The components for this one are simple enough that once you have them ready, you’re ten minutes from either a bowl or a drink, depending entirely on how frozen your banana is. Completely frozen gives you something thick and spoonable, close to chocolate mousse, the kind of thing you’d eat slowly with a good spoon and call dessert. Less frozen and it loosens into a smoothie you can drink on the way out the door. Add a protein powder, and you have all of that, plus a hefty dose of that to boot. Same ingredients, same method, different result, and that flexibility is the whole point. Make it fit your life.
A few things worth knowing
On the chocolate. It needs to be fully melted before blending, liquid enough to incorporate completely, otherwise the texture goes grainy.
On the protein Chetna used the Coffee Hazelnut flavour for this, but if you like yours more chocolatey, use the Dark Chocolate flavour instead for a proper cacao vibe.
On the banana. This is the dial that controls everything. Completely frozen gives you a thick, spoonable bowl; partially frozen gives you a drinkable smoothie; and anything in between lands somewhere in between. Freeze it overnight for that full bowl texture.
On the almond butter. Chetna uses 15g for the right balance of richness, but more is not wrong if you have the appetite for it.
On jaggery. It rounds out the bitterness of the cacao without the flatness of refined sugar. Add a little, blend, taste, adjust.
On the cacao nibs. Worth not skipping if you can help it, because they add fibre and a bitter crunch that stops the whole thing from being too rich.
On making ahead. Blend the base and refrigerate for up to a day, then add toppings when you’re ready. The texture holds well, and the flavour actually deepens overnight.
Read the full feature: At the Table with Chetna Chopra here.
Plus, the Green Goddess Pasta recipe here.
1,000 Ways to Live Well is a Mille publication. Mille is a modern nutrition brand built around everyday rituals, starting with protein that doesn't ask you to compromise on taste. millesupergrain.com