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This Apple Carrot Smoothie is a great way to mix up your smoothie game. Made with an apple, carrot juice, and cinnamon, it’s an easy recipe that’s refreshing and perfect for the fall season.
- This recipe takes less than 10 minutes to make.
- It’s packed with anti-inflammatory and pain-fighting ingredients. This is a great option on high nausea days for a light snack or meal.
- It’s unique! For when you get tired of the same old berry smoothie recipe.
- Most ingredients you should have on hand!
- This recipe is dairy free, gluten free, vegan, and migraine diet friendly.
Pain Fighting Ingredients
Apple – I like to use a honeycrisp apple for this recipe just because of the sweetness level. It’s got a great flavor and you shouldn’t need to add any sweetner. If you don’t have a great blender, I’d recommend chopping into smaller pieces. But with a vitamix, Ninja, or a nutribullet you should be ok to put larger chunks in without any issue. Apples contain pectin which can act as a prebiotic and feed the good bacteria in your gut. Prebiotics are helpful for migraine as the gut brain balance is important, and sometimes it’s hard to get probiotics from normal fermented foods. Apples also assist with protecting the stomach from NSAID use.
Carrot Juice – This sounds really strange, but it’s widely available and I LOVE it for smoothies. Carrot juice is surprisingly sweet and not too earthy. It pairs wonderfully with warming spices like nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger. You can typically locate it at Whole Foods, Central Market (or any local grocery with fresh juices), but I find the best deal to be at Trader Joe’s! If you can’t find this, you can always use fresh carrots for this recipe, but it may not be quite the same flavor that I’ve tested this with. Carrot juice is great at boosting immunity, which is always helpful heading into cold and flu season.
Ginger, Cinnamon, Nutmeg – Dried, ground spices work fine for this recipe. Ginger has wonderful anti-inflammatory properties, especially from a pain perspective. One famous study has shown ginger was as effective as a triptan for aborting pain in a portion of migraine patients. A small study in 2020 showed promise for cinnamon reducing the frequency and severity of migraine attacks as well as reduced inflammation.
Frozen Riced Cauliflower – This provides a lot of creaminess and “bulk” to the smoothie, but the other strong flavors cover up any taste you’d get from the cauliflower. It’s a great way to sneak in more veggies without adding calories or watering down the smoothie with ice.
Milk – I recommend using regular milk or a milk substitute like oat milk, rice milk, or coconut milk.
Tips for Blending
- Start with a good blender! Don’t waste your time with an old one that leaves chunks of fruits and vegetables and just makes you mad. A good blender is worth every penny. My favorite for a quick smoothie is a nutribullet or vitamix.
- Start with the chunky ingredients at the bottom – the apple and frozen riced cauliflower, then the spices, and finally the liquids. Blend on low and then increase the speed.
- If you like a thicker smoothie, I’ve added 1/2 cup of ice without it watering down any flavor.
- Serve immediately.
Recipe Substitutions
- Replace apple with a sweet pear.
- I would not recommend replacing the carrot juice or frozen cauliflower in this recipe. If you can’t find carrot juice but want a similar flavor without it I recommend my Apple Oatmeal Smoothie.
- If you don’t like cinnamon or want a low histamine smoothie, you can omit it from the ingredients.
- For a carrot apple smoothie that’s a little more substantial, blend in 1 tablespoon of chia or hemp seeds.
More Smoothie Recipes
For more great recipes like this Apple Carrot Smoothie check out these posts!
Breakfast
Apple Oat Smoothie
Smoothies
Anti-Inflammatory Smoothie
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Apple Carrot Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 medium honeycrisp apple, peeled and rough chopped
- 1/2 cup frozen riced cauliflower
- 1/2 cup carrot juice
- 1/2 cup milk of choice
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- pinch of ground nutmeg
Instructions
- In a high speed blender, combine rough chopped apple, frozen riced cauliflower, carrot juice, milk, and spices. Blend till smooth.
- Check the consistency and add ice, up to 1/2 cup, as desired. Serve immediately
Notes
- For milk, I used Oatly oat milk. I like using a honeycrisp apple for the sweetness, but you can use any apple you like.
- Trader Joe’s has a great deal on carrot juice.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I’m not usually a huge smoothie fan since it’s too much cold stuff and too much sugar but this recipe is awesome. It’s more like a thick juice since very little volume is frozen. The carrot juice makes it not too sweet and the cauliflower really gives it good volume.
Flavor is all there! I started making it and realized I had carrots and not carrot juice. I did it anyway, and the only modification I would make next time is up the liquid to accommodate the carrots. But if you made this recipe as is, no need for that! Haha
Delicious! Alicia’s smoothie recipes are always excellent!
Whenever I’m in a migraine attack & need to consume nutrients without much chewing, I turn to Alicia’s anti-inflammatory smoothies, & this one is a go-to. Whenever I’m at Trader Joe’s I buy a little carrot juice bottle which is the perfect size for this recipe! Who knew carrot juice was so tasty?!