I love smoothies! I’m sure that is obvious since this blog is primarily focused on blender recipes. That being said, I’ve been pretty stingy with the smoothie recipes. It’s not that I’m hoarding them. It’s just that I rarely follow a recipe when it comes to smoothies. I just toss whatever sounds good in to Ye Olde Vitamix and cross my fingers. That is not always the best system. Sometimes you get a blender full of sadness.

I was inspired to come up with this smoothie recipe when I read a comment in a Facebook group dedicated to low carb. The comment was lamenting the fact that so many smoothie recipes include bananas. There is a simple explanation for this. Bananas make your smoothies smooth. They have a magical thickening power!

Q: How do I make a thick smoothie without bananas? A: You add avocado instead!

This Red Velvet Smoothie is very simple to make, it doesn’t require heaps of produce. It has enough healthy fats to keep you satisfied, but it is low in carbohydrates (6 net carbs per serving). It gets it’s red colour from beets. Don’t worry, you will barely taste them and the provide a wealth of nutrients including vitamins A and C, iron and calcium.

When it comes to sweetening this smoothie, you have options. If you want to keep it low carb you can use Swerve or liquid stevia. If you can spare some extra carbs you can use coconut sugar or maple syrup, or plain old sugar if you are in to that sort of thing.

Also, I used coconut products to make this vegan but it will work just fine with dairy products.