Red Velvet Beet Smoothie

This smoothie was a happy accident and a result of pure kitchen experimentation. I had no intentions of making this for the blog but once I took a sip, I knew I had to share it! It tastes like red velvet cake batter but is much healthier than the real thing thanks to a secret ingredient.

The secret ingredient? BEETS!

Beets, like brussel sprouts, are devisive food but they are one that I happen to love. This weekend, I roasted a few beets over to have for salads and side dishes and just to add a little flair to our meals. Plus, beets are naturally detoxifying which could be helpful around certain Irish booze-centric holidays.

Despite what people may think, roasting beets is actually quite simple:
1. Heat oven to 425F and wrap beets in foil.
2. Once pre-heated roast for about 1 ½ hours.
3. Let beets cool and then simply rub the skin off and slice.

I was thinking about what to make with all of these beets and red velvet cake popped into my mind since beets are often used to naturally get the red in red velvet. I had no intentions of making a cake so instead, I threw together a quick smoothie as a snack. I didn’t want it to be too earthy/beet-y (that’s not a word) so I added a few raspberries to sweeten the deal. I wasn’t sure if it would taste decent but to my surprise, it ended up being amazing. This one is definitely going into heavy rotation for the spring.

Red Velvet Beet Smoothie
Yield: 1 smoothie

½ cup 0% Greek Yogurt
¼-1/2 cup vanilla soymilk
1/3 cup roasted beets (I used mostly golden beets and a few red beets for color. The golden beets tend to have to have less of that earthy-beet taste)
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
1/3 cup frozen raspberries
*optional: half of a frozen banana*
4-6 drops liquid stevia or a few tsp. of your favorite sweetener

1. Place everything in a blender and blend until creamy. If needed, add more soymilk to thin out to desired consistency.

* If you have chocolate protein powder, you can use that in place of the cocoa powder.

Tagged: beets, greek yogurt, raspberry, roasted beet, smoothie

15 comments on “Red Velvet Beet Smoothie”

Mary @ Bites and Bliss on March 14, 2012 at 9:56 am said:

That looks incredible! I love beets but have never put them into shakes. Thanks for sharing!

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gabbysgfree on March 14, 2012 at 9:59 am said:

Thanks! Good to know there are fellow beet lovers out there

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what katie's baking on March 15, 2012 at 12:30 pm said:

i NEVER would have thought to put beets in a smoothie, but it’s such a good idea! yummy

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gabbysgfree on March 15, 2012 at 12:32 pm said:

Thanks! I was surprised at how mild the beet taste was – it’s super mild if you use mostly golden beets. Gotta love sneaking veggies into smoothies!

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Yosef - This American Bite on March 15, 2012 at 1:55 pm said:

Some of my best blog posts are the dishes I didn’t plan on sharing – this sounds delicious, if I am not mistaken, beets were used by bakers in WW2 when short on cocoa to make red velvet cakes instead of chocolate cakes.

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