Vegan Vanilla Milkshake without Ice Cream

The Best Vegan Vanilla Milkshake Recipe - Naturally Sweetened, Creamy, and Delicious!

This vegan vanilla milkshake without ice cream recipe is thick and creamy and made with whole-food plant-based ingredients! Super-quick, easy, and comes together in under 10 minutes! This vegan vanilla milkshake is completely plant-based, has no highly processed refined sugars, and is a naturally sweetened dessert.

Are you looking for a delicious vegan milkshake recipe made without ice cream that is smooth, creamy, and delicious? Look no further! This vanilla-flavored vegan milkshake recipe is sure to please vegans and non-vegans alike.

Perfect for a summer treat or a cozy winter's night, this vegan vanilla milkshake recipe is the perfect way to satisfy your sweet tooth without all the highly processed added sugars.

Using just a few simple ingredients, you can create a vegan milkshake that is both healthy and delicious. Not only is it vegan-friendly, but it's also dairy-free and gluten-free.

The secret to making this vegan milkshake is to use creamy coconut milk, frozen bananas, and hemp seeds, to get the perfect creamy texture. So, grab your blender, and let's get started on this delicious vegan milkshake recipe!

Jump to:

• Benefits of a Vegan Milkshake
• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Substitutions + Additions
• Equipment
• Storage
• Tips
• FAQ
• Recipe
• More Healthy Dessert Recipes

Benefits of a Vegan Milkshake

Using plant-based whole foods to make this recipe and making it a milkshake without vanilla ice cream really cuts down on processed sugars making it essentially a guilt-free treat. Since this milkshake recipe is just fruit and plant-based milk it really is a sweet treat that can be enjoyed any time of the day.

Instead of using highly processed refined sugars, this healthy milkshake recipe uses fruit as a sweetener, dates, and bananas. Fruit sugars are much easier to digest since they are whole foods intact with fiber which is stripped away from processed sugars, like cane sugar.

Using fruit to sweeten desserts makes a healthier recipe that is easier on digestion, that regulates blood sugar levels, and feeds good gut bacteria. Read more about the benefits of sweetening with dates.

This milkshake is a vegan and dairy-free milkshake recipe. Instead of using cow's milk or ice cream, we use creamy coconut cream. There are plenty of reasons to avoid dairy, read why you should ditch cow's milk here, but dairy (from cows) has been shown to cause inflammation, linked to acne, and other skin conditions, and can increase the risk of cancer.

Plant milk is easier to digest than cow's milk since they have no lactose and a large population of people, about 65-70%, have lactose intolerance (lactose is the sugar present in cow's milk).

To make this milkshake without ice cream and still produce a creamy milkshake, we use healthy fats from hemp seeds and coconut cream. These plant-based fats not only make the milkshake creamy but have their own health benefits.

Hemp seeds are a good source of nutrients, they are high in protein (3 tablespoons have 9.5 grams of protein), and other nutrients like iron, vitamin E, manganese, magnesium, b-vitamins, and zinc. Hemp seeds have been shown to help heart health, have anti-inflammatory properties, improve skin, and promote brain health.

Coconut cream is high in fat, which makes this milkshake super creamy and thick but it is also a great source of potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, vitamin c and some protein.

It is a dairy-free, gluten-free, and vegan treat that everyone can enjoy for dessert or as a snack. It is a good source of energy, potassium, and protein and makes for a great post-workout treat - you can even add your own vanilla-flavored plant-based protein powder.

Ingredients

This healthy vanilla milkshake recipe only requires a few simple vegan-friendly ingredients - all of which you can easily keep on hand either in the freezer or pantry. Which makes it easy to whip up this quick vegan treat on a whim.

