Carrot Cake Smoothie

This Carrot Cake Smoothie has all the flavor of a beloved dessert, in a much healthier package! Carrots, yogurt, walnuts, honey and sweet spices come together to make a creamy and portable breakfast or snack.

The last carrot cake I made was for my daughter’s first birthday. Her favorite food at the time was glazed carrots, so my husband and I took the day off work and lovingly made her a homemade carrot cake, complete with cream cheese frosting and decorations we piped on ourself.

She took one small lick and didn’t care about that cake at all. It wasn’t one of those pictures of a one-year-old just covered in cake. It was a perfectly clean toddler turning her nose up at a cake we had worked so hard on! Who knows, maybe she would have liked lemon curd cake better?

She’s 4 now, and I told her this story while serving her one of these Carrot Cake Smoothies last week and she said “Yeah mom, I don’t like cake!”

But she DID like this carrot smoothie. Like my lemon smoothie and blueberry lemon smoothie, I pack a lot of good-for-you ingredients into a creamy, portable and utterly sippable breakfast or snack.

What you’ll need for this carrot cake smoothie recipe:

• carrots – you’ll need 2 medium carrots to make 2 servings of this carrot cake smoothie. You can also use a few handfuls of frozen carrots, baby carrots or even shredded carrots if you have happen to have them left over from Asian noodle salad or wonton nachos. Or buy a big bag of beautiful carrots and make balsamic roasted carrots, too.
• yogurt – I like vanilla Greek yogurt here, for the flavor and thick texture it adds to the smoothie. Just like with my yogurt parfait bar, you can also use plain regular yogurt or plain Greek yogurt (you could even add a dash of vanilla extract), or vanilla flavored regular yogurt.
• milk – I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk for the flavor it adds to these carrot cake smoothies, but I discuss alternatives below.
• walnuts – these are often found in carrot cake, and I had a bunch left after making melomakarona, so I included them here, too. Alternative options below!
• honey – to sweeten everything up. Maple syrup and agave nectar work great, too.
• spices – cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg are the spices most often found in carrot cake, and they add great flavor to this carrot smoothie.
• ice – I like adding ice to my smoothies so they are cold and thick, but if you’re not into ice, you can leave it out. The smoothie will be thinner.

Can these carrot cake smoothies be made vegan?

Yes, these carrot cake smoothies are easily made vegan. Instead of the vanilla Greek yogurt, use a vegan yogurt alternative. I’ve seen vanilla flavored soy milk, cashew milk, almond milk and coconut milk yogurt alternatives at grocery stores in my area.

The other thing you’ll need to do to keep this carrot smoothie vegan is to swap the honey out for a vegan sweetener such a maple syrup or agave nectar. Also handy for maple glazed brussels sprouts and agave lemonade!

Alternatives for vanilla almond milk:

We often keep vanilla almond milk on hand for smoothies, but if you don’t, there’s lot of other options. You can use pretty much any milk that you do have on hand!

Dairy milk is great here (and in caramel coffee). So is coconut milk, cashew milk, soy milk or any other milk you can think of.

If you’re not a fan of any type of milk, you can add juice to loosen this carrot cake smoothie up (without any liquid at all, it’ll be very hard to blend). Carrot juice would be the best choice, but a splash of apple juice or orange juice would be great, too.

Do I have to use walnuts?

Nope, you definitely don’t have to use walnuts for this carrot cake smoothie! I had some on hand, and since they’re often included in carrot cake, I used them here.

Pecans are just as delicious here as they are in Thanksgiving fruit salad. Almonds are also great in this carrot smoothie. Or a scoop of almond butter (or even homemade almond butter) would add protein and nutty flavor.

Or, if you’re not a nut person, you can skip them altogether.