This cold cacao beet smoothie is thick, smooth, and dark burgundy from a full pound of cooked beet blended with homemade coconut milk. Pure organic cocoa gives it a clear chocolate flavor, while one tablespoon of raw honey softens the earthy edge without turning the drink into dessert.
The recipe makes one generous smoothie with five measured ingredients. There is no banana, berry, psyllium, seed, protein powder, or packaged milk hiding in the card. Cook the beet until completely tender, chill it, and blend until every piece disappears.
A Separate Smoothie For The Milkshake Rotation
GAPS milkshakes are a daily part of our house. Our regular family version uses fresh-pressed vegetable juice, raw egg yolks, cultured cream or coconut oil, and a little raw honey. This cacao beet smoothie is a separate recipe with its own method. It does not quietly borrow the eggs, juice, or cultured cream from our everyday milkshake.
That distinction matters when you are trying to keep a rotation useful. A drink should tell you exactly what to cook, what to chill, and what the finished texture looks like. You should not have to guess whether a list of optional ingredients is actually several recipes folded into one card.
This version is also practical for make-ahead cooking. Cook the beet when the saucepan is already out, then chill the pieces for the next smoothie. When you are ready to drink it, the blender stage takes only a few minutes.
This Smoothie Belongs On Later Full GAPS
Beet, homemade coconut milk, raw honey, and mineral salt all fit the Full GAPS ingredient list. Pure organic cocoa sets the timing. GAPS guidance places cocoa as an occasional later Full GAPS food after digestive symptoms are gone and cocoa is already tolerated.
This is not an Introduction Diet smoothie. It is also not meant to turn cocoa into a daily staple. Use plain pure organic cocoa powder, not a sweetened cacao drink mix, chocolate syrup, or powder containing milk, starch, flavoring, or sugar.
The source recipe calls the ingredient cacao. The WFLI formula uses the GAPS-authorized form, pure organic cocoa powder. The title keeps “cacao beet smoothie” because that is how readers commonly search for this beet-and-chocolate combination. The ingredient line stays specific about what goes in the blender.
Use One Pound Of Whole Beet
The source measures one large beet or two small beets at about three-quarters to one pound total. The structured card uses one pound as the exact base so its 2× control can truthfully become two pounds. That amount gives the drink its thick body and deep beet color.
Scrub the beet well and leave the skin on. Roughly chop it into pieces around one and a half inches. The pieces do not need to match perfectly, but very large chunks take longer to soften than smaller ones.
Put the pieces in a small saucepan and cover them with water. Cook over medium heat for 15 to 25 minutes. Start checking the smaller pieces first. The endpoint is complete tenderness, not a timer alone.
A fork should slide through the center without a hard core or crunchy resistance. The cut edges will look softened and saturated, and the cooking water will be dark ruby. Drain the beets and let the steam settle before chilling them.
I use a small Le Creuset stainless saucepan for this step. Keep the full base on the burner and use enough water to cover the pieces. A wider pot may need more water, so watch the level during the longer end of the cooking range.
Chill The Beets Before Blending
The card is the cold whole-beet branch. Chill the cooked pieces and the finished homemade coconut milk before loading the blender. The chilling time is make-ahead time and is not included in the 30-minute prep-and-cook total.
Use one cup of the hot-water homemade coconut milk. Stir it before measuring if the coconut fat has separated in the refrigerator. The linked recipe handles the coconut-to-water ratio and straining. This smoothie starts with one cup of finished milk, not a second coconut-milk recipe inside this post.
If you want the warm source variation, keep every measurement the same. Whisk the coconut milk and cocoa together in a saucepan until hot, add the cooked beet long enough to warm it through, then blend with honey and salt. That is a serving-temperature adaptation of the same formula. The card and photographed version stay cold.
Measure The Cocoa And Honey
Start with one level tablespoon pure organic cocoa powder. The source allows a heaping tablespoon, so the card gives you one additional level teaspoon as an optional structured amount. This keeps scaling honest. At 2×, the base cocoa becomes two tablespoons and the optional amount becomes two teaspoons.
Add one tablespoon raw honey and one pinch mineral salt. Blend first, then taste. Beets have their own sweetness, and cocoa strength varies. If you decide the drink needs more honey, add a small amount after the first blend rather than changing the base measurement before you know the result.
Psyllium is not part of this accepted WFLI formula. The source lists it as optional, but the smoothie already has its measured whole beet. Maple syrup and carob are also excluded from this Full GAPS card.
Load The Blender Before You Start It
Pour the cold coconut milk into a heat-safe glass blender jar. Add the chilled cooked beet chunks, cocoa, optional extr cocoa, raw honey, and salt. The beet pieces will sit partly above the milk, with the cocoa and honey on top.
