Thick, creamy vanilla chai breakfast shakes…
Have you ever tried chai tea?
My college roommate got me hooked on chai sophomore year, and the spicy beverage helped me through many a winter’s bike ride to class. I invested in a stainless-steel travel mug, which I’d fill with hot tea and stuff into the side pocket of my backpack. Today’s recipe is a milkshake version of that comforting chai.
(P.S. To anyone who currently attends SMU: buy a cheap bike. In the years I was there, two of my bicycles were stolen—locks and all!)
A thick, creamy, and secretly healthy milkshake with sweet chai spices.
Perfect for a post-workout drink or a late-night snack…
Or even for breakfast!
Vanilla Chai Breakfast Shakes
Vanilla Chai Breakfast Shakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk of choice, or less for a thicker shake
- 1 very ripe frozen banana (Banana-Free Version Here)
- 1/2 tsp each cinnamon and powdered ginger
- Tiny dash each: pepper, cardamom, ground cloves, and nutmeg (You can omit any or all if desired. Or omit all the spices and simply brew your milk with a chai tea bag, then chill before blending)
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- optional sweetener if desired
Instructions
Crazy-simple directions: Combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Serve cold, or gently heat if a hot drink is desired instead. (Side note: I bet if you make a bigger serving and tweak the recipe a bit, it could make a good ice cream. I might have to work on that!)
Link Of The Day:
I have a new favorite shake! Well, maybe not… The choc PB one is pretty amazing. 😉 But this is delicious, and the spices were just right! I love me some chai. The only thing I left out was cardamom (didn’t have any) and sweetener (didn’t need it). My shake was really thick since I only had a little over 1/2 cup almond milk left, but it was awesome. If I had any milk left I would totally try your ice cream suggestion!
For the bake sale, I was going to say cookies (secret PB are insanely good, but that’ll get expensive to make a big batch) since they’re so portable. But I really like someone else’s suggestion to do one of your breads in mini-loaf size, or fudge babies (maybe a few to a baggie?). Whatever you make will be delicious!
thanks for this recipe. I love it!
Can’t wait to make this!! Might be my pre run breaky tomorrow!! You should do the pumpkin cream cheese bars—every person I’ve made these for raves about them and won’t believe me when I say they are healthy and vegan!!! It’s always hard for “regular” eaters to believe that vegan deserts can be delicious. I love to surprise people and your recipes help me out!! Thanks!
I was *so* going to make them… until I saw another commenter was actually planning to bring pumpkin cream cheese bars to the same bake sale lol!
I first got turned on to Chai tea when I was in gymnastics camp! Except they were lattes and full of sugar. Delicious 😉
I asked this question further up as a direct question to another reader, so please excuse me if you are reading this again as you scroll down, but hoping for advice from other readers. I LOVE chai tea, but I have yet to find a good sweetener. I used to use plain old white sugar because this is how I was shown to make authentic chai tea from an Indian friend of mine (no tea bags and i would crush the cardamom pod myself!) but then I needed to find a way to make chai portable, so resorted to tea bags. I like celestian seasonings. Here’s the delema, I used splenda for a long time trying to avoid calories, but clueless about the potential negative effects of splenda. So, what do I use? What do you all use? I tried Truvia, but had to use about 6 packets in 1 normal size 8oz mug to get it sweet enough and still didn’t care for the flavor. Perhaps a liquid stevia? Or another brand. Anyone successful using honey or agave? PLEASE HELP!!! Oh, I always use a splash of milk in my tea too (regular cow’s milk or almond or coconut milk) Any advice appreciated! I want to be able to enjoy my favorite hot drink again!
I love to use Agave as a sweetener. I buy mine at Costco. I have tried Splenda and Stevia but do not like it especially the after taste. I avoid sugar as much as I can. Agave is a low glycemic sweetener and I think the taste is perfect.
I would caution against a liquid stevia ( i hate the aftertaste!) But I’ve only tried the NOW brand of stevia. Agave is a good choice but there are also some downsides to it. Personally, I used agave a lot until I read some of the downsides. If using honey, I would use a raw one, like Really Raw Honey. It tastes really good! But its harder to put into tea and other beverages (unless blended) And I’m Indian so I can tell you that you won’t compromise the flavor too much! Have you looked into xylitol?
Here is a brand of liquid stevia that a lot of people I know like and my grandmother in India uses in her chai!
http://www.amazon.com/Sweetleaf-Flavored-Sweetener-Vanilla-Bottles/dp/B000FBL8NM
It comes in other flavors as well- Hope this helps! And remember, most thing are fine in moderation so don’t worry about downsided TOO much as long as its not regularly consumed 🙂
Sugar cookies in the colours of the charity!
Ok, I tried this and it was totally like the best shake ever!!!!
OH MY GOODNESS….. this is the most delicious thing in the entire world. I am heading to the fruit market to buy a million bananas to make sure I always have one in the freezer. Holy moly this is delicious.
Chai is absolutely delicious! I’m so glad one of my college girlfriends introduced me to the tasty tasty TASTY drink 🙂
As for the question: I’m a sucker for fudge and brownies from bake sales. I think I’ll make some Good Girl Vegan Fudge for tomorrow! 🙂
I ALWAYS go for the brownies at bake sales! As long as they’re nut free, I know they will be delicious and worth every penny. If there are chocolate chip cookies, I check those out too… but I’m a cookie snob. I need my CCCs thick, chewy, and cake-y, with a high chocolate-to-cookie ratio. (: Haha but you can’t go wrong with brownies!
Yes! I’m going to my kitchen right now to put a banana in the freezer so I can try this tonight. As for the bake sale, I LOVED the pb and j bars 🙂
WOW! I made this for breakfast this morning and it was fantastic 🙂
I am on a higher fat diet (Paleo actually… maybe you’ve heard of it?). So, I used your suggestion to substitute coconut milk for the banana and I also subbed heavy cream for the milk. Talk about luxurious, delicious, wonderful, there just aren’t enough adjectives to describe it. Thanks a bunch for the recipe. It was an amazing start to my Saturday 🙂
I have heard of it… I’ve never actually googled to see what exactly the diet is. I really should do that. As in, right now ;).
I want this shake now! It looks amazing!
I would suggest something chocolate but with a bit of color added as well- sprinkles or colored frosting. It seems the bright colored items catch people’s eyes and everyone loves chocolate!! 🙂 good luck! I would love to buy one, or a few of your treats!
This was fantastic! I had after a run and it was perfectly refreshing/comforting. I was out of bananas so i substituted greek yogurt and some ice cubes. Also added about a tbs of cashew butter, just to hold it all together. It was heaven! Great job Katie!
YUM!!! Being Indian (in heritage) you bet chai is a staple for me. So naturally I have everything on hand! I put the naners in the freezer earlier and am going to make it now. Stand by… 🙂
And, like duh, bring your deep dish cookie pie. You could make mini ones in little tartlet pans! How cute? It’ll sell faster than anything, ESPECIALLY when you say its healthy and made with chickpeas… after they buy it of course 🙂
aaaaaand, YUMTOWN!!! We have cousins coming over from India in a few weeks and my mom is going to make these for them. I’ll give you their feedback 🙂
im off to slurp the rest….
Thanks! I definitely want to hear :).
Where did you get that cute straw???
Online about a year ago… I forget the website, but it was a birthday present to myself since I don’t usually let myself buy things online because of shipping costs!