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Coconut Berry Smoothie

A creamy no-cook coconut milk smoothie with banana, berries, and a handful of spinach for an easy AIP breakfast on the go.

By Camille McLaughlin, RDN, LD, registered dietitian nutritionist

Built forAIPBreakfast
Also fits Dairy-Free High-Fiber Paleo Whole30
Berries and banana blend into canned coconut milk until the glass goes thick, pale purple, and properly cold. Strawberries and blueberries keep it tart at the edges, ripe banana does all the sweetening, and a handful of spinach disappears completely apart from a faint green cast. Nothing gets cooked and nothing waits.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe

Coconut milk, banana, and two kinds of berry blended until it pours thick and slow. The cup of spinach vanishes completely into the color and you will not taste it, which is the whole trick: a handful of greens is invisible against blueberries and strawberries and adds body rather than flavor. Blended with ice it is a drink. Blended with frozen fruit and almost no water it is thick enough to eat with a spoon. The same five things either way, and about ninety seconds of actual work.

Frozen fruit is what makes this thick, and it is not interchangeable with ice. Frozen berries chill the blend while adding fruit to it; ice chills the blend while adding water, so a cup of it buys you cold at the cost of flavor. If your berries are fresh, use the full cup of ice and expect something thinner and paler. The banana works the same way: a properly spotted one blends creamy and sweet, while a firm one leaves the glass tasting green and slightly gritty.

Coconut milk brings the fat that keeps a fruit blend from behaving like a sugar rush, and the berries and the spinach bring the fiber that does the same job from the other direction. That combination is the difference between a smoothie that holds you for a couple of hours and one that leaves you hungry before you have finished washing the jug. Canned coconut milk rather than the carton kind is deliberate here, since the carton is mostly water and it is the fat that does the work. If you want the same coconut base served warm, there is our Butternut and Coconut Breakfast Soup.

Tall glasses of pale purple smoothie topped with a few fresh blueberries, beads of condensation on the sides. Save
Prep: 5 minsCook: 0 minsTotal: 5 minsMakes: 2 servingsServing: 1 glass

Ingredients

Serves2Amounts change with the number. The nutrition panel is per serving, so it stays the same.
  • 1 cup canned coconut milk
  • 1 ripe banana
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 1 cup strawberries
  • 1 cup fresh spinach
  • 1 cup water or ice

Instructions

  1. Freeze the fruit, or plan for the ice: Peel the banana and break it into three or four pieces, and rinse the berries and the spinach. If your fruit is frozen you need no ice at all and no more than a splash of water. If it is fresh, measure out the full cup of ice and accept that the result will be thinner and paler, because ice melts into water and frozen fruit melts into fruit. This is the one decision that changes how the whole thing turns out.
  2. Load the blender in the right order: Pour the coconut milk in first, then the spinach, then the banana, and put the frozen berries and any ice on top of all of it. A blender works by pulling what is above the blades down into them, and it can only do that if there is liquid at the bottom to carry things. Load it upside down and the frozen fruit sits on the blades in a solid plug while the motor spins underneath, which is the usual reason a smoothie ends up with a spoon stuck in it.
  3. Start it slow, then take it to high: Run the blender on its lowest speed for about ten seconds to break the fruit up and get everything circulating, then take it up to high for another thirty. Starting on high with a jug full of frozen fruit is how you end up with an air pocket around the blades and a motor screaming at nothing. If it stalls anyway, stop, push the fruit down with a spatula, and start low again rather than adding more liquid.
  4. Check it for flecks, then pour: Stop and look before you pour. The spinach should have disappeared entirely, with no green flecks anywhere in it, and the blend should fall off a spoon in a thick ribbon rather than a stream. Another ten seconds on high deals with flecks; a splash of water loosens it if it is too thick to pour. Divide it between two glasses and drink it within a few minutes, while it is cold and the foam is still there.
  5. Rinse the jug before it dries: Fill the empty blender with warm water and a drop of dish soap and run it on high for ten seconds, then rinse. Coconut fat and banana starch set into a film as they dry, and a jug left on the counter until evening needs a brush and five minutes where the same jug rinsed straight away needs ten seconds. It is a small thing and it is the reason people quietly stop making smoothies.
Nutrition Facts
2 servings per recipe
Serving size1 glass
Calories399
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 29g38%
Saturated Fat 25g127%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 0mg0%
Sodium 32mg1%
Total Carbohydrate 37g14%
Dietary Fiber 8g28%
Total Sugars 22g
Includes 0g Added Sugars 0%
Protein 5g
Vitamin D 0.0mcg0%
Calcium 53mg4%
Iron 3.0mg17%
Potassium 786mg17%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Values are computed from USDA FoodData Central and are estimates. Per serving (1 glass).

