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This Oatmeal Smoothie is the perfect breakfast or snack, when you need a something that will keep you feeling full. It’s inspired by my Peanut Butter Overnight Oats, only you can drink this version with a straw!
What You Need to Know
Can you put raw oats in a smoothie? Yes! Uncooked oats actually have more resistant starch than cooked oats, and resistant starch may help to feed the friendly bacteria in your gut.
What type of oatmeal is best for a smoothie? Since you don’t want to sip a big chunk of oatmeal through your straw, I think old-fashioned rolled oats or quick-cooking oats are best in a smoothie.
If you don’t have a powerful blender, I recommend blending the oats first, so they are already ground before you add in the rest of your smoothie ingredients.
Steel cuts oats could work if you grind them in a high-speed blender first, too, but it’s more of a risk that your smoothie won’t be perfectly creamy.
Benefits of Oats
Why would you want to add oatmeal to a smoothie? Oats have some impressive nutrition inside!
Here’s why you’ll love them:
- Oats are one of the only sources of antioxidants called Avenanthramides, which have been shown to have an anti-inflammatory and anti-itch effect. (Hence, why some people take oatmeal baths for poison ivy!)
- They contain a soluble fiber called beta-glucan, which may help to lower LDL cholesterol levels.
- Eating oatmeal may act as a prebiotic (feeding good bacteria in the gut).
- This soluble fiber may also help to lower blood sugar and insulin response.
- Oats have also been shown to increase feelings of fullness.
Looking for more ways to sneak oats into your day? Try my Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal, Chocolate Overnight Oats, or my other oat flour recipes for more ideas.
How to Make It
To make this Oatmeal Smoothie, I like to start by briefly grinding the oats.
This will ensure you don’t get any chunks of oats through your straw later, but you can skip this extra step if you have a high-speed blender that you know will pulverize everything, regardless.
Now that the oatmeal is ground, add in the liquid, peanut butter, frozen banana (here’s how to freeze bananas), ground flax seeds, and maple syrup, if you’d like a little extra sweetness.
Want to add spinach? You can add that when you add the peanut butter and bananas, too. The smoothie will just look green in that case!
Blend until smooth, then add in a handful of ice cubes, to give this smoothie a slushy texture.
The more ice you add, the more diluted the flavor will be, so I think 3 to 5 cubes is plenty.
Enjoy right away for the best taste and texture. Oatmeal tends to thicken as it sits in liquid, so if you need to add an extra splash of water or milk to your drink, you can do that as you sip!
Substitutions
Need to try something different? Here are some other ideas that might work.
Banana. You can replace the banana with frozen avocado for creaminess, but it will be less sweet in that case. Try adding 1-2 dates, or a squeeze of honey or maple syrup, if you’d like to make it sweeter in that case.
Almond milk. You can try another dairy-free milk like oat milk or hemp milk, or just use plain water instead! Dairy may inhibit the absorption of antioxidants in the body, so that’s why I don’t use it in my smoothies.
Peanut Butter. I love the flavor peanut butter adds here, but you can use almond butter or sunflower seed butter to add creaminess, too.
Flax seeds. These seeds add omega-3 fatty acids to the smoothie and help keep you feeling full, but you can also try chia seeds instead, or just leave them out.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup rolled oats (27 grams)
- 1 frozen banana (sliced into coins; 99 grams)
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter (40 grams)
- 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds (6 grams)
- 3/4 cup almond milk or water (6 ounces)
- .5 to 1 tablespoon maple syrup (10 grams; or to taste)
- 3 to 5 ice cubes
Instructions
- In a high-speed blender, add the oats and blend briefly to break them down into smaller pieces. This will prevent you from finding any big chunks of oatmeal in your smoothie later.
- Add in the banana, peanut butter, flax, liquid, and maple syrup, if desired, then blend until smooth.
- Add in the ice cubes and blend again, until the smoothie has a slushy texture.
- Serve right away for the best taste and texture.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
More Smoothie Recipes
Looking for more smoothie inspiration? Try one of these!
- Apple Smoothie
- Zucchini Smoothie
- Beet Smoothie
- Pumpkin Smoothie
- Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie
- Chocolate Smoothie (with no banana)
- Strawberry Banana Smoothie
- Watermelon Smoothie (a favorite!)
- Spirulina Smoothie
If you try this Oatmeal Smoothie, please leave a comment below letting me know how you like it! And if you make any modifications, I’d love to hear about those, too.
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Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite smoothie combination?
Oh my goodness, what a treat. I’ve been feeling generally burned out on smoothies this summer, but THIS smoothie is bringing me back into the fold. The flavor, the creaminess. I threw in a carrot and zucchini (neither of which you can taste) for a bit of extra veggie power. Highly recommend this recipe!
Hello I have a Vitamix blender but the smoothie would always get warm. Would love to try the oatmeal one. Any suggestions would be appreciated Thenk you
Loved it. Tastes get. I love that oats are a super food.
I find myself coming back to this recipe again and again! It’s soo delicious and such a quick and filling breakfast. My toddler really loves it too. Highly recommend!
I want to try this, but I dislike bananas. What would be a good substitute in this case? I love all the other ingredients, so I want to try this (and probably will!), so I’d love suggestions for replacements for the bananas. 🙂
You could swap a few pitted Medjool dates for sweetness, instead. Without the frozen banana, you might also want to add a handful of ice to help with a slushy texture.
This has become my favorite smoothie that I have almost daily! It’s filling and makes me feel healthy just drinking it but it’s also super delicious. Very few recipes you can say that about!
I have made it enough times to be able to play with different substitutes and modifications. Here are some of them:
-Oat milk goes fantastic in this. I’ve been using Oatly’s Full Fat oat milk for that creamy texture.
-Non frozen bananas are okay you just might need to up the ice content but this could lead to a “looser” or more watery smoothie. I recommend putting in the recommended amount of ice cubes first then putting in one ice cube at a time until you get your desired consistency. Careful not to overblend as some blenders actually add heat from friction to the overall smoothie.
-Baby spinach is a great addition! Blueberries too!
-Turmeric blends nicely into this as well with no staining. I have also added walnuts and Hemp seed too. I once added dates as a substitute for maple syrup and it was yummy!
-Almond butter is a nice dynamic replacement for peanut butter and complements the warm flavor of the ground flax seed well.
-If you’re using a vitamin or equivalent blender, I personally have just been adding all of the ingredients at once out of convenience and it turns out just fine. But again I’ve made this probably a hundred times now so I’ve gotten to really know the recipe and my blender well.
Hope this helps!
I love that I always have the ingredients to make this smoothie. It’s so filling and delicious!
This was absolutely delicious. I added a handful of frozen strawberries that were left in my freezer from the summer and it was like drinking a peanut butter and jelly ice cream shake. So good I’ll have to make myself another one for tomorrow morning. Also, I used organic home style instant oats and it worked great. If the old fashioned is better in some way, please let me know and I’ll definitely add that to my pantry.
Very tasty. I reduced the peanut butter to 1 tablespoon and the banana to 1/2 to reduce calories and added in a handful of spinach. Yum.
Looks delicious! Is this properly combined or would I need to leave out the banana and nut butter?