A perfect Dragon Fruit Smoothie, made with a creamy blend of dragon fruit, mango, and banana. Keep this dragon fruit smoothie recipe vegan by using a non dairy milk and subbing a plant based protein. Dragon fruit has a mild taste, so the tropical flavor is played up with a squeeze of fresh lime.
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I will admit, adding dragon fruit to a smoothie in North America is mostly for Instagram! The fruit is so beautiful, and leaves smoothies and smoothie bowls a beautiful magenta color.
These smoothies brighten up my day, and if you have a young one at home, you might just find a new way to get the 5-9 a day in their diets. My son is a super picky eater, but a bright, fun smoothie is irresistible to him.
If you adore tropical flavors, also try this Mango Coconut Smoothie.
Dragon Fruit Nutrition
Now why bother with dragon fruit? Besides its gorgeous color, its gained a lot of traction in the health food community because of its high nutrient value.
Is it really better than raspberries, blueberries, or a simple banana and spinach smoothie? Most likely not.
However, its nutrient profile is impressive. A small dragon fruit (about a cup chopped fruit) has about 60 calories with 3 grams of fiber.
(Below, the two smaller fruit are white dragon fruit, and the larger and more round fruit are the magenta variety.)
Is dragon fruit a superfood?
Dragon fruit contains a variety of nutrients, most notably high vitamin C and iron.
Its low calorie content helps give it superfood status because of high nutrient density.
My suggestion? Enjoy dragon fruit occasionally as you would any other fruit, unless you happen to live in SE Asia where the fruit is plentiful and inexpensive!
Preparing a Dragon Fruit Smoothie (Pitaya Smoothie)
To make preparing smoothies easy, keep frozen fruit stocked in the freezer. I typically have a combination of frozen bananas, berries, and grapefruit ready to throw into smoothies. Lately, I have been adding dragon fruit to the mix because the vibrant color makes my day!
Once the fruit is frozen, toss it in the blender with a non dairy milk, like almond or coconut, a squeeze of lime, and a scoop of protein powder. I like this whey protein isolate because it’s pure protein – no carbs or artificial sweeteners – it tastes great, and adds the BEST creamy and light texture to smoothies.
I’ve added mango and banana to my dragon fruit smoothie. I like the sweetness and creaminess of both of these fruits, since the dragon fruit is lower in sugar.
Also try:
- Strawberries
- Blueberries
- Frozen orange slices
- lemon juice
What Does Dragon Fruit Taste Like?
Dragon fruit has a mild sweet taste. Some people describe the flavor as similar to kiwi, although it doesn’t have the strong tart flavor of a kiwi.
If a dragon fruit isn’t ripe, it has almost no flavor. I’ve also found that organic dragon fruits, and dragon fruits from Thailand, have the sweetest flavors.
If you live far away from where dragon fruit grows, you might want to avoid the $10 price tag of a fresh fruit. While exotic and beautiful, most often they have no flavor at all. If you live in North America, and want to enjoy this fruit, try Pitaya Plus smoothie packs, available at health food stores such as Whole Foods.
What can I mix with dragon fruit?
Dragon fruit has a lightly sweet taste and benefits from blending up with sweeter fruits. Bananas, mango, strawberries, blueberries and pineapple all add great flavor to dragon fruit smoothies. Dragon fruit smoothies work well with non dairy milks, like almond milk, coconut milk and oat milk. Boost the staying powder of your smoothie by adding protein powder, chia seeds, hemp seeds, or greens, like spinach and kale.
Other Dragon Fruit Recipes:
- Pitaya Bowls (Dragon Fruit Smoothie Bowls), by Sunkissed Kitchen
- Dragon Fruit Sorbet, by Sunkissed Kitchen
- Dragon Fruit Salad, by Sunkissed Kitchen
- Dragon Fruit Smoothie, by Sunkissed Kitchen
- Mango Dragon Fruit Refresher, by Sunkissed Kitchen
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Dragon Fruit Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 cup dragon fruit cubed and frozen
- 1 cup mango cubed and frozen
- 2 bananas cut into quarters and frozen
- 3/4 cup almond milk or sub coconut
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1/2 scoop whey protein powder* option, can sub plant based protein powder
- 2-4 ice cubes depending on how thick an icy you'd like it!