First, let's go over the ingredients that you will need to make this vegan vanilla milkshake without ice cream:

• frozen bananas - frozen bananas are used to add creaminess and sweeten, it is important to use frozen bananas so the milkshake is thick and creamy like ice cream
• coconut milk - preferably canned coconut milk or cream; store-bought coconut milk in a carton is often watery or has thickening agents; use a good quality coconut milk or cream for a decadent texture you’d expect from a traditional milkshake made with ice cream
• hemp seeds - hemp seeds add an additional level of creaminess and health benefits, like protein and healthy fats
• dates - dates are used to sweeten the milkshake without using highly processed sugar; make sure the dates are pitted or you remove the pits before blending
• vanilla - use a good quality vanilla extract or fresh vanilla bean seeds

See the recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

Now that we have gone over the ingredients that you will need to make this vegan milkshake recipe, let's go over how to make it.

The first step to making your vegan milkshake is to prepare your ingredients. Make sure you have frozen bananas on hand, and refrigerate your canned coconut cream ahead of time which helps separate any additional cream from water, plus you want to have the coconut cream chilled to create the right creamy texture of a milkshake.

Once the ingredients are prepped you have this milkshake recipe stocked and ready to go for whenever you want a naturally sweet creamy dessert.

Grab your blender and add the frozen bananas to the blender first - break the banana up into chunks. Then add in the rest of the ingredients, adding the milk last and making sure the pit and cap are removed from the dates.

Add the milk in last so that you avoid adding more than needed and making your milkshake thin and watery. Since bananas can range in size, you want to make sure you only add enough coconut milk to barely cover the bananas - less is more.

Note: you can always add more milk in but once the milkshake is blended it is hard to adjust the recipe without over-blending and heating the milkshake.

Blend the milkshake starting the dial on low and working up to high speed. Make sure not to over-blend as this can heat up the shake.

Add more milk if need a little at a time and use the blender's plunger to push the ingredients down so less milk is needed.

Once you’ve blended up your vegan milkshake to perfection, it’s time to serve it. Transfer your shake to a serving cup or glass, and garnish it with anything else you’d like. We topped ours with some additional hemp seeds and cacao nibs.

Add in any other vegan-friendly toppings and mix-ins you like. If you want to make this recipe even more decadent, you can top it with some vegan whipped cream, caramel sauce, some ground cinnamon, a few strawberries or raspberries, or whatever you like to make your milkshake even more delicious! See our suggestions below.

Add a reusable straw to make drinking your vegan milkshake easier and more enjoyable.

Substitutions + Additions

There are many ways to change this vegan milkshake recipe to make it your own. Some of these include: Adding fresh fruit like strawberries, blueberries, or more. Adding chopped nuts like almonds, walnuts, or peanuts. Adding a drizzle of chocolate syrup or caramel sauce.

• Strawberry Milkshake - add frozen strawberries to make a strawberry banana milkshake - check out our strawberry milkshake recipe.
• Chocolate Milkshake - add a good quality cacao powder to make a chocolate banana milkshake - check out our chocolate milkshake recipe. You can even add some espresso or strongly brewed coffee to make it a mocha milkshake.
• Coconut Whipped Cream - add some coconut whip atop for an extra creamy treat
• Sweetener - if you do not have dates on hand you can use other healthy sugar alternatives like maple syrup or agave syrup and sweeten to taste
• Cinnamon - top with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon to give your vegan milkshake a special touch similar to horchata.
• Nuts & Seeds - top or mix in some chopped nuts or seeds to add a little crunch and texture to your vegan milkshake
• Caramel Sauce - drizzle some caramel atop the milkshake for a vanilla caramel milkshake - try our date-sweetened caramel sauce for a healthy alternative

Equipment

A high-speed blender: make sure to use a high-speed blender to ensure that the shake is smooth and creamy.

Storage

Best consumed right away as the banana starts to come through, luckily all these ingredients can be kept on hand in the freezer and pantry and easily brought together to make a fresh milkshake.

FAQ

Recipe

More Healthy Dessert Recipes

• Try this strawberry banana milkshake recipe that is thick and creamy and made in just a few minutes with simple vegan-friendly ingredients.
• Try this chocolate milkshake recipe that is thick and creamy and made in just a few minutes with simple vegan-friendly ingredients.
• Try these vegan rice crispy treats that are naturally sweetened with dates and require no marshmallows.