Secure the lid and blend until completely smooth. Stop only when there are no visible beet pieces, cocoa pockets, or pale streaks of coconut milk. The color should be even from top to bottom.
The finished texture is thick but pourable. It should move into the glass in one steady mass rather than drop like mashed beet. If the blender leaves pieces against the jar, stop the motor, let everything settle, and follow the manufacturer’s safe procedure before blending again.
What The Finished Smoothie Looks And Tastes Like
The beet keeps the drink deep burgundy even after the cocoa is blended in. It should look darker and browner than beet juice, but it will not look like a pale chocolate milkshake. Tiny natural bubbles may sit on the surface after blending.
The first flavor is earthy beet with cocoa behind it. Coconut milk rounds the texture, and honey keeps the cocoa from tasting sharp. There is no berry or banana flavor because neither ingredient belongs to this formula.
Pour it into one large glass and serve cold. The source treats the full batch as one serving. You can divide it at the table, but the card’s yield should not pretend it was measured as several smaller servings.
Supported Full GAPS Adaptations
Homemade coconut milk is the exact card formula and the dairy-free option shown in the photos. Properly prepared homemade nut milk can replace it in the same one-cup amount when nuts are already tolerated. Use a plain milk with no additives.
Raw milk can replace the coconut milk only after dairy introduction has been completed and raw milk is already tolerated. Keep the same one-cup measurement. The cold version leaves the milk raw at serving, while the warm adaptation does not.
Do not substitute canned coconut milk, packaged sweetened milk, maple syrup, carob, beet powder, banana, berries, prunes, chia, flax, or psyllium inside this post. Those ingredients create different formulas or different dietary routes.
Make-Ahead And Storage
The source specifically supports cooking several beets at once and keeping extras cold for later smoothies. Cool them before covering and refrigerating. The source does not give a fixed storage window, so label your prepared beets and use your normal cooked-vegetable storage routine.
Blend the smoothie close to serving. If it sits in the refrigerator after blending, stir it and check the texture before drinking. The beet solids can thicken as the drink rests. Do not add an unmeasured second liquid in advance.
For a frozen beet drink with a different measured formula, use the frozen beet-ginger milkshake. The warm beet-ginger shake is the linked warm option. Both remain separate because their ingredients and methods differ from this cocoa smoothie.
Equipment For The Batch
You need a small stainless saucepan, a colander or strainer for draining, a knife and cutting board, measuring cups and spoons, a heat-safe glass blender, and one large serving glass. Keep the saucepan fully supported on its burner and the blender jar locked on its base.
The 2× control doubles the beet to two pounds and the coconut milk to two cups. Check your saucepan and blender capacities before doubling. Cook or blend in separate batches when the full amount would crowd the equipment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I Peel The Beet?
No. Scrub it well, leave the skin on, and roughly chop it before cooking. The pieces need to become completely tender so the skin blends into the finished texture.
Can I Use Raw Beet?
No. This formula uses cooked beet. The 15-to-25-minute cooking step and fork-tender endpoint are part of the recipe.
Why Is My Smoothie Grainy?
Check the beet tenderness first. A hard center will not disappear easily. Then blend until no pieces or pale coconut-milk streaks remain.
Can I Add Psyllium For More Fiber?
Psyllium is not part of this accepted WFLI formula. The card keeps the whole-beet version clear and complete without it.
Can I Use Cocoa Every Day On Full GAPS?
No. Pure organic cocoa is an occasional later Full GAPS food after digestive symptoms are gone and cocoa is tolerated.
Why Is The Smoothie Burgundy Instead Of Chocolate Brown?
One pound of cooked beet remains visually dominant. Cocoa deepens the color, but it does not erase the beet’s natural burgundy tone.
Cacao Beet Smoothie Recipe
Cacao Beet Smoothie for Later Full GAPS
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Scrub the beet and leave the skin on. Roughly chop it into about 1 1/2-inch pieces, place in a small saucepan, and cover with water. Cook over medium heat for 15 to 25 minutes, until a fork slides through the center without a hard core. Drain and cool.
- Chill the cooked beet pieces and the finished homemade coconut milk ahead of time. Stir the coconut milk before measuring if its fat has separated.
- Pour the chilled coconut milk into a heat-safe glass blender. Add the cooked beet, cocoa, optional additional cocoa, raw honey, and mineral salt.
- Secure the lid and blend until completely smooth, thick but pourable, and even dark burgundy throughout, with no visible beet pieces, cocoa pockets, or pale coconut-milk streaks. Pour into one large glass and serve cold.
Notes
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