‘I’m a Health Coach, and This Is the Only Healthy Protein Smoothie Recipe You’ll Ever Need’

Tired of the smoothie recipe overwhelm? This is the only protein smoothie bowl recipe you'll ever need.

The internet is replete with smoothie recipes, if not overrun. With that said, there is no one whose brain I would rather pick for the perfect blended concoction than herbalist and health coach Rachelle Robinett. Her expertise is unparalleled when it comes to optimizing the nutrition profile of literally any meal, snack, or beverage, and she manages to make whatever it is she's mixing up extraordinarily palatable, too. Lucky for us, she dishes out her go-to smoothie blueprint in the most recent episode of Well+Good’s YouTube series Plant Based.

"This is my absolute favorite recipe," she says. "I love it because it's a recipe template and has all of the pieces that will allow you to make amazing smoothies as long as you want without making the same smoothie over and over again."

She starts with the basics: fruits and greens. From there, she makes sure to include a fiber source, such as acacia fiber, and either chia or flax seeds or hemp hearts. And finally, there's plant-based protein powder, which she adds with some reassuring words for those who've been convinced they're not getting enough of the macronutrient. "We need less protein than we think," she explains. "The general consensus has come to us needing about 12 percent of our total calories to come from protein."

This number can be helpful when you're evaluating what's on your plate (or in your blender), she notes, as you can aim for a little less than a quarter of your spread to provide protein—whether that's from animal products, plants, or a combination of both. "We eat proteins to get amino acids, and we can get amino acids from all the plant food that we eat," she says.

While smoothies are always a good meal choice for when you're on the go, Robinett recommends eating them with a spoon rather than a straw when possible to help with digestion. "[Eating a smoothie with a spoon is] a bit less of a surprise than knocking back a big smoothie, dumping it in your stomach, and saying, 'Good luck, digestive enzymes, handle that'," she says.

And when your blended concoction is in a bowl, you get to have a little more fun topping it off with some textured add-ons. Robinett is partial to a few specific crowning ingredients she believes best complete a bowl—watch the video to find out which, and to get the specific smoothie recipe blended in her apothecary daily.

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