Healthy Banana Chocolate Chip Smoothie (Easy and Decadent)

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This healthy banana chocolate chip smoothie is easy to make and contains a few simple ingredients: banana, oat milk, orange, melted dark chocolate and chocolate chips for the top. It’s delicious and very decadent!

Why We Love This Banana Chocolate Chip Smoothie Recipe

Our family of six loves smoothies of all kinds, which is why we started this blog! Our four boys are all huge fans of chocolate smoothies, so this one always is a big hit.

We love that it is just five ingredients and can be customized in so many ways. We also like to freeze this decadent smoothie as smoothie pops for when it’s hot outside! It’s like a healthy chocolate ice cream that they can’t get enough of!

Ingredients in Our Banana Chocolate Chip Smoothie

Banana

We use bananas in most of our smoothie recipes because they are healthy, high in nutrients like fiber and potassium, and give smoothies a natural sweetness that is lacking in a lot of other fruits. Plus, the taste of bananas goes well with many other flavors.

We use frozen banana most of the time in smoothies because it really gives a smoothie an extra level of creaminess, which a fresh banana lacks. However, if you have fresh bananas on hand feel free to use them! Over ripe banana usually is sweetest, so we will freeze them when they get to that point for smoothie making.

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Orange

Oranges are another one of our favorite fruits to use in smoothies. They are high in Vitamin C and add a lovely tartness and sweetness to this banana chocolate chip recipe. They really give it that extra layer of flavor.

We like to use fresh oranges when we have them, but you can also use 100% orange juice if you don’t have any fresh oranges on hand. Just reduce the amount of oat milk used so it’s not too watery. Or leave out the orange for a chocolate banana smoothie.

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Melted Dark Chocolate

This is the ingredient that really makes this banana chocolate chip smoothie recipe decadent! Dark chocolate has health benefits too and when it’s melted and added to a smoothie, it gives it a lovely rich flavor.

We like to use dark chocolate with a high cocoa percentage for this recipe, but feel free to use whatever type of chocolate you like. If you want it to be more of a milk chocolate flavor, use milk chocolate chips or a chocolate with a lower cocoa percentage.

If you don’t want to melt chocolate, you can also sub unsweetened cocoa powder or a scoop of chocolate protein powder, although the taste won’t be quite as decadent.

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Chocolate Chips (or Shaved Chocolate)

Adding mini chocolate chips on top is completely optional, but we love doing it because it makes this already delicious smoothie look even more enticing! It’s like a little mini chocolate chip banana muffin on top.

If you don’t have any chocolate chips on hand, you could also use shredded chocolate. We like to use dark chocolate chips or shreds, but milk chocolate would be delicious too! Just shave a bit of the chocolate you used in the smoothie.

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Oat Milk

Most of our smoothies are vegan as we are striving to move toward a more plant-based lifestyle (and we have a kiddo who is allergic to dairy), so we use oat milk or almond milk in a lot of our recipes.

Our favorite is the Chobani Extra Creamy Plain Oat Milk. Since it’s extra creamy, it really does well in smoothies and my dairy free son thinks it’s the closest thing to real milk to drink, too.

How to Make Our Healthy Chocolate Banana Smoothie Recipe

This healthy banana smoothie is so easy to make! Simply add all of the ingredients except the chocolate chips or shaved chocolate into a blender and blend until smooth. If you find that it’s too thick, add a bit more oat milk until it reaches the consistency you like.

Once it’s blended, pour it into glasses and top with chocolate chips. We like to use dark chocolate chips, but feel free to use milk chocolate or any other type of chocolate you like. If you don’t have any chocolate chips on hand, you can also use shredded chocolate.

Enjoy immediately! This smoothie is best served fresh, but if you have leftovers they will keep in the fridge for a day or two.

How to Customize This Easy Smoothie Recipe

If you want to make this recipe your own, feel free to experiment with different types of milk or chocolate. They even make chocolate oat milk, chocolate almond milk, chocolate soy milk or any type of chocolate milk if you want to leave out the melted chocolate but still get a rich chocolate flavor. We also enjoy coconut milk in smoothies.

Also, feel free to experiment with different flavors to replace the orange. Try using mint leaves instead for a mint chocolate chip smoothie, or a nut butter such as peanut butter, cashew butter or almond butter for a chocolate peanut butter smoothie.

I love to throw in a handful of greens to this smoothie recipe. They hide super well in any type of chocolate smoothie (both taste and sight) and they give a ton of added nutrition. I use smoothies to get as many healthy plants into my boys as possible, so I love to do this! (Learn how to measure leafy greens here)

If you want to add greens but don’t want the flavor, I recommend using baby spinach or adding a few drops of mint extract. If you want to include the flavor, use kale or another green that you like the taste of.

Greek yogurt is another delicious way to make this smoothie your own and add more protein.

Make it thicker and turn it into a smoothie bowl. This is great if you want to add a lot of different toppings. (We love this for breakfast)

Another way to customize this smoothie is by adding different toppings. We love chocolate chips on top, but shredded coconut, cacao nibs or chopped nuts would also be delicious! You can also buy a spray can of whipped cream (they make it with almond milk!) for the top.

Want it sweeter? Try adding in a splash of honey or maple syrup or even stevia or monk fruit sweetener. Any healthy sugar substitute would do.

Add other frozen fruit such as mango or pineapple.

Add a splash of vanilla extract.

Whew! So many options! I hope you’ll give it a try!