A small McDonalds Shamrock Shake will set you back 460 calories and 64 grams of sugar! Do your health a favor, and make your own delicious and healthy shamrock shake recipe at home.
How to make a healthy Shamrock Shake
The popular McDonalds Shamrock Shakes are back again.
And although those mint milkshakes might taste good for the few minutes they last, even the smallest size shamrock milkshake is full of empty calories and sugar, chemicals, additives, and food dyes.
So here is a quick, simple, thick, and super creamy recipe for how to make your own homemade healthy shamrock shake, right in your own kitchen.
Readers also love these Black Bean Brownies
Watch the step by step healthy shamrock shake recipe video above
Homemade healthy milkshakes
While I’ve always believed indulging in unhealthy food every once in a while is fine, I’ve also never been big on moderation.
If I enjoy something, I want it all the time!
With these healthy shamrock shakes, you don’t have to drink them in moderation.
The easy recipe takes under five minutes to make, uses natural ingredients to get that classic green hue, and it has NO refined sugar whatsoever.
Think of how much sugar you’re saving by drinking ZERO grams of refined sugar instead of 64. This healthy shamrock shake recipe is also way under 460 calories.
Trending right now: Vegan Hot Chocolate
Vegan shamrock shake ingredients
The recipe calls for the following: milk of choice, frozen spinach (or a few drops of food coloring), pure peppermint extract, chocolate chips or cacao nibs, and a frozen banana.
There’s no matcha required, and a banana free option is also included in the recipe.
While they don’t taste exactly like a McDonald’s thick shake (although if you use canned coconut milk, they are surprisingly milkshake-like), I actually like these vegan milkshakes even better. They don’t give you the lethargic consumed-too-much-sugar feeling when you’re done.
Feel free to use your favorite milk of choice here. Sometimes I use coconut milk for a more decadent shake, but more often I will use nondairy cashew milk or almond milk.
Lately when I’ve been making the plant based shakes, I haven’t bothered to turn them green. The white ones are still just as good, although admittedly not quite as fun.
*If you’re a chocoholic, try the Chocolate Shamrock Shake Recipe.
Healthy shamrock shake serving suggestions
These healthy green smoothies are great for breakfast, snack, or dessert.
Try serving them with a Tofu Scramble or these whole grain Banana Oatmeal Cookies, for a healthy breakfast you’ll want to make all year long.
Or enjoy one as a festive St. Patrick’s Day dessert. You can even add a scoop of your favorite protein powder to turn it into a high protein post workout treat.
One shamrock protein shake will have around 25-30 grams of protein!
What’s your favorite milkshake flavor?
Mine’s always been mint chocolate chip. Although I do love the flavor, it’s the vibrant green color that enthralls me more than anything else.
Think of those gorgeously green Shamrock Shakes from McDonalds or the bright mint chocolate chip milkshakes from Baskin Robbins.
It goes back to when I was three years old and loved anything blue. Since our local Baskin Robbins didn’t make blue ice cream at the time, mint chocolate chip was the next best choice.
I went through a phase in middle school where I’d drink a Baskin Robbins mint chocolate chip milkshake every single day after school.
And now?
Well now it’s been over seven years since I first came up with this vegan and healthy shamrock shake recipe, and yet here I am still making them for myself at least once a week!
Try topping your Shamrock Shake with homemade Coconut Whipped Cream.
The recipe was inspired by this Green Smoothie Recipe.
Healthy Shamrock Shake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk of choice
- 1 frozen banana (or make this banana-free Avocado Smoothie Recipe)
- cacao nibs or chocolate chips, as desired
- 1/8 tsp to 1/4 tsp pure peppermint extract
- 1 scoop protein powder, optional
- 1/4 cup frozen spinach, optional
- I usually add scant 1/8 tsp salt to bring out the flavor
Instructions
- *If you can’t get on board with the green smoothie thing, you can opt for green food coloring or just drink a white peppermint shake, which is just as delicious. Or add a pinch of spirulina!Feel free to use your favorite milk of choice. Canned coconut milk will give it a rich milkshake-like taste, but I also really love the lighter results of using cashewmilk or almond milk. Make sure the banana you use is at least somewhat brown so you don't get that unripe earthy banana flavor in your mint chocolate shake. To make the shake: Blend all ingredients in a blender until completely smooth. You can add the chocolate chips either before or after blending. Be sure to use pure peppermint extract, not imitation.View Nutrition Facts
Video
Notes
Healthy Drink Ideas
Strawberry Smoothies ( NO banana)
Oh wow…I need that! I LOVE mint chocolate chip anything!!
I’m going to for sure try this recipe! I love your blog so much. You should make a raw tagalong milkshake, oreo milkshake, or peanut butter cup milkshake!
Oh my word, raw tagalong milkshake! Wow that sounds good! I wonder how I could do an oreo one… cookies n cream needs to be made!
If you health-ify a oreo milkshake, a la Shakeaway, I will love you forever.
I just made this. I am in love with it. Amazing! I never thought I would like spinach in my shake even though I love it as a salad. It reminds me of the McDonalds shamrock shake I used to drink!
LOL can you believe I never had a shamrock shake?! I used to eat at McDonalds at least once a month and I loved green foods… so I don’t know how it escaped me!
Katie, your site is the bomb! And I am sooo having this smoothie for breakfast tomorrow mmmmm….
