Superfoods Advisor

The Energy Smoothie

with maca, chia gel and hemp seeds

By Superfoods Advisor Editors·July 4, 2026

The Energy Smoothie — finished dish
Prep
5 min
Total
15 min
Difficulty
easy
Calories
450 kcal

Allergens Tree nuts

Ingredients

From your pantry

  • ¼ tspPure vanilla extract
  • 1 pinchFine sea saltSharpens the flavour and replaces a little sodium

Utensils Blender

Instructions

  1. seeds soaking in liquid — watercolour illustration

    Stir the chia seeds into 3 tablespoons of water and leave them for 10 minutes, until they form a loose gel. This is what gives the drink its slow-release texture.

  2. liquid poured from a jug — watercolour illustration

    Add the almond milk to the blender.

  3. a spoon stirring a bowl — watercolour illustration

    Add the frozen banana, almond butter and hemp seeds, then the maca powder, vanilla and salt. Add the soaked chia gel last so it sits on top rather than under the blade.

  4. a blender jug — watercolour illustration

    Blend for 45 seconds on high. The result should be thick and creamy rather than pourable.

  5. a filled bowl with a spoon — watercolour illustration

    Serve straight away. As a pre-workout drink it sits best 60 to 90 minutes before exercise.

Shopping list

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Tools

Why it works

Gelatinized maca powder, heat-processed so the starch is pre-cooked, is marketed as easier to digest than raw maca, though no trial has compared the two. Chia seeds contribute about 2 g of omega-3 ALA and 4 g of dietary fibre per 12 g tablespoon (USDA FoodData Central), and in a small acute trial in 11 healthy adults, chia (as Salba) baked into white bread reduced the post-meal blood glucose rise in a dose-dependent way and lowered appetite ratings, which may help moderate the glycaemic response to the banana's natural sugars (Vuksan et al., European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2010, PubMed:20087375). Hemp seeds add gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) and all nine essential amino acids, rounding out the macronutrient balance.

Maca root (Lepidium meyenii) has been cultivated as a food crop in the central Andes for more than 2,000 years (Gonzales, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2012, PubMed:21977053). A 2009 pilot crossover study by Stone et al. in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology (PubMed:19781622) found that 14 days of maca extract improved 40 km time-trial times in eight trained male cyclists compared with their own baseline, but not compared with placebo, so the evidence for an endurance benefit remains preliminary.

Macro detail: about 17 g of the 21 g sugar comes from the banana, the rest from the almond milk, almond butter and maca; of the 26 g fat, most comes from the hemp seeds and almond butter.

This recipe is part of 5 Superfood Smoothie Recipes Backed by Nutritional Science, which covers the underlying nutrition science and the shared base method.

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