Peanut Paradise Tropical Smoothie

Smoothies are one of my favorite foods to stay healthy when I’m on a busy schedule or want to increase my energy levels. That’s why I’m excited to share my next smoothie recipe, Peanut Paradise Tropical Smoothie. What I love about this smoothie, is that it takes about 5 minutes to make, and contains nothing but wholesome, healthy ingredients.

It can act as a meal replacement for weight loss or a hearty snack. It’s creamy, sweet, nutty, and packed full of protein. You’ll get protein from the nuts, milk, yogurt, and protein powder – pretty much every ingredient! This makes it perfect for a post-workout shake, a healthy diet or meal alternative, or a sweet dessert to help you stay healthy while satisfying your sugar cravings.

I’ll show you how to make this Peanut Paradise Tropical Smoothie, and popular variations and substitutions to spice it up according to your preferences.

What is the Peanut Paradise Tropical Smoothie?

The Peanut Paradise smoothie is a popular smoothie from the Tropical Smoothie Café. They are a smoothie shop with locations all over the United States, serving various smoothie flavors. The Tropical Smoothie Café Peanut Paradise has peanut butter, non-fat yogurt, frozen bananas, and protein powder. They also add sweetener and ice to make it sweet and frothy.

Peanut Paradise Tropical Smoothie Ingredients

Frozen Bananas: Depending on how many servings you want to make, add your preferred amount of frozen bananas. I recommend adding one whole frozen banana for each serving. This will add enough sweetness, frothiness, and banana flavor. Cut your banana into 1-inch cubes, freeze them, and then use them in this smoothie recipe.

Peanut Butter: Peanut butter is what gives this smoothie its hallmark taste and texture. I recommend using 1-2 tablespoons for each serving. You can use creamy or crunchy peanut butter.

Non-Fat Yogurt: Non-fat yogurt will add an added layer of protein while giving the smoothie an extra tangy flavor. I recommend using ½-3/4 cups of yogurt. I also recommend using non-fat Greek yogurt, instead of plain yogurt, for extra protein.

Protein Powder: Use at least one scoop of vanilla protein powder of your choice. Tropical Smoothie Café offers whey or pea protein. However, if you’re making it at home, you can also use hemp seed protein, brown rice protein, or others. Whatever you have on hand or favor most, you can use!

Milk: Use any milk of your choice. Use regular dairy milk or plant-based milk, such as almond milk, coconut milk, or soy milk. I recommend using ½ cup of milk per serving. This makes it less thick and more runny. However, you can adjust the quantity to your liking.

Ice (Optional): If you are using fresh (rather than frozen) bananas, ice will be a necessity to make your smoothie cold and frothy. However, this ingredient is optional if you’re using frozen bananas. I recommend using at least 1 cup of ice for this recipe, or ½ cup per serving.

Sweetener (Optional): Tropical Smoothie Café gives you the option to add Splenda or turbinado sugar. If you find that your homemade Peanut Paradise Tropical Smoothie isn’t sweet enough, you can add these types of sugar to your smoothie, or opt for honey, coconut nectar, or some other natural sweetener. You can also add another frozen banana. Just make sure to balance out the smoothie with more milk.

How to Make Peanut Paradise Tropical Smoothie

Freeze Your Bananas: Peel super-ripe bananas, cut them into chunks, and freeze them in a Ziploc bag or air-tight container. Freeze them for about 2-3 hours or until they’re frozen solid. Freeze banana slices to reduce the freezer time, and make them easier to blend. I recommend freezing a large batch of ripe bananas at once, so they’re ready to grab and use when you need them in a variety of recipes.

Put all Your Ingredients into a Blender: Put the frozen bananas, non-fat yogurt, protein powder, milk, peanut butter, and any of the optional ingredients into a blender.

Blend Until Smooth: Blend the smoothie until smooth. Taste and adjust for taste and texture. Add more milk if you want it more runny, or add more peanut butter if you want a stronger peanut butter flavor.

Garnish with Your Favorite Toppings: Garnish with chopped peanuts, sliced bananas, peanut butter, cinnamon, or your other favorite toppings and spices.

Enjoy: Just enjoy it! Serve it alone as a snack or meal. You can also pair it with a banana or bowl of fruit, a breakfast sandwich, or a salad.

What Kind of Protein Powder Should I Use?

You can use any kind of protein powder you want! You can use whey protein, casein protein, egg protein powder, or plant-based protein (pea, hemp seed, or brown rice).

