It’s about that time of year when the flavors of Fall start invading our kitchens! That and those dang “Fun-Sized” candies the kids seem to get from everywhere. I swear, I can find a random piece of Halloween candy in the back of my pantry at any given time of the year no matter how many times I’ve cleaned it out.
Fall is by far my favorite time of the year. Everything from the way the sun shines to the best holidays of the year (Thanksgiving whaaaa!) to school starting back up and football. And I’m pretty sure I put up with the crummy SF weather 10.5 months of the year to enjoy the 6 perfect weeks of Fall it gave me.
I’d be fooling myself if I said this is the first appearance anything pumpkin flavored has made at our house since last year. I’ve been making pumpkin pie smoothies all year. Who am I kidding?And I’m totally that person who buys a pumpkin pie at Costco if they have it in March. And even though I can’t eat one anymore, I definitely think YOU should!
I’ve also been fooling myself all year thinking that I had the greatest pumpkin pie smoothie recipe because, well, it still tasted healthy. If I’m going to call something “Pumpkin Pie” I want it to taste a little more decadent and a little less on the healthy. While still remaining healthy of course! Don’t get me wrong, it was good but not the BEST. So I set out to create the BEST! Even the bad batches along the way were still good. But then, I found my magical ingredient.
Just a few weeks ago Trader Joe’s started selling cashew butter. Prior than that, I didn’t buy too much cashew butter because it was always so expensive. Therefore, I didn’t experiment with it all too often. (I DID use it however to create the crostinis for my Fig + Rosemary Crostini and that was sooo worth it.) But thankfully, TJ’s pulled it out and created a less expensive option. This could be my magical ingredient!
And I was right. The cashew butter gave it that creamy richness that I was lacking before. It also added that buttery, nutty, crusty flavor that I clearly was missing prior and it was just what I needed to pull together the frozen bananas and pumpkin. I’d had used almond butter in the past but I wasn’t crazy about it. For some reason, it always tastes kinda chalky to me and just didn’t seem to be the answer.
With out further blabbering from me here it is, a perfect way to start your mornings and kick off the fall!
What’s your favorite part of the fall?? (Besides your new favorite smoothie of course!)
Paleo Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
Ingredients
- 3/4 C. canned pumpkin
- 2 frozen bananas
- 2 C. almond milk
- 3 heaping spoonfuls of cashew butter
- 2 tsp. nutmeg
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract or seeds from 1/2 of a vanilla pod
- 1 Tbsp. maple syrup
Instructions
- Add all ingredients into your blender and blend until smooth.
- That's IT!
This looks and sounds so perfect for a fall treat, love the cashew butter in it!
Thanks! The cashew butter totally is what makes it. Like I said, I’m not a huge fan of almond butter so I’m excited to try some new things out w cashew butter instead!
Yum! I’m totally going to try this next week when I’m back home.
Whoo hoo! You’l love it!
This sounds heavenly – because my favorite part of IS pumpkin everything! I found cashew butter at a local “Amish” store for fairly cheap. I’m getting through it pretty quick, though.
An Amish store? I love it!
I think this was the first time I’ve been disappointed by a recipe here. This was pretty…meh. I followed as written and I t tasted mostly like banana to me, with only a slight hint of pumpkin. The only thing I might have done to impact it was that my frozen bananas were getting ripe, not totally overripe by any means but brown spots. I doubled the pumpkin, cashew and maple syrup and added more pumpkin pie spices and it was a little better but still bland. So then I added vanilla protein powder and it was decently pumpkin pie tasting but a little thick at that point. Salvaged but not something I’ll make again. Bummer, but there are plenty of other recipes of yours I make over and over!
Bummer! So sad you didn’t enjoy it. 🙁
This is incredibly good! I’ve had it two mornings in a row. I use almond butter only because that’s what i have on hand and it’s delicious. Thanks for the perfect Fall smoothie!
I’ve made this a hand full of times this season and love it. Thank you for developing this! I honestly don’t want pumpkin pie this year because why deal with the consequences of dairy (headaches for me) and sugar when I can have this smoothie! So thank you!! Also, sunflower butter works well too!
Could you give us the mesure in ounces or wieght. All cans are not the same size in different country.
Hi, currently doing a Whole30 – would it make a big difference in the flavor if I left out the maple syrup?