A creamy delicious no fruit smoothie. High in protein and good for you fats, low in carbohydrates and sugar. This no-fruit matcha avocado smoothie is my new breakfast BFF!

How about a protein smoothie without the protein powder? Head over to my Protein Packed Blueberry Cottage Cheese Smoothie. It's an amazing protein boost in a delicious natural package.

I have been on the search for a satisfyingly rich and creamy new smoothie recipe. A new smoothie recipe that is also fruit free, low sugar, and delicious. This proved to be a challenge. Until this gorgeous green matcha goddess walked on the scene!

I adore fruit and have no problem eating it, but I've found that starting my day with too much fruit leaves me feeling hungry and unsatisfied. I've successfully switched most of my fruit consumption to later in the day as a snack. However, this no fruit in the morning thing left me in a bit of a conundrum, what about my morning smoothie?

How to Make a Smoothie Without Fruit

The traditional base of most smoothies is fruit, and a fruit smoothie will remain a delicious treat! However, if you are on a therapeutic food protocol including a low-carbohydrate or ketogenic style dietary plan than reducing higher glycemic/ higher carbohydrate foods is important. Enter the no-fruit smoothie.

Tip #1 – Do not expect a no-fruit smoothie to be sweet. As soon as you shift your taste expectations you can get super smoothie creative. A no-fruit smoothie is naturally going to be less sweet than it's fruity counterpart. Be open to a new taste delight.

Tip #2 – Choose your flavor combination here are the combos that I have found the most successful: bright tart citrus (think lemon or lime), rich and creamy (like in this matcha avocado smoothie), warm comforting spices (try this chai gingerbread smoothie), herbaceous and spicy (jalapeno, dill, avocado, and greens, yum!), cinnamon nutty (almond butter or peanut butter and cinnamon with a base of cold frozen creamy cauliflower).

Tip #3 – Choose a creamy base of either frozen cauliflower, frozen zucchini or avocado.

Tip #4 – Add fat, as in some kind of nut butter, coconut butter, coconut oil, or avocado.

Tip #5 – Add protein. I am a stickler for making sure your smoothie has the right protein balance. I switch between a lot of different protein powders, but one of my staples is Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides. I am currently rotating between their unflavored, which is perfect for some of my out there smoothie flavors like jalapeno avocado (don't knock it till ya tried it!), the matcha collagen (which I used in this recipe), and the chocolate collagen for my creamy no-fruit chocolate smoothies.

What I LOVE About This Low Sugar Green Smoothie

My deep love affair with this matcha avocado smoothie was not “love at first sip”. I purchased a similar concoction from HU Kitchen, a super hippie-dippie healthy restaurant in NYC. I took the first sip expecting something sweet and was unpleasantly surprised (see Tip #1 above!). Then I kept drinking, it was a $17 small smoothie, I was not going to throw it out. As soon as I accepted that it was not a sweet smoothie I started chugging and then craving this strange luscious concoction.

The combination of avocado, matcha, and vanilla bean is out of this world! I used one of my new ingredient obsessions in this recipe, ground vanilla bean, I am adding a pinch to everything lately. Ground vanilla bean adds a pop of vanilla bean goodness, it is equal part important for texture and flavor. If you don't have ground vanilla bean you can certainly just use a splash of vanilla extract.

What are the Health Benefits of a Low Sugar Smoothie?

As I mentioned above I have no problem with fruit, fruit is loaded with good for you antioxidants, fiber, and just tastes amazing! However, if you are looking to reduce your carbohydrate consumption loading a smoothie with cups of fruit is not going to be supportive. I love having a few recipes on hand that are high in protein and fat rather than sugar.

This high protein, low sugar smoothie leaves me feeling full and energized for hours! Oftentimes when I have one of my standard fruit smoothies I am hungry within an hour.

Overall, I think it's beneficial to reduce sugar consumption.

What Makes This a Keto Friendly Smoothie

The ketogenic, or keto diet, is all the rage lately. Ironic, in fact, since it seems like it is just the Atkins diet rebranded (insert eye roll here). It is therapeutically different than the Atkins diet in that the Keto diet is high fat, moderate protein, and low carbohydrate, whereas the Atkins diet is high protein, moderate fat, and low carbohydrate. I am not dogmatic specific and open to explore any dietary option that could work for my nutrition clients. Since keto is so popular these days I am getting a lot of questions and recipe requests.

The ketogenic diet is essentially a very high fat, low carbohydrate diet that changes our preferred energy source or changes the way your body converts food into energy. Typically the body prefers carbohydrates as a fuel source, on the ketogenic diet carbohydrates are reduced so low that the body releases something called ketones which become our fuel source. Essentially you are burning fat rather than carbohydrates.

This smoothie is keto friendly because it is super low in carbohydrates and high in fat and protein. So if you are trying a keto diet, this is the smoothie for you!

I hope you LOVE my new smoothie obsession, a no-fruit matcha avocado smoothie!