I prefer using vanilla whey protein powder, as it makes the peanut paradise tropical smoothie taste the best.

What Kind of Milk Should I Use?

The type of milk you use is ultimately up to you. In this recipe, I use plant-based milk. Almond milk is a great, low-calorie choice. However, if you want to make your smoothie creamier, I recommend using 2% dairy milk.

Learn more about the best milk for smoothies if you want this peanut paradise tropical smoothie to be more creamy, healthy, high-calorie, or low-calorie.

How Much Sugar is in Peanut Butter Paradise Tropical Smoothie?

The Tropical Smoothie Café Peanut Paradise can have as much as 80 grams of sugar per serving. However, when you make this smoothie at home, you can significantly reduce the sugar amount.

When making this smoothie from scratch, you can limit the added sugar to 0 grams. The amount of natural sugar will be roughly half, around 40 grams.

Is Peanut Paradise Tropical Smoothie Healthy?

Yes, the peanut paradise tropical smoothie is healthy when you make it at home! When you follow this recipe, this smoothie will be packed with protein, healthy fats, and carbs.

However, if you buy the peanut paradise from Tropical Café, it might not be as healthy. Their smoothie has a lot more added sugar.

Peanut Paradise Tropical Smoothie Calories

If you order the Peanut Paradise from Tropical Smoothie Café, one serving is about 690 calories. However, if you make it from scratch, you can significantly reduce the calorie intake by reducing the total serving amount and by using natural whole foods.

Peanut Paradise Tropical Smoothie for Weight Loss

This peanut paradise smoothie is great for weight loss. That’s because it’s full of protein and extremely nutritious. Almost every ingredient has protein, including the yogurt, milk, peanut butter, and protein powder. It will keep you energized and full for a long time, which makes it perfect for weight loss.

If you want to reduce the calorie amount, I recommend using 1 banana, instead of 2. Reduce the amount of peanut butter to 1 tablespoon, and add a little bit more ice.

Tips to Make the Best Peanut Paradise Smoothie

Use a High-Speed Blender

Using a high-speed blender like a Ninja or Vitamix will ensure that your smoothie ingredients will blend to make a very smooth and silky drink.

Sometimes, when you use a cheap or low-powered blender, frozen ingredients, like frozen fruit and ice won’t blend fully, leaving little bits or chunks in your final drink.

Use Frozen Bananas

Using frozen bananas will give the smoothie a frothy taste and texture. It will add an ice cream feel to the drink, without the extra added sugar and fat. It will make your drink colder without sacrificing flavor.

Whenever making smoothies, I always recommend freezing all of your fruit before blending it.

Add Extra Ice for Extra Frothiness

For this smoothie, in particular, extra ice makes it extra special. By blending ice in a high-speed blender, it will make your smoothie extra cold and frothy. In this recipe, I recommend adding one cup of ice. It makes it taste like a milkshake!

Be Flexible

This is the most important tip! Be flexible with the ingredients you use and have on hand. Don’t go out to the store and buy creamy peanut butter if you have crunchy peanut butter in the pantry. Don’t go out and buy non-fat Greek yogurt if you have regular plain or vanilla yogurt in the fridge.

Don’t be afraid to spice things up, either. Add additional ingredients or swap out others according to your preferences. My husband just made this smoothie the other night, and he added frozen berries to it. It turned out amazing!

Optional Ingredients 

Berries: Yes, just like my husband, I encourage you to add frozen berries to this drink, it’ll be delicious. Use any variety, including strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, or raspberries.

Vanilla: Add a teaspoon of vanilla to make your smoothie taste more like a milkshake! It will add that strong vanilla flavor and add a sweetness unmatched by any other ingredient.

Chocolate: Chocolate lovers don’t fear. Adding chocolate will taste amazing. Add 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder or Nutella to make a peanut butter chocolate tropical paradise smoothie. If you’re using cocoa powder, I recommend adding an extra frozen banana or a couple of tablespoons of natural sweetener to balance out the sweetness. You can even garnish it with fudge or melted chocolate.

Coffee: Are you making this smoothie for breakfast? Do you want to turn this smoothie into some proffee action? Then instead of adding 1 cup of milk, add ½ cup milk and ½ cup of black, chilled coffee.

Smoothie Variations

One thing to know about smoothies is that they are versatile! You can add or subtract any ingredients you want. Below, are some popular, unique, and fun variations.

Peanut Paradise with Pea Protein

A common ingredient in this smoothie is protein powder. However, if you are vegan or prefer eating plant-based, use any variety of vegan protein powder, including pea protein. You also have the option to add pea protein when you order this smoothie at Tropical Smoothie Café.

