This pumpkin smoothie was one of my first experiments with pumpkin purée TEN years ago. I had a little bit of pumpkin leftover from another recipe and thought, “Hey, can I put this in my smoothie?” Yes, Beth, yes you can. And it will taste like a pumpkin pie milkshake. Forget the PSL, this is the pumpkin drink I want to be drinking. Especially if you live in the south and it’s still 80 degrees outside in October. :P
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What’s in A Pumpkin Smoothie?
The ingredients for this smoothie are incredibly simple: pumpkin purée, frozen banana, ground flaxseed, pumpkin pie spice, milk, sweetener of choice, and vanilla extract. The frozen banana gives the smoothie an ice-cream-like texture and the ground flaxseed almost makes the smoothie taste like a graham cracker crust has been blended right into the drink. It’s magical!
Use the Milk of Your Choice
I used whole milk because it is the richest and creamiest, but you can use any non-dairy milk substitute in its place. If your non-dairy milk is already sweetened or vanilla flavored, you can reduce the added sweetener and or skip the vanilla extract listed in the recipe below.
Sweeten to Taste
The best part about making your own smoothie is that you can add as much or as little sugar as you want, and use whatever kind of sugar or sugar substitute that you like. I used brown sugar because it has a rich flavor that makes the smoothie even more pie-like, but you can use honey, white sugar, agave, stevia, or whatever you like. The frozen banana does offer some sweetness on its own, but I found the little extra sweetness really made a difference.
Pumpkin Pie Spice
If you don’t have store-bought pumpkin pie spice, you can use my recipe for homemade pumpkin pie spice here, or just sub in ¼ tsp cinnamon if needed. It’s such a small amount in the smoothie that it won’t make or break the smoothie.
Pumpkin Smoothie
Servings 1 16oz.Ingredients
- 1/3 cup pumpkin purée ($0.18)
- 1 frozen banana ($0.20)
- 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed ($0.03)
- 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice ($0.02)
- 1 cup milk* ($0.42)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract ($0.07)
- 1 tsp brown sugar* ($0.02)
Instructions
- Add the pumpkin, frozen banana, flaxseed, pumpkin pie spice, milk, and vanilla in a blender. Blend until smooth.
- Add the brown sugar (or sweetener of choice) and blend again. Taste and adjust the sweetness to your liking. Enjoy cold.
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Equipment
- Small Blender
- Liquid Measuring Cup
- Measuring Cups Spoons
Notes
Nutrition
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How to Make a Pumpkin Smoothie – Step By Step Photos
Add ⅓ cup pumpkin purée, 1 frozen banana, 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed, ¼ tsp pumpkin pie spice, 1 cup milk, and ¼ tsp vanilla extract to a blender.
Blend until smooth, then give the smoothie a taste and add the sweetener of your choice to your liking. I added one teaspoon brown sugar.
Briefly blend again to dissolve the sweetener into the drink, then enjoy!
This is an excellent model recipe. Made it for the first time this morning, but I didn’t have enough 1% milk on hand for one cup so I added approx 4oz of plain 1% fat kefir. I also used turbinado sugar instead of the standard granulated and sprinkles of ground nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, and allspice to make up the pumpkin pie spice. Delicious!
A delicious & refreshing treat!!! My husband loves this!!! I just happened to have all of the ingredients and in less than 5 minutes we enjoyed this special smoothie! Thank you! We will have this quite often!!!
Wow! This is delicious and great to use leftover pumpkin puree! Not bitter at all. Did you guys remember to peel the bananas? Haha Just Kidding!
It tastes like raw pumpkin even with all of the additives. What did I do wrong? Thanks.
Thank you for these wonderful recipes!!!!!!
Absolutely delicious replacement for pumpkin shakes I used to love. I used oat milk. I swapped maple syrup for brown sugar. I will add more syrup next time, as there is a bit of bitterness from the pumpkin—maybe my banana wasn’t ripe enough. I added a pinch of sea salt but will do closer to an 1/8 tsp next time.
I had the same bitterness issue and I can’t figure it out. But these are great ideas. My banana was yellow starting to turn brown so don’t feel it was that.
Two questions: could I substitute chia for the Flax seed? And what can I do with the leftover pumpkin from the can? I hate recipes that use a partial can of something (side-eye at every 1/2 can of tomato paste). If I put it in the freezer it ends up being a mystery bag that gets thrown out anyway. 😒
You can portion it out and freeze it for making smoothies later (thaw before adding to the smoothie) or you could add it to soup, pasta sauce, or even a bowl of oatmeal. :) Here are our pumpkin recipe archives so you can get some inspiration.
You can make some pumpkin pie if u want
I love this. I’ve only made it once so far, but I was delicious. A little bit too banana flavored for me, but I think I’ll try adding slightly more pumpkin and maybe some more spice the next time.
Thanks!
This is the first pumpkin pie Smoothie I have tried and it was so amazing! I will be making again
So I’m now mildly obsessed with adding frozen riced cauliflower to smoothies because of your chocolate-coffee breakfast smoothie. If I wanted to add some to this recipe, would I need to alter anything else? Maybe use less banana?
Let’s wake up your inner chef! I would have a little taste after each addition until it tastes exactly right for you. XOXO -Monti
This recipe calls for 1 TBS of ground flaxseed and from your recipe description, it seems it’s added just for flavor rather than for thickening which is what ground flaxseed can often do: “and the ground flaxseed almost makes the smoothie taste like a graham cracker crust has been blended right into the drink. “ Can the ground flaxseed just be omitted? Your recently published Peanut Banana Smoothie is so extremely similar and it doesn’t call for ground flaxseed at all.
You can absolutely omit the flaxseed. XOXO -Monti
You have a new fan. I found you thru your meatloaf recipe. So glad, I like your style!
Thank you. Mary Arthars, Randolph, NJ
Very good. I didn’t have frozen banana but added a few frozen cherries. I used maple syrup for sweetener. It’s the perfect recipe for the mini ninja smoothie blender. I like this recipe also. E cause it didn’t require yogurt since I’m avoiding dairy. I used almond milk instead.
Hi there. Has anyone tried using vanill greek yogurt in this instead of milk?