Easy 5-Minute Strawberry Smoothie

My go-to strawberry smoothie! You need less than five minutes to make this easy strawberry smoothie. Use our simple recipe on its own or use it as a base for other smoothies. Jump to the Strawberry Smoothie Recipe

Why You Should Make This Strawberry Smoothie

I’ve made a version of this easy smoothie recipe more times than I can count. It’s perfect on its own and is the best base recipe for adding more ingredients.

Here are a few more reasons we love it:

• You need less than 5 minutes to make it.
• You can use fresh or frozen fruit. In fact, frozen strawberries make the smoothie extra creamy.
• It’s easy to adapt to what you have in the kitchen.
• This smoothie is perfect for breakfast or a snack.
• Kids love it!
• You can make the smoothie ahead of time, freeze it, and save for later. Details below.

How to make the best strawberry smoothie

Our basic smoothie recipe calls for four simple ingredients:

Strawberries — I love adding a heaping cup of whole strawberries and particularly enjoy when the smoothie is made with frozen berries. For a smoothie made with blueberries, try our easy blueberry smoothie recipe.

Banana — I use one banana to make one large or two smaller (kid-size) smoothies. For the best tasting smoothie, use a ripe banana. For the creamiest smoothie, use frozen banana slices (I’ve shared how I freeze fruit for smoothies below).

Half an orange — When I have oranges in the house, I love adding them to my morning smoothie. It adds extra vitamin C and tropical flavor. If you don’t have oranges on hand, don’t worry, you can substitute other fruits like mango, pineapple, and berries.

Milk (dairy or non-dairy) — To help the ingredients blend, I like adding some liquid to the blender. For a smoothie without milk, use water. It still tastes amazing. For more creaminess use milk (dairy or non-dairy both work).

To make the smoothie, I add everything into a blender, and then blend until smooth. For an icy cold smoothie, throw in a handful of ice or use frozen fruits.

Smoothie Variations

When making smoothies, I used to overdo the ingredient list, but now I like to keep things really simple. I love this smoothie with just the basic ingredients shared above, but every once in a while, I add an extra ingredient or two. Here are some suggestions:

• Add more fruit (fresh or frozen). I love mango, pineapple, and berries.
• Add greens like spinach, kale, or Swiss chard. I add one to two cups. (Note that adding greens to this will make the color of the smoothie brown).
• Add healthy fat with some avocado.
• Add more protein and fiber with hemp seeds, chia seeds, or your favorite protein powder.
• Add nuttiness and extra sticking power with a tablespoon of peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter or other nut butter.
• Add some chocolate with a tablespoon of cocoa powder or my favorite, cacao nibs.
• Add fresh ginger or turmeric or add dried spices like ground cinnamon or ground turmeric.

How to freeze fruit for smoothies

To make smoothies even easier, freeze fresh fruit into portions. You can even prepare smoothie packs and freeze them for a grab and blend smoothie option.

To freeze fruit for smoothies, rinse and chop fresh fruit into small pieces. Pat them dry then arrange, in one layer, on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Slide the baking sheet into the freezer and freeze until hard (two to three hours). For bananas, peel them, slice and then arrange on the baking sheet.

When the fruit is hard, divide it between freezer-safe bags and keep in the freezer for your next smoothie.

More smoothie recipes

• Make this protein-packed green smoothie with fresh spinach, banana, orange, and Greek yogurt in under 5 minutes.
• Our easy blueberry smoothie that keeps you happy for hours. One small smoothie offers almost 5 grams of fiber as well as 5 grams of protein.
• With 6 grams of protein and 7 grams of fiber, this utterly delicious strawberry banana smoothie will keep you full and energized for your day. 
• I love how simple this basic banana smoothie is!
• Or try this chocolate chia pudding, a simple breakfast made with chia seeds