Peanut Paradise Tropical Smoothie with Soy

Another popular variation is adding soy protein to this smoothie drink. If you’re vegan, this is another popular type of protein to add. Add one scoop of soy protein powder to this recipe. You can also use soy milk.

Peanut Paradise Tropical Smoothie with Whey

This is my favorite variation. I like using vanilla whey protein powder in my recipe, as I think it tastes the best. However, I encourage you to make this recipe a couple of times but with different protein powders, to see which one you like the best. Many protein powders vary in taste and texture.

Peanut Paradise Tropical Smoothie with Crunchy Peanut Butter

In this variety, replace creamy peanut butter with crunchy peanut butter. You’ll get the extra peanut-ey flavor of the nuts in your drink for a stronger flavor profile. I recommend doubling the amount of peanut butter if you really want to get wild, about 3-4 tablespoons.

Extreme Peanut Paradise Tropical Smoothie

Truly make this a peanut tropical paradise. Add tropical fruits to this smoothie like pineapple, mango, and papaya. Add in chunks of fresh coconut for an extra nutty flavor. Use coconut milk instead of another milk variety to turn this into a tropical smoothie recipe.

Smoothie Substitutions

Peanut Butter: If you don’t have creamy peanut butter, I recommend using the same amount of crunchy peanut butter. You can also use any kind of nut butter you have on hand, like almond butter, mixed nut butter, or hazelnut butter. However, just note, if you use another kind of nut butter, your smoothie will not have that classic peanut taste.

Non-fat Greek Yogurt: If you don’t have non-fat Greek yogurt, you can use any variety of vanilla or plain yogurt. You can also use cottage cheese instead of yogurt.

Milk: In this recipe, you can use regular dairy milk or a variety of plant-based milk, including almond milk and soy milk. However, if you’re really strapped, you can replace milk with water (Tropical Smoothie Café actually does this).

Ice: If you don’t have ice, then I recommend adding one extra frozen banana. You can also add ½ – 1 cup of other frozen fruit (as mentioned above).

Frozen Bananas: If you don’t have frozen bananas, you can do one of two things. You can use non-frozen, fresh bananas. You can also replace the bananas with 1 cup of ice and 1-2 tablespoons of natural sweetener, like honey or coconut nectar.

Vegan: Make this smoothie vegan by replacing the yogurt with plant-based yogurt, plant-based milk, and vegan protein powder. If you don’t want to add any yogurt, then replace the yogurt with one extra frozen banana.

How to Store Leftover Peanut Paradise Tropical Smoothie

If you have leftover smoothie, try one of these 4 storage methods.

Fridge: Pour the smoothie into an air-tight container, and store it in the back of the fridge for 1-2 days. When you want to drink it, you can do one of two things. You can pour it into a glass and drink it right away. You can also put it in a blender with ½ – 1 cup of ice, to revive it and make it frothy again. Pour in a glass and enjoy.

Freezer: Pour the leftover smoothie into an air-tight container, and store it in the freezer for up to 4-5 months. When you’re ready to use it, let it defrost for 10-15 minutes, and put it in a blender with some milk. Pour it into a glass and enjoy.

Ice Cubes: Pour your leftover smoothie into ice cube trays, and place in the freezer. Store in the freezer for up to 4-5 months. When you’re ready to have your smoothie, pour the smoothie ice cubes into a high-speed blender, add some milk, and blend until smooth.

Popsicles: Pour your leftover smoothie into popsicle holders, and freeze for 4-5 months. When you’re ready to eat them, pull them out of the popsicle holder and enjoy them as a popsicle!

How to Make this Peanut Paradise Tropical Smoothie Vegan?

Make this smoothie vegan by replacing the yogurt with plant-based yogurt, plant-based milk, and vegan protein powder. If you don’t want to add any yogurt, then replace the yogurt with one extra frozen banana.

What to Serve with Peanut Paradise Smoothie

You can pair this smoothie recipe with a variety of breakfast and lunch options. A couple of my favorite breakfasts that I like to pair with this peanut paradise smoothie are my chocolate coconut cereal recipe and my tofu scramble.

Serve it alongside a salad, such as my strawberry salad, or drink it as a quick meal.

More Smoothie Recipes to Try

• Strawberry Smoothie with Lime
• Energizer Berry Smoothie
• Mango Pomegranate Smoothie
• Almond Cherry Smoothie