Awwww times a million for your sweet comment!! And I hope you love it! 🙂 🙂
Your smoothie looks soooo delicious and sooooo wonderfully green. I really, really like it 🙂
Mint Chocolate Chip. Why didn’t I think of that? My favorite flavor in the world. I just ordered a case of So Delicious Mint chocolate chip coconut “ice cream.”
I like my smoothies (shakes) thick as well so I add 1 Tbsp of ground (or not) chia seed. It firms ups really nicely plus you get the benefits of all those minerals.
P.S. Scarborough Faire is running in Waxahachie, grab some friends and watch the knights joust.
Ooh I’ll have to try the chia idea! 🙂
Not sure what “raw” entails, and I am by no means a vegan, but I LOVE your recipes! And I love that you include what to substitute if, you’re not a vegan. Saturday menu definitely includes red velvet pancakes and this mint milkshake!
Aw Lindsay, your comment made me so happy!! 🙂
This looks amazing, and I’ve been meaning to try it out for a while. I only have fresh spinach, though…can I somehow use that to replace the frozen spinach? Thanks!
Yes! I use frozen b/c it is easier to blend and blends more finely, but fresh is fine… and you can even cook it if you wish. There’s really no wrong way to make it :).
I finally tried making this with fresh spinach! It was absolutely delicious! I used cocoa powder instead of chocolate chips, so I lost a bit of the beautiful green color. I actually made popsicles with half of it, too!! Btw, how do you freeze your bananas? I stuck the entire thing, peel and all, in the freezer, and I must say that it was rather difficult to peel.
Oh no! Definitely peel the banana first :). I usually break it in half too, and store the banana pieces in a plastic bag in the freezer. (They’ll keep for at least a few months.)
I’m so glad you liked the shake!!
I was wondering how many calories are in this. I LOVE mint chocolate chip EVERYTHING and I think I might enjoy this tonight after my lesson!
Sorry, I don’t know the calories for this… but since it’s single-serving, just add up the individual ingredients and that’s your answer. No need to divide or anything :).
Hello Katie,
I have never cooked a thing in my life but I heard about this type of shake from a bartender recently. Is there a substitute for banana? It is the only food I am allergic too.
Thanks!
I’ve never tried it with anything but banana… however, I think fresh Thai coconut meat (the meat from the coconut that is white and looks like a triangle, as opposed to the brown coconut) would be awesome! Or maybe even mango or pear? If you do try it, let me know how it goes! 🙂
Hey Katie! I JUST started making banana “ice cream” with cocoa powder and cacao nibs and I’m loving it, so when I came across this mint shake idea I am really excited because new flavors would be good to try. I guess one suggestion I’d have is to try making a raw, vegan butterscotch shake! I miss that kind of flavor and when you’re vegan, its not easy to find it. Do you have any suggestions on what to add to the banana to give that sort of flavor?
I really don’t know either :(. I actually just tried making healthy/vegan butterfingers… it was an utter failure! They were awful!
I’ve heard there’s such a thing as butterscotch extract and it’s vegan. And apparently they even make vegan butterscotch chips in some places. I’m going to have to keep experimenting!
Hey Katie,
I was at Whole Foods this morning and I noticed that in their “extracts” section, they have a ton of extracts made with Stevia and one of the flavors is English Toffee! They had tons of other flavors like orange, vanilla and strawberry. They were 14.99 though. What brand did you use for the mint extract and where did you get it? By the way, tonight I am making your carrot cake milkshake with almond milk! Thank you so much for these great recipes!! I feel so alone sometimes eating like this but with your website that feeling goes away!
LOL my peppermint extract (peppermint, not mint, is what I use) is McCormick! But it’s the pure one, not the immitation.
And you are so welcome!!! 🙂
Tried this. Loved this. I want it in my belly right now.
Another delicious triumph Katie, I just sucked one down as my post-dinner treat and it felt so naughty even though it wasn’t! I also bought my first ever cocoa nibs today and they are a total revelation – Who needs chocolate chips?! My only problem with your drink recipes is that since all our natural disasters down-under this year (floods, hurricanes etc…) bananas are $7-12/kg (!) so when I see them cheaper I grab em and put my husband and kidlet on banana-rations so that I have enough to freeze some for my Katie-shakes, yum!!
I wish I could send you some! They are so cheap here. Can we make a trade? You could send me some Australian beach? 😉 Or maybe a kangaroo or two? When I was little and we played the name game, I always said “kangaroo” because it was one of the only words I could think of that started with K :).
Ha ha, that’s funny Katie – “kangaroo”! 🙂 When you go on a roadtrip here in Oz, one actually has to be careful of Roos in the road – they come out at dusk and if you collide with one, your car is totalled! I just enjoyed a post-workout breakie of scrambled eggs, finished off with one of your raw mint shakes – I found bananas this morning for $5.99 – yay for me!
I had this for breakfast the other day…and i gotta say….it was fab!! ive never tried experimenting with vegetables in my smoothies untill now…no need to stick with only fruits and berries anymore! thanks for sharing!
Hi Katie! I’ve been coveting this recipe for almost a year and just today made it for breakfast! (I recently bought a high speed blender… finally) It is now my absolute favorite green smoothie. LOVE IT. Mint chocolate chip is my fave flavor ever. I added a bit of spirulina powder and some chia seeds. Could not stop sipping! GREAT recipe. Thank you so much for sharing it.
Just wanted to add that this is incredibly craveable!! Four days later I’m trying to figure out when I can get to the store to get more spinach because I want to make another one of these so badly!!