Healthy Shamrock Shake

This healthier vegan shamrock shake is made with frozen bananas and cashews instead of ice cream. It's less indulgent than the traditional recipe, but it's equally rich and delicious! Our recipe also uses fresh mint and a bit of spinach for all-natural color and fresh flavor.

Why we love this recipe (more than the original!)

First things first, what exactly is a shamrock shake?

Shamrock shakes are a seasonal mint flavored ice cream shake sold at McDonald's around St. Patricks Day, and for whatever reason, they're wildly popular every year.

That being said, the OG McDonald's Shamrock Shake contains a whole lot of sketchy ingredients, including lots of high fructose and regular corn syrup, food dyes and additives.

Our version is made with all natural ingredients and you can easily make it at home for a delicious, vibrantly green treat! It's perfect for St. Patrick's Day, of course, but there's no reason you can't enjoy it year round.

To make it a bit more indulgent, we serve ours with a chocolate and sprinkle dipped rim, plus nondairy whipped cream. Yum!

This recipe is easy to make, 100% vegan, gluten free and refined sugar free (without the optional whipped cream & chocolate toppings).

Ingredients

Here are the key ingredients you'll need to make this healthy shamrock shake:

Ingredient Notes

• Bananas: frozen bananas are essential here, otherwise none of the other ingredients are chilled and the shake won't be cold. A room temp shamrock shake is NOT ideal! If the bananas have been frozen for several days/weeks, let them thaw a few minutes to make blending easier.
• Cashews: be sure to use raw, unsalted cashews in this recipe. They're not meant to add much flavor, but instead a super rich, creamy texture to replace the ice cream.
  • It's also important to soak the cashews before blending, otherwise you may end up with cashew pieces instead of a creamy, smooth shake. You can either soak them in hot water for 30 minutes, or room temperature water for 1-2 hours. Drain and rinse before using.
• Yogurt: we used this nondairy vanilla Greek-style yogurt, which is thicker and creamier than most nondairy yogurt. It definitely made this into more of a shake than a smoothie, but you can certainly sub with regular yogurt if preferred.
• Peppermint extract: we wanted to make these shakes just with fresh mint to simplify the recipe, but it just didn't add quite enough minty flavor. A small amount of peppermint extract adds that super minty freshness you expect in a Shamrock shake (without overpowering the other ingredients).
• Spinach: spinach is actually an optional ingredient, mostly used for color in this recipe since we're not using artificial food coloring. Feel free to leave out if you don't care about the color. (But it's also a great nutritional boost and you definitely can't taste the spinach!)
• Matcha: same goes for the matcha powder - it's mostly used for color here. Feel free to omit.

Instructions

Soak cashews in room temperature water for 1-2 hours, then drain and rinse.

Chill 2 glasses in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. 

Melt a few ounces of dark chocolate in microwave. Dip rims of glasses in chocolate, then coat in sprinkles. Return to freezer for a few minutes until the chocolate solidifies.

Blend: add frozen bananas, cashews, yogurt, maple syrup or agave, mint, spinach, matcha, peppermint and vanilla extract to a blender.

Blend on high speed until smooth and creamy.

Pour into chilled glasses. Optional: top with whipped cream and more sprinkles. Enjoy cold! 

Expert Tips

• Chill your glasses before serving.
  • Chilling the glasses for 15-30 minutes before dipping in chocolate is beneficial for two reasons. 1: the cold temperature allows the chocolate to harden up immediately, which is a great time saving tip. 2: the chilled glass keeps your shamrock shake nice and frosty for slow sipping!
• How to properly freeze bananas: make sure to peel your bananas before freezing! To prevent them from sticking together, slice and spread into a layer on a sheet pan so the pieces aren't touching. Freeze until solid, then transfer to a freezer safe container for up to a few months.
• Toppings: we love adding a fun (and super easy!) chocolate sprinkle rim to this healthy shamrock shake.
  • We used these festive St. Patrick's Day sprinkles both on the rim and on top of the whipped cream. I just love them!
  • We also love adding a dollop of this vegan whipped cream to the top of the shake.

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