Sweet, smooth and icy cold, this Date Shake is the perfect healthy afternoon snack. Made with just a handful of ingredients – including banana, dates, and walnuts – this blend is a real treat!
Yard work is pretty much all we’ve been doing lately with the shelter in place order. I have to admit that I’m not too disappointed…you usually can’t pull me away from my garden anyways! After a long day’s work, this icy sweetness is perfection!
It’s got all the best parts of a milkshake without the ice cream!
A completely vegan milkshake.
Rich with vanilla and date flavors, then toned down with lots of ice to make it super cold and smooth. The toasted walnuts add just a hint of nutty toasted flavor to the mix.
It’s a simple version of my blueberry, walnut, date + fig smoothie. Which, if you haven’t tried, is like a pudding/dessert smoothie – a recipe that developed after traveling through Morocco.
How to Make the Best Date Shake
Dates are the star of this healthy treat. And with that said, there’s not much that needs to be added to magically create this vegan date shake.
Step 1: Toast Walnuts.
Toasting the walnuts amplifies their flavors. Dates + walnuts are flavors that just fit well together. One of the simplest of snacks is a just a date stuffed with a single walnut.
Step 2: Soak Pitted Dates in Hot Water.
Soaking the dates in hot water softens them. Ensuring your date shake will blend into creamy perfection. Don’t forget, you’ll use the date water too.
Step 3: Create Date Paste.
First blend the toasted walnuts, dates WITH their soaking liquid, vanilla extract/vanilla bean paste*, cinnamon, and salt to make sure everything is blended evenly before adding the cold ingredients. This will form a paste.
Vanilla bean paste is basically the scraped vanilla bean pod and extract combined into a syrup in a jar. It makes using the whole vanilla bean simple and easy because it’s already done for you!
Step 4: Add Frozen Banana + Ice.
The more ice you add here, the more volume your shake will have. More ice will also reduce the sweetness, so if this is too sweet for you as written…add more ice.
Sweet, smooth and icy cold, this Date Shake is the perfect healthy afternoon snack. Made with just a handful of ingredients – banana, dates, and walnuts – this blend is a real treat!
- 1/3 cup walnuts, toasted
- 4 large Medjool dates
- 1/2 cup hot water
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
- 1 large frozen banana
- 1.5 cups ice
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Preheat oven to 350F. Toast walnuts on a baking sheet until slightly fragrant. Toss once to evenly toast. Approximately 8 minutes.
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Place pitted dates in hot water. Let soak for 10 minutes to soften.
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Blend walnuts, dates WITH their soaking liquid, vanilla, cinnamon, salt. They will form a paste.
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Add frozen banana + 1.5 cups ice. (adding more ice with make the shake less sweet)
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Divide between glasses and serve.
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