RecipesFrom the test kitchen
Banana peanut butter oat smoothie
Banana, peanut butter, oats and whole milk blended into a 5-minute breakfast that covers a real share of the potassium Daily Value.
Method
- 1
Add the dry oats to the blender first and pulse a few times until they look like coarse flour. This one step is the difference between a smooth drink and a gritty one.
- 2
Break the bananas into chunks and add them on top of the ground oats.
- 3
Add the peanut butter, milk and cinnamon if you are using it.
- 4
Blend on high for 45 to 60 seconds until completely smooth. Scrape down the sides once if the peanut butter clings to the jar.
- 5
Add the ice cubes and blend another 15 to 20 seconds until cold and thick.
- 6
Taste. If your bananas were not fully ripe, blend in a teaspoon or two of honey. Ripe, spotty bananas usually make this sweet enough on their own.
- 7
Pour into two glasses and drink right away. The oats keep thickening as it sits, so if you save a glass for later, loosen it with a splash of milk before drinking.
Why this scores well
Original analysis by NutriVerdict
Every ingredient here is pulled from our Nutrient Density Index, and the potassium math is the whole point. Bananas score 45 and carry 358 mg of potassium per 100 g, so two of them contribute roughly 900 mg to the batch. Oats are the quiet overachiever at a score of 65, with 429 mg of potassium and 16.9 g of protein per 100 g, which is why grinding half a cup into the smoothie adds real substance instead of empty thickness. Smooth peanut butter scores 47 and is flagged potassium-rich in our index at 558 mg per 100 g, the highest concentration of any ingredient in the glass. Whole milk (38) rounds it out with 132 mg of potassium and 3.15 g of protein per 100 g, and at a cup and a half it quietly adds almost 500 mg of potassium to the batch. Stacked together, the two servings total about 1,900 mg of potassium and 34 g of protein.
Tips
- Freeze peeled banana chunks ahead of time and skip the ice. Frozen bananas make the texture closer to a milkshake and keep the flavor concentrated.
- Letting the ground oats sit in the milk for 2 to 3 minutes before the final blend softens them further, which matters if your blender is on the weaker side.
- For more potassium and protein in the same glass, add a second tablespoon of peanut butter. It adds about 180 mg of potassium and 7 grams of protein to the batch.
Note: This is food, not medical advice. Per serving, this smoothie delivers roughly 950 mg of potassium, about 20 percent of the 4,700 mg Daily Value, along with about 17 g of protein from the oats, milk and peanut butter. All figures come from USDA FoodData Central entries tracked in our index. Want to see how the rest of your day stacks up? Build the full picture in our plate builder.
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