Keto Friendly Smoothie Ideas

Everone loves smoohthies, but can you make a keto friendly smoothie? Or are smoothies by nature not keto friendy.

Well, as you know smoothies are full of carbs. Berries and other fruits have a lot of carbs. Not to mention green smoothies are also carb rich.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t make a keto friendly smoothie.

What we’re going to do here is list a few ingredients that can be helpful if you’re trying to do keto.

Now, it’s important to notice that if you are on a strict keto diet, then it’s important to actualyl count carbs.

This article is more geared towards the keto friendly ingredients.

Table of Contents

Keto Loves Nuts: Add Nut Butter

So one of the best and easiest things you can add to a smoothie to make it keto friendly is nuts. Nuts have fats and a little bit of protein and very few carbs.

Instead of buying nuts and blending them in your blender, just skip that part and buy a good nut butter.

Try and avoid things like peanut butter. There’s enough evidence out there that peanut butter is bad for you, plus…it’s not even a nut. (1)

Instead, stick with healthy nut butters. In particular, I’d look for a mixed nut butter that contains nuts besides almonds. A complete nut profile is best. Look for a brand that has not just almonds, but nuts like cashews, or even macadamia nuts.

Macadamia nuts are particularly good for keto because they have a great fat profile. That’s the reason people like Thomas DeLaur recommends nut butter so much.

Coconut Oil: MCT and Healthy Fats

Ok, so anyone who has done a bit of reading about keto diets will know that they are all really big on coconut oil.

There is a lot, I mean a lot of scientific research regarding MCT oils. We will skip all of that (i’ll link to some interesting articles at the bottom) but suffice to say that MCT oils are great for cognitive health. They are thought to help prevent dementia and other mental decline and also keep you alert.

That makes a coconut oil smoothie perfect for the morning instead of a cup of coffee. The MCT oil in the coconuts can help you throughout the day.

So you can add coconut oil to your keto smoothie. The fats will make the smoothie rich and smooth tasting.

The pro tip here would be to avoid any of the low grade coconut oils such as Lou Anns. That is fine for cooking, or even making soap.

(If you’re interested in making soap, then I suggest reading my guide to the making soap with a stick blender. It details not only how to make soap, but covers the best stick blender for making soap).

Almond Milk

Almond milk, or any nut milk for that matter, is great for keto smoothies. Just make sure that you are getting one that is sugar free. Some of the popular brands of almond milk out there add sugar.

You should get a sugar free brand. I know that many brands don’t even specify that they have sugar unless you look at the fine print.

So, my suggesting is to always choose an almond milk that says that it is unsweetened. Most of the major brands do make almond milk and other nut milks that are low in sugar.

Be careful with nut milks. Though they can be keto friendly, they are not completely keto.

Coconut Cream

My pro tip here would be to avoid getting a can of coconut milk or coconut cream from the supermarket. I’d stick with an organic coconut cream that doesn’t have sugar added.

Goya makes a good coconut cream (it’s not organic though) that you can find at the supermarket. Just make sure that you’re not getting the coconut cream with sugar that they make for pies and mixed drinks. You want the plain coconut cream.

Coconut cream is great for keto smoothies because it adds that fat that is such an important part of keto diets. And the coconut cream tastes nice and mixes well with fruit and coconut water.

This ingredient is super keto (as long as you don’t get the one with sugar) and can make for a really rich and nice tasting smoothie.

Chia Seeds

While I’m not a fan of chia seeds in their dry form, if you soak them they make a great addition to your smoothie.

When you soak chia seeds, they soften up and make a great additive to your smoothie. They have great health fat and they also have protein.

They’re almost like a jelly once you soak them or a pudding. Just make sure that you soak them overnight in the fridge in water that you’re either run through a water filter or is otherwise clean.

I like to get organic chia seeds and let them soak at least 12 hours in the fridge. If you try and blend hard dry chia seeds, it will turn out nasty and gritty like sand.

Chocolate: Make it Dark

Another keto friendly ingredient is dark chocolate. And the great thing about dark chocolate is that you can mix it with nut butters to make a delicious smoothie.

I suggest using dark cocoa powder, or if you want to use actual chocolate use 100 percent dark chocolate or at least 99%. Some brands to look at include Lindt.

Here’s an example of a great smoothie recipe that has nut butter and chocolate. I’d have this at night instead of the morning, but if you are caffeine sensitive then it would be good in the morning. There is a slight amount of caffeine in chocolate.

Full Fat Yogurt: Go Greek

It’s a great idea to use regular full fat yogurt in your keto smoothies. Yogurt is rich in fat and extremely low in carbs. Therefore it makes it perfect for a keto friendly smoothie.

Just make sure you do not get a yogurt that has no sugar, and is full fat. Idealy you want a greek yogurt.

Greek yogurts will have more fat, more protein, and less carbs.

Again, I’d suggest that you get an organic brand of yogurt that is made from cows that are not pumped full of growth hormone.

It’s worth it to pay the extra expense and get something that is better for you than save 50 cents and get a yogurt that is made from the milk of sick cows in a factory farm setting.