I’ve been playing around with riced cauliflower over the past week, and one of the fun and unexpected ways to use it is in fruit smoothies, like this Cherry Almond Smoothie. This rich and creamy smoothie has a natural and subtle sweetness, a creamy texture, and tons of protein and plant fiber to keep you full. So if hiding cauliflower in a fruit smoothie has you curious, keep on reading!
Why Add Cauliflower to a Smoothie?
Cauliflower is a really great neutral ingredient that adds fiber and body to the smoothie, which helps give it a lighter, more creamy texture. Plus, it’s a really simple way to add an extra dose of vegetables to your day.
I used frozen riced cauliflower to my smoothie, but if you have a really good blender you can use frozen cauliflower florets as well.
How Does it Taste?
You can’t taste the cauliflower in this smoothie. Not only is cauliflower mild in flavor already, but I find that ingredients that have a bit of fat (like the almond butter in this recipe) help mask that cruciferous vegetable flavor.
This smoothie has a subtle, natural sweetness, thanks to the banana and cherries. If you prefer a sweeter smoothie, you can add some honey, brown sugar, another sweet fruit like blueberries, or use sweetened almond milk.
Can I Sub the Almond Butter or Almond Milk?
If you can’t eat almonds, another good option is to make this a cherry coconut smoothie. In place of using almond butter and almond milk, you can use some full-fat coconut milk. The creamy coconut flavor will offer that same richness as the almond butter and help hide that cruciferous flavor.
Cherry Almond Smoothie
Servings 1 (12 oz.)Ingredients
- 1/2 cup frozen riced cauliflower ($0.21)
- 1/2 frozen banana ($0.10)
- 1/2 cup frozen sweet cherries ($0.88)
- 1 Tbsp almond butter ($0.23)
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon ($0.02)
- 1 cup almond milk* ($0.25)
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. Adjust the liquid as needed to make it blend smoothly. Serve immediately.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
Notes
Nutrition
Want to try another smoothie with cauliflower? Try my Chocolate Coffee Breakfast Smoothie!
How to Make a Cherry Almond Smoothie – Step by Step Photos
Add ½ cup frozen riced cauliflower, ½ of a frozen banana, ½ cup frozen sweet cherries, 1 Tbsp almond butter, ⅛ tsp cinnamon, and 1 cup almond milk to a blender.
Blend the ingredients until smooth. Sometimes with smoothies you may need to adjust the liquid up or down to make it blend smoothly. Taste the smoothie and adjust the sweetness (honey, sugar, more fruit) to your liking. Serve immediately.
I made this basically per recipe but had to sub coconut milk (the canned kind) and Costco’s mixed nut butter with seeds and I added some agave because nothing was sweet at all. It turned out AMAZING! This is good enough to be dessert!
This is a surprisingly good smoothie! At least I was surprised since the ingredients are so simple. I accidentally left out the cinnamon the first time, but after making it correctly realized I prefer it sans-cinnamon. Definitely recommend.
Delicious!! I found the smoothie to be perfectly sweetened without adding anything. You cannot taste the cauliflower, but it really thickens nicely. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
This smoothie was perfection in a cup! 👌🏻😍 I tripled the recipe for my big family, thinking I’d need to make two triple batches, but it was plenty. I subbed mixed nut butter from Costco for almond butter, as that’s what I had on hand. It was great! I’ll be repeating this recipe soon, as my husband was at work when we polished it off. 🙈
Thank you, this came out absolutely delicious! I added a scoop of protein and reduced the amount of almond milk a bit to make it a smoothie bowl on my second try, and this was a win too! Thank you, I would never try to add cauliflower to a smoothie without this recipe and I loved the texture it adds.
Definitely adding this to the smoothie rotation, it was super yummy. Really like when I can sneak my veggies in, I’m no different than my young children.
What a brilliant and delicious way to get more veggies in! I didn’t have almond butter, so I used peanut butter powder instead. It was wonderful. I’ve also tried it with a little chocolate collagen powder, and it’s just as tasty. I finally have a good use for those Costco-sized bags of riced cauliflower! Thank you all so much.