Variations

  • Add more protein: A scoop of unflavored protein powder blends in without shifting the flavor. A few spoonfuls of Greek yogurt or silken tofu do the same and thicken it, though the yogurt is dairy and the tofu is soy, so either one takes this off dairy-free and off the autoimmune protocol.
  • Swap the berries: Raspberries, blackberries, or a mix all work in place of the blueberries.
  • Use frozen fruit instead of ice: Frozen banana and berries give you a colder, thicker smoothie without the ice watering it down as it melts.
  • Change the green: Kale works if you blend it longer. Romaine is milder still and all but disappears.
  • Thicken it: A spoonful of chia or ground flax, or a quarter of an avocado, turns this from a drink into something closer to a bowl. Chia and flax are seeds, which the autoimmune protocol leaves out, so stay with the avocado if you are following it.

Storage & Leftovers

This is best in the ten minutes after it is blended, while it is cold and thick and there is still foam on top. After that it separates: the coconut fat rises, the fruit settles, and the surface darkens from purple toward brown as the blueberry pigments meet the air. None of that is spoilage and all of it is avoidable by drinking it, which is the honest storage advice for any smoothie.

If you need to get ahead, freeze the blended base in a container for up to 1 month and let it soften for a few minutes before serving, or pour into molds for smoothie pops.

In the refrigerator it holds about a day in a jar filled to the top, so there is as little air as possible sitting against the surface. Expect it to thicken as the banana starch sets and to darken at the top. Shake it hard before you drink it, and if it has gone too thick to pour, a splash of water and another shake brings it back to where it started.

Notes & Tips

For the thickest, spoonable smoothie bowl, use frozen fruit and add as little liquid as possible.
  • Liquid goes in first: Blenders work from the bottom up. Coconut milk and water at the bottom, then the spinach, then the fruit and ice on top.
  • Blend the greens before the fruit: Give the spinach and liquid a few seconds on their own first. That is how you get rid of the green flecks.
  • If the blender struggles: Add liquid a tablespoon at a time, just enough to get things moving. Too much at once and you have a thin drink.
  • Stir the coconut milk: Canned coconut milk separates in the tin. Mix the thick cream back into the thin liquid before you measure.
  • Drink it right away: It separates within a few minutes of sitting. If it does, stir or shake it rather than blending again.
  • Freeze your ripe bananas: Peel and chunk the ones going soft on the counter. You always have one ready and none of them go to waste.

Nutrition & Mindful Eating

Coconut milk is what makes this thick rather than watery, and banana, blueberries and strawberries blend into it cold and sweet, with spinach folding in so quietly that you mostly see the color it leaves behind.
  • Coconut milk, banana and the two berries decide how this drinks. The fat in the coconut milk gives it body, the banana makes it creamy, and the berries keep the sweetness bright and a little tart.
  • Blueberries and strawberries bring the color and the tang, and the pigments behind that color are anthocyanins, which have been studied for the way they support blood vessels. Blended whole, the fruit keeps its fiber in the glass.
  • A ripe banana is the sweetness and the thickness at once, carrying potassium along with a soft, almost frozen texture when everything goes into the blender cold.
  • Spinach goes in raw and disappears into the color, adding folate, iron and vitamins A and C, and the vitamin C from the berries in the same glass helps that plant iron get taken up.
  • It comes together on the counter in about the time it takes to rinse the fruit, and it drinks cold and thick enough to spoon, which is what makes it feel like breakfast rather than a drink you finish on the way out.
  • As you eat, pay attention to the cold thickness and the berry tang coming up through the coconut, and put the glass down between sips so you can feel the meal land.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why canned coconut milk instead of the carton kind?

Canned full-fat coconut milk keeps this AIP and dairy-free while giving the smoothie its rich body. Many carton versions add gums or other fillers you may want to avoid.

Can I leave out the banana?

You can, but it provides most of the natural sweetness and creaminess. Try a bit more berry or a small piece of ripe fruit you tolerate.

How long does it keep?

It is best fresh, within ten minutes of blending. In the refrigerator it holds a day in a jar filled to the brim, and it will thicken and darken at the top; shake it hard before you drink it. Frozen, the blend keeps a month.

Can I make it ahead?

Yes, in the freezer rather than the refrigerator. Blend it, pour it into jars with an inch of headroom or into pop molds, and freeze for up to a month. Thaw a jar overnight in the refrigerator, or blitz it again straight from frozen with a splash of water.