In the contest between milk and milk alternatives, I almost always choose the dairy. But sometimes it’s fun to explore and cook with different milk alternatives since they offer so many different flavors and consistencies.
Most recently, I’ve been excited about Chocolate Hazelnut Milk, which tastes like a beverage form of Nutella – yum!
It’s great right out of the carton, but when added to a smoothie (or used for chia seed pudding), chocolate hazelnut milk is even more of a treat!
You can really blend this with anything and it will taste good, but here’s how I made a super chocolatey (and still healthy) smoothie the other day.
Chocolate Hazelnut Smoothie
Prep time
Total time
Serves: 1 serving
Ingredients
- 1 cup Pacific Foods Chocolate Hazelnut Milk
- ½ cup plain yogurt
- 1 Tbsp cocoa powder
- 1 frozen banana, broken into chunks
- 1 cup frozen strawberries
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a blender.
- Blend - or pulse - until mixture is smooth, adding a few ice cubes if you want the smoothie to be thicker.
- Pour into a cup and serve.
6 Comments
Amanda Herwaldt Cowan
April 18, 2013 at 8:24 pmThat looks so good! But that milk sadly contains carageenan. š So far, I’ve only found one non-dairy milk without carageenan or tons of added sugar. Silk Almond unsweetened. Of course, that’s a double edge sword because it’s parent company spends lots of $$$ to kill GMO labeling laws. You just can’t win sometimes.
Amelia
April 20, 2013 at 12:11 pmI hadn’t thought about the carageenan – is there a particular reason you avoid it? I know it can cause unpleasant GI symptoms in people who easily get GI upset, but I haven’t seen any studies that deem it harmful. I’d love to hear your thoughts. I know that many commercially produced foods do contain it.
Amanda Herwaldt Cowan
April 23, 2013 at 3:26 pmhttp://www.drweilblog.com/home/2011/6/4/does-carrageenan-raise-cancer-risk.html Here is some information. So far, the only milk I’ve seen that’s non-dairy that does not include it (or lots of extra sugar) is the Silk brand Almond Unsweetened. I did just buy the sweetened variety, that I’m only using lightly in my coffee, but I typically stick to unsweetened. I think your exposure to carrageenan (or any known carcinogen) should be looked at as a personal thing. For my husband and I, we both have various cancers in our family history and try (key word here) to avoid things we know are connected. Unfortunately, like you said many commercially produced products contain it. š But since many of those are also highly processed, I feel comfortable with our reduced exposure (since we do very little highly processed foods).
Of course, there is a double-edged sword here. Dean Foods, which owns Silk and Horizon milk companies donated lots of $$$ to foil attempts to properly label foods which are GM. So I guess there really is no right answer. Do what you can, right? And that smoothie does looks tasty. š
Amelia
April 24, 2013 at 1:58 pmThanks for all this info, Amanda! I will peruse the link you sent. In general, Dr. Weil is not always on the same page as other scientists…he offers some ideas that are not necessarily backed by research…but its definitely worth a look on this issue. In my research I did see that carrageenan does pose some potential risks. Thank you!
Sofia
July 28, 2015 at 8:11 pmHello Amelia!
I was wondering if I could make my own chocolate hazelnut milk instead of Pacific Food’s, because they don’t sell it in the country I live in. Thanks! By the way, it looks delicious!
Amelia Winslow
July 30, 2015 at 12:28 pmI’m sure you could make it, Sofia. You could follow my Homemade Almond Milk recipe — but use hazelnuts instead, then add cocoa powder and more sweetener (more dates, honey, sugar, etc) at the end of blending. If you try it, let me know how it turns out!