Sugar Free Pumpkin Mocha Protein Smoothie is a quick, low carb, healthy meal or snack anytime!
This smoothie combines a favorite fall ingredient with the classic flavor of chocolate to bring you the best of both! Maybe you've never tried this combo before, but if you love both chocolate and pumpkin on their own, you will be loving these two together. I have to say I was a bit skeptical myself to combining these two strong flavors that can stand alone in any recipe, but once a reader commented about making one, well..... I was curious enough to attempt it. Results are amazing!! You will not be disappointed!
Even if you're not a fan of the texture or taste of cottage cheese, you won't even notice it in this smoothie. It certainly may seem like an odd ingredient to enter a smoothie, but it has a lot of protein and once blended the cottage cheese is smooth and creamy. Of course you can sub the cottage cheese for protein powder, but it won't be as thick and creamy and the nutrition info will change as well.
When I made my first Pumpkin Vanilla Smoothie back in 2011, I used just a small amount of cottage cheese. Here I increased it and I'm super happy with the results! Although there's only a hint of pumpkin flavor, the chocolate doesn't overpower the smoothie. They balance each other out beautifully!
A note about Stevia:
Depending on the brand of liquid stevia, you will have to adjust accordingly. The NuNaturals brand seems to be stronger in sweetness I'm finding in recipes so start with only a few drops. If you use the Sweetleaf liquid brand it may need more like 2 full droppers. You can also just mix up the smoothie in your blender and add another sweetener of choice and stir in it.
Pumpkin Mocha Protein Smoothie
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon pumpkin puree
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk
- ½ cup cottage cheese low fat
- 1 tablespoon ground flax seed
- 1 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- ½-2 droppers full chocolate liquid stevia
- ½ cup ice
- optional topping: Dairy Free Whipped Cream
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients into blender and blend until smooth.
- Adjust stevia if needed.
- Enjoy immediately!
- Makes 14 ounces.
Notes
Nutrition
About Brenda
Brenda Bennett is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, certified Sugar Detox Coach, certified Keto Coach and certified Life Coach. She has been Sugar Free & Refined carb free for 17 years and has written 2 cookbooks, Sugar-Free Mom, and Naturally Keto and her 3rd book The 30-Day Sugar Elimination Diet, is a four part program to help you detox from sugar, eliminate cravings, balance blood sugar and lose weight all while eating a delicious, nutrient dense whole foods. Meal plan offers two tracks to follow, low carb or keto. She is the founder of the Sugar Free Fresh Start course and Sugar Free Tribe weight loss membership. Learn more.
Sheryl
First time eating a pumpkin smoothie. It was great. I am eating THM and was looking for a low fat low carb snack. This was perfect. I tweaked it and left out the ground flax seed and used no fat cottage cheese to lower fat content more. It was AMAZING. In another setting I would leave those ingredients in. Thanks for sharing. You can't even tell it's made with cottage cheese.
Nichole
Hi Brenda,
Do you think Greek yogurt would work as a substitute for the cottage cheese?
Tara@PNWRunner
YUM! I must make this. I've never had a pumpkin smoothie before~!
Charlotte Moore
Still can't get the save button to work.
Kim
I just found your blog today, and I'm loooving it. I've been sugar free since 2008, when I had to change my diet to help my body overcome a serious illness. At the time I thought it would be a short term thing, but it's become clear my body doesn't want certain kinds of foods and that I feel so much better without them. I'm so not a recipe developer, no matter how hard I try, so I'm thankful times ten for stumbling across your blog! I hope to be back often!