act as prebiotics (^), meaning that they help to feed the important beneficial bacteria found in our gut. Throughout digestive system – particularly the stomach and intestines – we have what is called the gut microbiome, gut flora, or gut microbiota. This is the collective term that refers to these trillions of bacteria

What these do is quite complex, and vital to a healthy body and mind. Some of their main roles include the following:

• Aiding in digestion; 
• Preventing allergy formation in infants;
• Improving metabolism and nutrient absorption;
• Signalling to other organs and the brain;
• Combating invasive microorganisms;
• Stimulating immune responses (^);
• Preventing gastrointestinal inflammation;
• Ameliorating bowel ailments;
• And much more (^)(^).

Other Beneficial Nutrients

Additionally, we find many happy occurrences of nutrients in goat’s milk. It contains more calcium and beneficial fats like MCT’s and Omega-3’s than cow’s milk does, and also so a good amount of vitamin D. This makes it better at strengthening bones, and also makes it more beneficial for your skin and your heart!

Goat’s milk also provides other minerals. For example, phosphorus acts alongside calcium and vitamin D in strengthening bone health! At the same time, it’s beneficial for the brain, kidneys, cell creation, and metabolism.

It also provides a small amount of selenium, which we spoke about above. Other important minerals and elements that goat’s milk provides include zinc, copper, potassium, and magnesium – meaning of great dose of antioxidants, too. This is useful for brain and heart health/function, the nervous system, skin health, immune system function, reproductive health, and cancer prevention.

A Healty Smoothie for a Healthy Summer!

This healthy avocado smoothie recipe is a great way to enjoy the Summer and relax with a healthy and refreshing beverage.

I hope you find the recipe useful, and remember to experiment with it! Avocadoes with any kind of nut work brilliantly in a smoothie, and allow for some creativity when adding extra ingredients and seasonings. The recipe that I gave you today is one that definitely works well in case you’d like to stick to something simple and promising!

Throughout the summer I’ll be sure to add some more smoothie recipes and and teach you all about what they can do for your health. Let me know if you have any recipes you enjoy or would like me to try alright about in the comments below! 🙂

Don’t forget to share this with your friends and family on social media, and save it to your healthy food Pinterest boards.

Until the next time, stay healthy
James