Peanut Butter Banana Espresso Smoothie

Wow!  There are a lot of flavors in this smoothie and, amazingly, they all work really well with each other.  Confession time: I become a secret fan of peanut butter banana sandwiches after I heard that Elvis loved them.  I always wanted to be a musician, maybe these sandwiches would make up for my very obvious lack of skill.  Sadly, they didn’t but I did discover a new favorite meal.

I found this recipe on The Almond Eater and almost passed it by.  It was advertised as a vegan drink, which seemed to me to be missing the important part of this recipe, which is the great flavors.  Yes, it’s vegan, but more obvious is the fact that it tastes great.

A Smoothie With Espresso

Even if you don’t like espresso, you will like this smoothie.  The other flavors work so well with the espresso that you don’t feel overwhelmed by the coffee taste.  You have the natural sweetness that comes from the banana, plus a sugar jolt from the maple syrup.  This also almost qualifies as health food.  Okay, maple syrup isn’t exactly health food but it’s hard to argue with bananas and peanut butter.

You will need 2 pieces of equipment to make this excellent smoothie.  You will need, of course, you espresso maker and you will need a good blender.  You can use a food processor but a blender is usually better for smoothies.  You will also find that the recipe works best if the bananas are frozen, or at least partially frozen.  Cut them up and wrap them in plastic before freezing, this will make it easier to add to the blender.

Smoothie Ingredients

1 shot of your favorite espresso.  You can always substitute 1 teaspoon of espresso powder.

1 banana, frozen.

1 tablespoon maple syrup.

1/4 cup peanut butter.  Creamy will work best.  You can also use almond butter.

1/4 cup milk.  Again, you can substitute.  Almond or rice milk will work.

Smoothie Assembly

Easy!  Dump everything into your blender and blend until smooth.  This will make about 1 1/4 cups.

This is the perfect any-time drink.  You can have it for breakfast or as an afternoon treat.  You can top this with a few shavings of coconut, espresso powder or a dab of peanut butter.  It’s a wonderful espresso smoothie.