I hope y’all like oatmeal cookies, because this is exactly what it tastes like.
I doubled it to serve 3 and had a tiny bit leftover. I didn’t have almond butter but added about 2T of whole nuts and still ended up with a super creamy smoothie in my vitamix. My kids said it tasted like caramel so I guess that’s a win!
Made this with PB since I didn’t have almond butter. Also added vanilla protein powder. Loved the addition of cinnamon which I never would have thought to add.
Thanks!
The smoothie is good, but the indicated cost to make it is not practical nor accurate. You cant buy a half cup of almond milk, you cant buy 1/8 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 frozen banana, 1tbsp of almond butter or 1/2 cup of frozen cherries. You have to buy a whole bag of frozen cherries, atleast a half gallon of almond milk, atleast 1 whole banana, a jar of almond butter and a whole spice bottle of cinnamon. I just wanted to point that out if this is suppose to be for people on a budget, because it needs to be realistic. In total this cost about $5 to make even if you only make 1 smoothie.
Hi Anonymous, there are several ways to calculate the costs of recipes, but they all have caveats. Here on Budget Bytes I use the same method of calculating recipe costs used by commercial foodservice operations–adding the costs of each ingredient used, in the amount used, rather than adding the full price of items purchased. Some argue that you can’t just buy 2 Tbsp of olive oil, so the recipe actually costs more to make. The counter argument to that is that you don’t buy an entire bottle of olive oil every time you make a recipe, nor do I consider an ingredient “free” if I already have it in my kitchen and didn’t need to buy it specifically for that recipe. The remaining cost for the item purchased will be accounted for in the recipes where the ingredient is used. Both methods have their caveats, but I find the method used here to be the most representative of the recipe’s true cost. You can find more information about how we calculate costs in this blog post.
Very well explained. I am new to this site and already love what I see. I appreciate that you have done the work to calculate nutritional values and costs. There are plenty of variables with both. It looks like you are doing a great job! I am looking to get control of my food spending and watch nutritional values for health reasons. This looks like a perfect place for both. Thank you for existing and making this site!! A friend sent me the link to your Sweet PotatoGrain Bowl w Green Tahini Sauce recipe. I made it yesterday, DELICIOUS! Can’t wait to try more recipes! Especially this smoothie one! I’ve been replacing one meal a day with a smoothie for a couple of weeks. This one looks perfect to add to the rotation!
A new favorite! I like that the banana flavor isn’t as strong here. I didn’t have riced cauli, so I used some frozen diced zucchini I had on hand. It turned out great! I also added hemp hearts for a little extra protein. Will try with cauliflower next time I have that in my freezer.
Thank you for sharing . I will add this to my list of smoothies
Can you leave out the banana or use something else instead
In my opinion the banana is pretty important for this smoothie. It provides a lot of the sweetness and definitely adds to the creamy texture. While you can make a smoothie with just about any frozen fruit, the smoothie will definitely change in both flavor and texture if you substitute the banana.
I’m allergic to raw bananas, and have found that frozen mango is a good substitute in smoothies to get them thick enough.
I used a handful of dates instead of banana. Turned out well.
Thoughts on PB vs almond butter? Mainly because I want this for breakfast tomorrow and have no almond butter in the house!
PB would work and it might be kind of cool because it might taste more like a PB&J! I also think peanut butter would be good in this as just a peanut butter banana smoothie, without the cherries. OR PB and chocolate!
Hi Adrienne,
I made it with peanut butter and it was great!
I have a technical issue, not related to the recipe. I use Pinterest as a grocery list app. Previously, when I pinned a recipe from your site. and then opened it in Pinterest app on my phone I could find there the ingredient list. Now the ingredient list is not displayed in the app any more. I think it has something to do with this specific website, because all your recipes I pinned earlier, which used to display ingredient list, are affected as well. On the other hand, I just tested the app with a random recipe from allrecipes.com, and there the ingredient list is displayed. Could you please go back to the old way of formatting pins? It was so convenient.