Instructions
- Add frozen fruit, milk, lime juice and protein powder to a blender, and process until very smooth.
- Add more almond milk as necessary to thin to desired texture.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
What a beautiful colour smoothie. I bet it tastes amazing too.
I love the color that dragon fruit adds to the smoothie. I love the serving suggestion with fruit pieces and mint. I would love to drink it right now, hah!
Yum! What a gorgeous, healthy and colourful way to start the day!
Love the combination of fruits. Love the color of the smoothie. Awesome.
Hi,
Smoothie is my favourite but didn’t think of smoothie in this taste.
I tried this recipe and was so delighted. The combination was so refreshing.
Thank you for this recipe of smoothie, looking forward to other combination in a smoothie.
Keep sharing:)
What a gorgeous drink! I can never get tired of dragonfruit.
It is stunning. Nature’s candy <3 Can you buy pink dragon fruit where you live?
This is awesome and beautiful
I made this morning to go with breakfast food my stepson. He LOVED it! I substituted the protein for a some greek yogurt and added a tad of honey…skipped the ice cubes. Soo smooth and very refreshing. Oh I also included some pineapple in the measurement for mango.
Hmm, the pineapple sounds great. Such a tropical blast! Thanks for letting me know.
i made this drink twice, added a tad of pomegranate arils, a 1/2 cup of papaya and a teaspoon of manuka honey and oat milk.. the second time I used flax (good Karma) milk because I have nut allergies and Thyroid issues so I don’t use soy and can’t stand regular milk. It was soo delicious both ways.
Great recipe! I was making for my toddler, so switched out protein powder with peanut butter. Also added spinach, honey, and Greek yogurt (1/2 cup Greek yogurt and 1/2 cup Almond milk). So delicious! Thank you. 🙂
Sounds delicious! I always put cashew butter in it for my son. He adores anything made with the bright pink color!
I left out the whey powder as the smoothie was a light and fluffy consistancy. It really didn’t need it. We will make it again when we have more dragon fruit on hand. I did have to add some water to thin it out, as the coconut milk was pretty thick once it hit the frozen fruit – bananas, mangoes, and dragon fruit I put in the freezer the day before making this recipe. The fresh lime juice was just the right amount of balance. What I liked most was no sugar or like substance was added. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for this Kelly! It’s such a great smoothie — and no, you don’t need the protein powder but I am partial to mine 🙂
Made with coconut milk. Delicious! Thanks! Will try other viewers variation.
I absoulutly loved this recipy I added blueberries, rasberries, mangos, strawberries, pure protein powder (100% whey), lime juice, almond milk, and 3 ice cubes and loved it! Thank you so much! I loved this recipe so much i’m going to try the bowl!! <3
The first time I made this I used blueberries with the dragon fruit. I also used one banana of course it was frozen and coconut milk a little bit of lime juice I also put two cubes of ice. I didn’t use the protein powder. It was still delicious and came out very good. I took it to work and my Bubba cup and it stayed the same consistency all day. Very refreshing the second time I made this I used the dragon fruit the banana the coconut milk,ice I added a little bit more coconut milk than the last time and it was this beautiful pink color. Oh and I did add the lime juice a little bit of agave and pineapples. Very very delicious
I made this smoothie this morning and oh my goodness it was so delicious!!
My dreagonfruit, after removing the pink/purple skin is white. So, how do you nget the beautiful color? Also, after adding protein powder it tasted like a mango smoothie. I wonder wat I am doing wrong!
I just answerd my own question about the color: I have to find the kind of dragonfruit with pink fledsh!
Yes! But, dragon fruit has a very mild flavor. I add the other fruit to give it sweetness and flavor. It’s in there more for the health benefits than the flavor!
Red dragon fruit is really hard to find fresh in North America. You can buy it frozen in packets at Whole Foods/health food stores, and costco has a fruit blend with red dragon fruit in it. I shot my dragon fruit recipes while living in SE Asia which is why I was able to get big beautiful red fruit!
I have to be honest – I came here for that stunning color! But this smoothie tastes even better than it looks! The added mango and banana make this pop. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Such a sweet comment! Yes, dragon fruit on it’s own doesn’t have amazing flavor. But it adds an amazing color and lots of nutrition to a tropical smoothie!