Single-Serving Chocolate Chia Smoothie

Single-Serving Chocolate Chia Smoothie is a decadent, rich, and creamy concoction made for one. It’s sweet and slightly bitter and completely dairy-free, thanks to an avocado and chia seeds that pull the ingredients together. Let this one sit for a while and your smoothie will morph delightfully into a pudding! {Vegan + Paleo}

Spiriteds, I have a confession. With few exceptions, I’m not crazy about bananas IN recipes. I prefer them just barely ripe and by themselves. Ooh, and if they are still a bit green, then so much the better. Bananas are how I start my morning but not how I make recipes. 

I DO make allowances for bananas IN recipes when I make Oil-Free Flour-Free Muffins (an absolute obsession of mine, if ever there was one) and again for Green Apple Spinach Smoothie. But other than that, I’m just not an overripe banana person. So when I concocted this Single-Serving Chocolate Chia Smoothie recipe, I went a completely different direction to get the taste and texture I wanted.

Enter the avocado. 

Spiriteds, I was inspired by our Creamy Paleo Fudge. Could the success from that recipe be replicated here? Inquiring minds, specifically mine, wanted to know just how versatile an avocado-in-a-dessert could be. As it turns out, the magic replicated. We have a creamy, dairy-free chocolate smoothie recipe that is all the rage in our house. It’s made even more popular by K-Hubs, who enjoys this on the regular. And by that I mean, every week.

It helps that the ingredient list and instructions are short and sweet. Single-Serving Chocolate Chia Smoothie is, essentially, a no-fuss recipe. But you’d never know it by just how luxurious it tastes.

It’s a staple in our weekly routine, and we can’t wait to introduce it to you!

Single-Serving Chocolate Chia Smoothie is

• Rich and creamy
• Decadent
• Dairy-free
• Gluten-free
• Vegan-friendly
• Paleo-friendly

The longer this smoothie sits, the more like chocolate pudding it becomes. So if you want to turn your smoothie into a dessert treat, then patience is virtue and so is a little refrigeration to speed up the process.

Ingredients for Single-Serving Chocolate Chia Smoothie

• Almond milk. Unsweetened vanilla is pure perfection, but any milk of choice will work just fine.
• Avocado. Scoop out the flesh and add it to the blender. If the avocado is a little past its prime, that’s okay. It will likely still work here.
• Cocoa (or cacao). The strong, bitter flavor is not only pure perfection, much like the almond milk, albeit in a different way, but it also masks any change in the avocado’s perfection, too.
• Chia seeds. If you haven’t used them before and want to, then this is the perfect recipe to start. They add bulk without changing the taste. I now use them in just about any smoothie I can get my mitts on.
• Sweetener. %100 pure honey, 100% pure maple sugar, or agave nectar will work. You could also use a few drops of stevia, granulated stevia, or monk fruit sweetener. The consistency will likely be much thicker if you use the latter options.

How to make Single-Serving Chocolate Chia Smoothie

Single-Serving Chocolate Chia Smoothie is also easy to prepare. If you like your chocolate served five minutes ago, you’ll enjoy the quickness with which you can prepare this treat. Throw the ingredients in a blender and go. Top with chocolate chunks, more chia seeds, or drink as is. Basically, you’ll be drinking pudding (but in a good way) or the creamiest, most mouthwatering chocolate beverage your tastebuds have ever encountered.

1. Combine the almond milk, avocado flesh, and cocoa in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth.
2. Add the chia seeds and sweetener of choice, continuing to blend until the desired consistency is reached. If the smoothie is too thick, then stream in additional almond milk.
3. Refrigerate until ready to enjoy. Contents will settle and the smoothie will thicken as it stands, so give it a brisk stir before serving.

Side notes: This is, in theory, a one-serving recipe. If you stream in more milk to thin it out, then you might wind up with a second serving. Save it for another day or share it with another chocolate-lover. Additionally, the smoothie’s consistency will also be affected by the size and consistency of the avocado. But the overall flavor will still taste delicious.

What to do with avocados that are going bad

There’s basically a 6-second window where avocados are at their best. And we have recipes for that window, including Lemon Avocado Dip and Spicy Avocado Deviled Eggs. But what are we supposed to do with extra avocados? And what can we do with avocados besides make guacamole? Those are the questions. And what do we do if they ripen before we’re ready to use them? Yet another important question. Add them to a Single-Serving Chocolate Chia Smoothie. It’s made for such a moment. And we have K-Hubs to thank for that.

He threw an avocado into this recipe one morning, accepting the result might be less than stellar. But he discovered the other flavors masked the avocado that had missed its 6-second window of perfection.

Now, admittedly, if the avocado is super-duper-overripe and way, way, way more brown than green (that’s a technical culinary test, by the way), then I don’t risk it. K-Hubs doesn’t either. Even this smoothie might not be enough to cover the time lapse, as it were. But if the avocado still seems okay, just not ideal for guacamole and other dips, then throw it in this recipe instead of away.

More chocolate recipes!

Get your chocolate fix here. Brownies, cookies, chocolate chips, and melted chocolate with fruit? Umm, yes please, don’t mind if we do.

• Paleo Zucchini Brownies
• Edible Cookie Dough
• Paleo Chocolate Mug Cake
• Chocolate Chunk Crinkle Cookies
• Dairy-Free Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries

Creative smoothie recipes!

We’re nothing if not a smoothie family, which means we’ve branched out beyond the usual. Now we have some mixed with cauliflower, others with coffee, and some still with citrus and oatmeal. 

• Almond Butter Cauliflower Smoothie Bowl
• Vanilla Coffee Protein Smoothie
• Blueberry Orange Oatmeal Smoothie

Spiriteds, stay well and stay wild. I’m so glad you’re here! 🩷

Single-Serving Chocolate Chia Smoothie

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Single-Serving Chocolate Chia Smoothie is a decadent, rich, and creamy concoction made for one. It’s sweet and slightly bitter and completely dairy-free, thanks to an avocado and chia seeds that pull the ingredients together. Let this one sit for a while and your smoothie will morph delightfully into a pudding! {Vegan + Paleo}

• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 5 mins
• Total Time: 10 mins
• Yield: 1 1/2 cups 1x
• Category: Smoothies
• Method: Blender
• Diet: Gluten Free

Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• Flesh of one avocado
• 3 tablespoons cocoa
• 2 tablespoons chia seeds
• 1/4 cup 100% pure honey (paleo) or agave nectar (vegan)

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Instructions

1. Combine almond milk, avocado flesh, and cocoa in a high-speed blender and mix until smooth.
2. Add chia seeds and honey or agave nectar and blend until seeds are ground down and aren’t visible to the eye.
3. Serve immediately for a milky consistency or refrigerate for 30 minutes to thicken.
4. Keep refrigerated.