Avocado in a smoothie
The only base that makes a blend rich without making it sweet.
About ½ medium in a glass — 100 g and 160 calories at that amount. The readings are 3 of 3 for thickening, 3 for creaminess and 0 for sweetness. Thickness and creaminess are what avocado is really for. Whatever the blend needs on the other axis has to come from somewhere else in the glass.
Avocado is the outlier in the base list: it thickens as hard as frozen banana and creams as hard as Greek yogurt, and it brings no sweetness at all. That combination is why it turns up in every banana-free and dairy-free recommendation on this site — it covers two of the three jobs and leaves the third entirely to the fruit.
In the ratio model every ingredient fills one of five roles. Avocado is a creamy base: the part that adds richness and the staying power that comes with it. That is what decides how much of it goes in, which is the next question on this page.
How much avocado to put in a smoothie
The creamy base owns about half a cup of a 2¼-cup glass. For avocado that works out at ½ medium — 100 g in one serving.
Above that the base starts leading the flavor rather than supporting the fruit, and it carries the calorie total up with it. Below it the drink loses the body that stops it separating while you drink it.
The model portions one amount for this role, so there is no range to work within.
Change the amount and this moves with it — the calorie calculator does the arithmetic as you build.
What avocado does to the texture
Every ingredient on this site is rated out of three on the only three jobs that matter in a blender. Those ratings are what the substitution engine scores against, so they are the same numbers the rest of the site works from.
This is the top of the thickening scale. Whatever avocado goes into takes its texture from it, and taking it out is what leaves a blend watery.
This is the top of the creaminess scale — what turns a fruit blend into something that drinks like a milkshake.
None at all. Every bit of sweetness in the glass has to come from the fruit or from something added for the purpose, which is useful when you want to control it.
Thickness and creaminess are what avocado is really for. Whatever the blend needs on the other axis has to come from somewhere else in the glass.
Avocado nutrition
Per 100 g so it can be compared against anything, and per 1/2 medium so it matches what actually goes in the jar. One 1/2 medium of avocado weighs 100 g.
Figures for avocado. Everything on the site — every recipe, every calculator — sums from these same numbers, so a total you see elsewhere will always agree with this table.
What goes well with avocado
Its best partners
banana , cocoa powder , spinach , mango and almond milk . Each of those either covers something avocado does not do, or leans the same way hard enough to make the drink taste deliberate.
What to use instead of avocado
Each stand-in is scored against avocado on all three jobs at once, by the same engine behind the substitution calculator. Calories and sugar are for one everyday measure of the replacement; the smaller figure underneath is the difference against the same measure of avocado.
Browse from here
Spinach and kale blends where the fruit does the tasting.
Oats, seeds and a real base, so it holds you past the next hour.
Fiber from berries, greens, chia and flax rather than from a supplement.
Folate-forward greens, avocado and flax, nothing unpasteurised.
Vitamin-C fruit, avocado and omega-3 seeds — foods tied to skin health, not a treatment for it.
Build a blend around it
Put avocado in, add whatever else is in the kitchen, and watch the calories and macros move as you go.
Open the calorie calculatorEstimates, not advice. Every figure on this page is calculated from published per-100 g reference values and standard household measures, so your own brands, portions and equipment will move it. Nothing here is medical, nutritional or dietetic advice — talk to a qualified professional before acting on it, particularly if you are pregnant, managing a health condition, or feeding a child.