This basic ingredient blueberry smoothie with lemon, banana, and vanilla is so easy to make without dairy.
And it takes no yogurt, but it’s still so thick and creamy!
Just use your favorite dairy-free milk to blend up this healthy smoothie for breakfast or an afternoon snack.
See the simple smoothie recipe below.
Since my favorite smoothie to order at the smoothie drive-through is a blueberry smoothie,
I definitely wanted to figure out how to make these at home to save money.
Plus, my kiddo with milk allergy can’t order smoothies at most smoothie places…
too much cross contamination with dairy to worry about, even if we order dairy-free.
So with a lot of taste testing from my kids, we came up with the best blueberry smoothie we could make over and over again.
Between this blueberry smoothie and our dairy-free chocolate smoothie, we are blending these treats up almost daily at my house.
The perfect quick breakfast for out the door on busy mornings.
Or an afternoon snack when the kids are done with school.
Just so good and refreshing.
Here’s the most important ingredient.
LEMON IN SMOOTHIES
Yes, our blueberry smoothie calls for lemon.
It adds the perfect kick so we always make sure we have lemons on hand.
I just grab a whole bag of lemons at Aldi as part of my Aldi staple foods.
Then we use some to make our favorite glass jar lemonade.
And the rest I juice and freeze in an ice cube tray to use in smoothies for days. This helps keep the lemons from going bad before we need them.
The lemon not only helps counter the sweetness of the banana, but it also adds a boost of vitamin C.
If you don’t have lemons on hand but do have lemonade, go ahead and use that.
The smoothie will be a little sweeter because of the sugar in lemonade, but that’s ok. It won’t be too sweet.
WHAT KIND OF BLUEBERRIES FOR A SMOOTHIE
We definitely like to use frozen blueberries for our smoothies.
One, I can find them organic at a few places like Aldi and Sam’s Club.
Two, they are much more affordable frozen as opposed to fresh.
Three, we go through so many, and we can keep a big bag of frozen berries in our freezer.
That way we can make our favorite blueberry smoothie anytime we want one!
HOW TO THICKEN THIS DAIRY-FREE SMOOTHIE
Using frozen blueberries as opposed to fresh will make this smoothie nice and thick.
Also adding a handful of ice cubes helps.
HOW TO MAKE A CREAMY SMOOTHIE
We really didn’t want this recipe to require dairy-free yogurt.
Even though we have some favorite yogurts to eat for breakfast with granola,
they are quite expensive to just throw into smoothies when you don’t have to.
We want this smoothie recipe to be simple and cost effective for as much as we make it…
which is a few times a week, at least.
While blueberry smoothies do need something to make them creamy, banana is our choice.
With the lemon added, however, this doesn’t taste like a blueberry banana smoothie.
The banana really does serve more as creamy agent more than anything.
Plus, it adds even more healthy benefits.
For this reason, we also keep frozen, peeled bananas in our freezer.
ADDING VANILLA IN SMOOTHIES
In our blueberry smoothie, the lemon is perfect for balancing the sweetness.
But the protein powder adds a final touch of vanilla flavor that we don’t like to skip.
You don’t need a protein powder in this smoothie, however. It’s optional.
Add vanilla flavor to your smoothies in one of these ways.
- splash of vanilla extract
- pump of vanilla syrup
- dollop of dairy-free vanilla yogurt
- scoop of vanilla protein powder, dairy-free
- replace the milk with vanilla flavored milk, dairy-free
We’ve been ordering organic vanilla extract with our favorite dairy-free snacks online.
See the smoothie recipe below.
BLUEBERRY SMOOTHIE DAIRY FREE
This recipe makes 20 ounces.
Our favorite dairy-free milk for this recipe is coconut milk. We’ve also used oat milk and almond milk for our blueberry smoothies.
Here is our favorite vanilla protein powder (affiliate). But always double-check labels and call companies if need be. Make sure any protein powder you use is safe for your food allergies.
This smoothie is easiest to blend using a tamper. This is the Vitamix tamper we use, but make sure you use the right size fit for your blender.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 frozen banana
1/2 cup lemon juice or lemonade
1 cup dairy-free milk
handful of ice
vanilla protein powder or other vanilla flavor (see suggestions above)
DIRECTIONS
Place dairy-free milk, lemon juice, and frozen banana in the blender.
Add frozen blueberries and ice.
Add in dairy-free vanilla protein powder, dollop of dairy-free vanilla yogurt, pump of vanilla syrup, OR splash of vanilla extract if you didn’t use vanilla dairy-free milk.
Blend ingredients, use a tamper if needed. If it’s too thick and you don’t have a tamper, just let it sit and melt a little. Then continue blending until smooth.
Hope you enjoy this perfect dairy-free blueberry smoothie with banana, lemon, and vanilla as much as we do!
Click here to save the smoothie pin for yourself and fellow milk allergy moms!