Vitamina de Banana, Brazilian Breakfast Smoothie
The vitamina is Brazil's everyday breakfast in a glass, a blended shake of fruit and milk that turns up at lanchonete counters and home kitchens across the country, usually banana with whole milk and a spoon of sugar. Rebuilt on whole plants, it loses nothing: ripe banana blended from frozen gives the thick, cold, milkshake texture, and soy milk stands in for the dairy while quietly carrying the protein that makes it a real morning meal rather than a sweet drink. Oats and flaxseed thicken it and add the fiber, and a couple of dates cover any gap in sweetness if the banana was not ripe enough. It is coconut-free by design, unlike many tropical smoothies, and comes together faster than toast.
Ingredients
- 2 wholes Bananas, very ripe, peeled, frozen in chunks
- 1/3 cup Rolled oats
- 2 cups Unsweetened soy milk
- 1/2 cup Frozen mango
- 2 Medjool dates, pitted
- 1 tbsp Ground flaxseed
- 1/4 tsp Ceylon cinnamon, ground, optional
Method
- Freeze the bananas ahead: peel very ripe, spotty bananas, break them into chunks, and freeze them solid. The brown spots are the banana's starch turning to sugar, so ripe fruit is where all the sweetness comes from, and frozen is what gives the drink its thick, milkshake body.
- Blend the rolled oats alone for a few seconds first, until they break down to a coarse flour. Grinding them first keeps the finished drink smooth instead of gritty and lets the oats thicken it.
- Add the frozen banana, soy milk, frozen mango, pitted dates, flaxseed, and cinnamon, and blend until completely smooth and thick, about a minute. Scrape down and blend again if the frozen fruit stalls the blades.
- Soy milk is the choice that matters here: unlike most plant milks it carries real protein, which is what turns a sweet blended fruit drink into a breakfast that holds you to lunch. The oats and flaxseed add the fiber that does the same.
- Taste. A truly ripe banana usually needs no help, so add the dates only if it is not sweet enough for you. Drink it right away, while it is cold and thick, or blend it the night before and shake it in the morning.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 300 calories, 11 g protein, 8 g fiber, 95 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
