This cranberry orange avocado smoothie is naturally sweetened with banana and can be made dairy-free and vegan!
I hope you all had a great Christmas! After taking a longer than intended break from all things blogging, I’m back with something naturally sweet, healthy, and refreshing! I don’t know about you but the last thing I want to do right now is bake some cookies or any other baked goods. Because I need sweetness in my life and because I still had leftover cranberries from Thanksgiving, I put together this cranberry orange avocado smoothie.
My goal was to create a bright red smoothie that tasted like a cranberry orange dessert. That’s not what happened here. You can hardly taste the cranberries. So think of this as a way to use up leftover cranberries! I can’t think of anything else to do with 1/2 cup of cranberries, so why not give this a try? ;) More cranberries and no banana would have made the cranberry flavor more apparent but I don’t even want to think about how much added sugar would be necessary.
If you don’t have any cranberries around, you could absolutely leave them out and make this as an banana orange avocado smoothie.
I wanted to make this smoothie completely without sweetener but that was a challenge with just cranberries, orange juice and avocado. So I was forced to use banana. You can definitely taste the banana so if you don’t like the taste of bananas, add some sweetener of choice to your smoothie.
What you can’t taste is the avocado! Really. You can’t taste it at all. I always toss some into my smoothies for added nutrition. What I like to do is buy avocados when they’re on sale, scoop out the flesh, cut it up, and freeze. That way I can pop some avocado into my smoothie whenever I want! No waiting around for the avocados to ripen. Like bananas, avocados make smoothies super creamy. They’re nothing but good! :)
Bananas are great to freeze, too. I peel them, cut them into pieces and freeze them. That, along with freezing the avocados, helps make the smoothie extremely creamy. I really dig creamy so I added some Greek yogurt. If you can’t have dairy, you can easily leave it out and add some almond milk or more orange juice. Then it’d also be vegan! I’ve made this cranberry orange avocado smoothie without Greek yogurt or almond milk and loved it that way as well.
And if this cranberry orange avocado smoothie isn’t your speed, here are my two favorite smoothies (both of which have avocado!)
Cranberry Orange Avocado Smoothie
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 1 smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 large banana (210 grams banana with peel; 150 grams without the peel), cut into 1/2" chunks and frozen
- 1/4 (35 grams) avocado, cut into 1/2" chunks and frozen
- 1/2 cup (50 grams) fresh or frozen cranberries
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) orange juice
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) Greek yogurt, almond milk or additional orange juice, optional
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
- Remove the banana and avocado from the freezer and microwave them for about 10 seconds to slightly defrost them. Or just let the fruit sit for about 15 minutes at room temperature.
- Using an immersion blender, food processor, or blender, blend together all the ingredients.
- Add Greek yogurt, almond milk, or more orange juice, if desired. The smoothie will be very thick if you don't add any additional liquid.
- Serve immediately and refrigerate any leftovers for up to 2 days.
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22 comments on “Cranberry Orange Avocado Smoothie (dairy-free, vegan)” — Add one!
I made this smoothie this morning. I opted out Avocado, used a fresh orange, and greek yogurt. It was delicious. My husband and I loved it. We will make it again tomorrow! Thank you for the healthy and delish recipe.
I’m so glad that you enjoyed it! Your version sounds delicious. :) You’re welcome for the recipe and thank you for your feedback! Happy New Year and sorry for my slow reply.
What a great idea! I was looking for avocado smoothie recipes and your pretty pink smoothie caught my eye. I used your recipe as the basis for a banana-free version with a bit more avocado (to make up for lost creaminess), a whole orange instead of juice, some almond milk to make up the liquid difference, and a few ice cubes to make it freezy-delicious. Your brilliant idea to freeze the cranberries also went a long way to counteracting the room-temp orange :-) Thank you! I will definitely make this again.
I love your changes! They sound great. :) I’ll have to try them next time. I’m happy you enjoyed the smoothie! Thanks a bunch for your comment.
Erin,
This smoothie is delicious!
I had some left over cranberry that I bought for a pie for work…found your recipe when I was looking for a smoothie recipe with cranberry.
It’s my first smoothie with cranberry and I think it a great addition to my recipes.
I didn’t use frozen avocado or frozen banana but I can’t wait to try it next time I make it.
I think I’ll use freshly squeezed orange juice next time as well. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Marina! I’m so happy that you enjoyed the smoothie and found a good use for those leftover cranberries. :) The banana adds some sweetness to the smoothie so I definitely recommending that next time like you said! The avocado just adds creaminess (and nutritional value ;)) Thanks so much for your nice comment and have a great Thanksgiving!
Hello from Defiantly Healthy! Your recipes look delish so we reposted them. Thanks for sharing and Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! So happy that you like the look of the recipes. :)
I absolutely love the texture avocado lends to smoothies, and need to remember cranberries as an option more often! My body is craving this smoothie after so much Christmas sweetness :)
Same here! All I want right now are smoothies. :D
I’ve never had a fresh cranberry as they’re not really available here in Aussieland. They look so beautiful though, merry and brightly coloured! Fantastic to add them to this smoothie, love the little cranberry specks in that creamy banana and avo goodness! Thanks for the recipe. I’ll see if I can track down some frozen cranberries… or otherwise shall I substitute raspberries? Thanks Erin! x
What?! No fresh cranberries? Booo. If you do get your hands on them, definitely don’t use them in this smoothie! Use them in something that really showcases them. :) And raspberries is a great substitute! Sorry for the slow reply, Laura!
I am a huge avocado fan but have never put one in a smoothie. Changing that today :) Thanks for the recipe! Happy New year!
I hope you’ll enjoy your avocado smoothie! Happy New Year to you, too! :)
This is such a perfect flavour for the holidays! Love this!
Thanks, Katrina! :)
Your pictures make me LOVE it!
Really?! I almost didn’t post this because of the pictures. So thank you, Kira! :D
I love the colour. I can’t wait to be home and use my blender :) I have no kitchen equipment in Barcelona. I used to think that my own kitchen is minimalistic, but this one I have for 3 months in Barcelona is like a virgin kitchen ;) I hope you had awesome Christmas. Kisses from Barca.
Aww, well at least you’re having fun! :) Can’t wait until you come back. My kitchen is quite equipped so we can have some fun in Berlin! :D
I came down with a gnarly cold yesterday, so this is sounded unbelievably good! I wish it weren’t 10 pm. And that I weren’t sick. I’d so go to the store and get the goods.
Hope your fam had an amazing holiday :)
Oh, boo! Sorry about your cold. I hope that you recover quickly and that you’ll be able to go to the store soon for smoothie ingredients. :) And thanks – I enjoyed Christmas and I hope you did, too!