A smoothie makes a great afternoon snack but there needs to be something to it, not just fruit – and this chocolate cherry smoothie with 18 grams of protein per serving fits the bill. It’s such a great classic flavour in smoothie form, made with frozen cherries, cocoa, and hemp. There are bananas in this smoothie but the flavour is hidden under everything else. This recipe is adapted from my chocolate raspberry vegan protein shake, also made without any protein powder. Hemp hearts, yogurt, and nut butter add protein here.

Ingredients

• Cherries: any frozen cherries will do. I prefer frozen cherries. Fresh are too much work but if you want to manually pit that many cherries go for it!
• Bananas: these should be ripe, but avoid extremely ripe bananas as they add too much banana flavour to the smoothie.
• Cocoa: dutch process cocoa is a little smoother and milder. Use natural cocoa if you prefer a slightly more bitter taste. One or the other will change the smoothie colour (you can see this here – the step-by-step photo was with dutch process, and the picture above was with natural).
• Hemp hearts: make sure you’re using the hearts and not hemp seeds, which are crunchy.
• Nut butter: anything will work, but almond and hazelnut match the cherries more than peanut butter. Sunflower seed butter can be used as a nut-free alternative.
• Yogurt: any unsweetened, unflavoured yogurt. Greek-style is best. I use a thick soya yogurt.
• Milk: any type, also unsweetened. Pictured is oat milk.

For some more seasonal smoothie recipes, try my summery nectarine smoothie, apple banana smoothie, and pumpkin pie smoothie.

Step by Step Photos

Step 1: add all ingredients to a blender or blending container.

Step 2: blend on high speed until very smooth and serve immediately.

Expert Tips

• Sweeten to taste: add more dates or omit them depending on how sweet you like your drinks. Your cherries or bananas might be very sweet and then you might not want dates, or you may need more to balance out the cocoa, depending on personal preference.
• Freeze it for later: if you happen to end up with too much smoothie and aren’t sure what to do with it, you can freeze this (and any smoothie) in ice cube trays. When you’re ready to drink it, simply blend with enough milk to reconstitute into a smoothie – don’t thaw it.

More Drink Recipes

Vegan Mango Lassi
Strawberry Mint Lemonade
Vegan Banana Milkshake
Everyday Strawberry Smoothie

If you make this Chocolate Cherry Smoothie or any other dairy-free drink recipes on Occasionally Eggs, please take a moment to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. It’s such a help to others who want to try the recipe. For more OE, follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, purchase the Occasionally Eggs cookbook, or subscribe for new posts via email.