What To Put In A Smoothie Besides Fruit: 3 Great Options!

If you own a blender, and you’re looking to figure out what to put in a smoothie besides fruit, then you’ve got lots of options. While a power smoothie made with fresh fruit is certainly healthy and tasty, it can become a bit repetitive. So, what I’ve set out to do is create a quick list that will help you figure out just what exactly you can put in a smoothie besides fruit.

Let’s face it, there are only so many berry and banana smoothies that you can have. They get boring after a while. So you’re likely looking to add variety to your smoothies, and want to know what you can add besides fruit, then let’s get started.

Table of Contents

Go Green! Add Vegetables To Your Smoothie Besides Fruit

The obvious thing you can add to a smoothie besides fruit are veggies. There are lots of amazing vegetables that make great smoothies. In fact, there are whole catalogs of recipes that are based around veggies-they are know as green smoothies. Many people love the nutrient density of green smoothies. So, besides fruit, green vegetables are great to add to your smoothie.

Now, some vegetables are better than others. So, for instance, I always recommend people start with something that is easy to blend in a smoothie, and which also taste good. And remember, you can always mix vegetables and fruit. There use to be a common thought in the health food world that you shouldn’t mix fruit and vegetables, but that’s been show to be not true. My top vegetables for smoothies for beginners are:

Spinach -the key vegetable for smoothies
cucumber- provides a great flavor and is easy to blend in a smoothie
Kale- this is for people who want to supercharge their green smoothies
Carrots- works great with pineapple!
Beets- a super vegetable for post workout smoothies.

It’s easy to mix and match vegetables and fruits when making a smoothie. For instance, you can take blueberries and then add spinach or kale and you’ve got two of the most healthy superfood combinations in the world. Both of these have benefits including preventing cancer (even lung cancers!). And they taste good and are easy to drink. I mean, think about it…how often are you likely to sit down and eat a bowl of blueberries and kale? Not very likely, but if you blend it up you can drink it on the way to work, or even after a workout.

Power Up With Protein–Add Protein To Your Smoothie

Another thing to add to smoothies besides fruit is protein powder. I would suggest choosing a protein powder based on the type of smoothie that you plan on making. For instance, if you are planning on making a fruit smoothie and simply want something besides fruit in it, you can choose to use a vanilla flavored protein powder–because vanilla tends to work really well with most fruit smoothies! Or you could choose a neutral flavored (also called unflavored whey) protein powder.

The benefit to adding protein powder to your smoothies is that while fruit and veggie smoothies provide you with a lot of nutrients, they don’t necessarily fie you lots of protein. In fact, unless you’re making a green smoothie with kale or spinach, you are not going to get much protein at all.

There are a bunch of different options when it comes to adding protein powder to your smoothie. I have a whole article designed to help you figure out if you should use Whey, Soy, or Vegetable Protein powder. And I wrote another article that covers how to find a healthy whey protein without sucralose.

Here’s the short version:

Whey protein is made from milk (the whey is the protein from milk). It’s the easiest to blend up. It’s the easiest to absorb.

Vegetable Protein Powder is healthy, but it’s a bit harder to mix up. If you’re adding protein powder straight to water I would suggest skipping it and choosing whey. But if you’re blending up a green smoothie, or even a fruit smoothie, you can choose a vegetable protein such as one made by Vega.

If you’re looking for protein, but are not that keen on adding protein powder and would prefer a whole food alternative, then I have a few suggestions on protein for smoothies here.

Creamy Yogurt or Nut Butters –Make Your Smoothie Thick

Finally, one of the last things you can add to your fruit smoothies besides fruit is going to be yogurt. In fact, you might be adding yogurt to your smoothies already, but if you aren’t, then you certainly should be. There are a whole bunch of reasons to consider adding in yogurt. They include:

A protein boost- especially if you choose Greek Yogurt, you’ll get a nice protein boost. This is great for people who aren’t fans of protein powders.
Yogurt adds a smooth and creamy texture to smoothies. It turns a lackluster fruit smoothie into something delicious and healthy.
Yogurt adds probiotics to your fruit smoothie. This is helpful for gut health.

If you are planning on adding something such as yogurt to your fruit smoothie, consider matching flavors. The best approach would be to use a yogurt that has a plain flavor. This way you’re not mixing a blueberry flavored yogurt with something that has a contrasting flavor that you don’t think will work well.

The other thing to be on the lookout for when choosing a yogurt to add to your fruit smoothie is all of the added sugar. There are many so called healthy yogurts that actually have lots of sugar added. These come in the form of HGH aka High Fructose Corn Syrup, but also regular sugar. There are lots so brands that even sell themselves as Organic yogurts. But organic doesn’t mean healthy. I tend to avoid anything with added sugars, when possible.

So stick to organic, plain yogurts. If you are looking for extra protein, then I would definitely choose to go with an organic Greek yogurt. You can find good brands such as Maple Hill, Stoneyfield, that have organic yogurts. You can also find great values at BJs (their store brand is affordable).