Drinks

Hazelnut Maca Cacao Smoothie

I picked up a package of maca powder at my local Trader Joe’s because it was sitting on a shelf next to organic cacao powder, which I needed to buy. The photo on the package of maca made it look like dark yellow cocoa powder.

Once I got home, I put the maca powder in a cabinet and forgot about it. (I do that a lot.) I noticed a maca smoothie on a restaurant menu recently, so I tried it. It was delicious! I went home and researched maca, and discovered it’s a “superfood.”

New to me, maca is a root that’s been around for centuries. It has a nutty flavor, a wee bit caramelish, slightly bitter and sort of dry. There are lots of health claims about maca, but buyer beware. One study I read claiming maca had health benefits for post-menopausal women had only 34 participants. If you’ve got thyroid problems, avoid maca, the reports say. I like the flavor, so that’s why I use it. Maca smoothies seem to give me a little extra energy, but that could also be because of the caffeine in the cacao.

The restaurant maca smoothie I tried was made with macadamia nut milk, which is delicious, but expensive. I tried making a maca smoothie with almond milk, and it tasted, well, blah. I substituted hazelnut milk (hazelnut butter and water), which has a sweet, delicate flavor that combines well with cacao and maca. For extra sweetness, I added dates and stevia, plus a little vanilla and plenty of ice.

If you don’t have a high-speed blender, try soaking the dates for a few hours or overnight in water to soften them before blending. Even my Vitamix has trouble blending dates. Dates are a great, healthy sweetener, which add heft to a smoothie, but if not blended thoroughly, can make it lumpy.

Springhouse Turtle Eats

Hazelnut Maca Cacao Smoothie

By Springhouse Turtle Serves: 2
Prep Time: 5 minutes Total Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 banana
  • 2 cups hazelnut milk (see NOTE)
  • 1 tablespoon coconut oil
  • 4 dates, soaked overnight in filtered water
  • 1 tablespoon cacao powder
  • 1 tablespoon maca powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon liquid stevia
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 cups ice

Instructions

1

Put all ingredients into a blender, and blend for 1-2 minutes.

2

Pour into a tall glass, and enjoy!

Notes

The fastest way to make hazelnut milk is to put 1/4 cup hazelnut butter into a blender with 2 cups of water. Blend for 1 minute, and you've got hazelnut milk. For smoother milk, filter the hazelnut milk through a nut milk bag to remove the solids, which you can save for baking or dry in the oven to use as nut flour. Alternately, you can put 1/2 cup hazelnuts plus 2 cups water into a blender, and blend for 2-3 minutes, then filter through a nut milk bag.

Maca, cacao, stevia, soaked dates, and a banana plus hazelnut milk form the basis of a maca smoothie.

Dates are easier to blend when they’ve been soaking in filtered water overnight or at least for a few hours.

Put all ingredients int a blender, add ice, and blend away.

A thick, chocolatey maca smoothie tastes great anytime.

Springhouse Turtle Eats

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