Date and Almond Butter Smoothie

This recipe is from The Joy of Vegan Baking by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau and has a lovely rich depth of flavour. 
Play around with the ingredients and amounts. I used only 1 tablespoon of almond butter (as that was all I had) and yet found it very strong so 3 T might have been too much (i was using roasted almond butter though which tasted devine). I also used a little less maple syrup so adjust sweetness accordingly. 


2 cups (470ml) non diary milk
1 or 2 ripe bananas, cut into chunks and previously frozen
2 to 3 heaping tablespoons of almond butter (32 to 48 g)
1 tsp cinnamon
3 dates, chopped
1 T pure maple syrup (20 g)
tsp vanilla extract

If you do not have a very strong blender, try soaking the dates first or add the dates and bananas to the blender first and pureee separately before remaining ingredients.
If you have a strong blender such as vitamix then combine all the ingredients and blend until a creamy smoothy.

yields: 2 servings