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A healthy shamrock shake, aka smoothie, that’s minty fresh and radiates a festive, vibrant green – perfect for St. Patrick’s Day!

Who doesn’t love a festive green recipe for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations?!

As an Irish girl, I love celebrating St. Patrick’s Day every year, which is why you’ll find several St. Patrick’s Day inspired recipes on my blog like whole wheat Irish soda bread and vegetarian Irish stew.

There are lots of copycat shamrock shake recipes out there and this recipe is more of a twist on a shamrock shake, versus a copycat recipe.

This recipe is really a shamrock smoothie! Or, as most people would search for it, a healthy shamrock shake.

This smoothie shake is bright green, sweet and refreshingly minty. 

It’s easy to whip up in less than five minutes and only calls for 6 ingredients. There’s no weird, fancy, super expensive powders or ingredients. Just simple ingredients like mint and vanilla to give it that Shamrock flavor and spinach and avocado to give it its green color!

Ingredients You’ll Need

Notes on ingredients

Bananas: make sure you have some bananas in the freezer you can use for this recipe. It helps keep the smoothie cold without having to use ice, which dilutes the flavor!

Avocado: use ripe avocado – it should give slightly when you gently press on the skn.

Mint: use fresh mint!

Milk or non-dairy milk alternative: use either! I tested this with original almond milk, which is sweetened, so if you use an unsweetened non-dairy milk alternative, it won’t be as sweet (but the banana will still lend some sweetness!)

How to Make a Healthy Shamrock Shake Smoothie

Step 1: Add all ingredients to a high-speed blender.

Step 2: Add bananas first and milk or milk alternative last – this will help ingredients blend easier.

Step 3: Blend until smooth. Serve cold!

Expert Tips

Slice the bananas before storing them in the in an airtight container or bag in the freezer. This will help them blend easier in the smoothie vs. throwing them in whole.
Add bananas first since they are the hardest to blend.
Make sure bananas are frozen so you don’t have to worry about adding ice, which dilutes the flavor.

Recipe FAQs

What’s really in a Shamrock shake?

According to McDonald’s website the ingredients in a Shamrock shake are: vanilla reduced fat ice cream, Shamrock Shake syrup, and whipped light cream.

What makes a Shamrock shake green?

If you look at the ingredients in the Shamrock Shake syrup, it calls for a combination of two artificial food dyes known as Yellow 5 and Blue 1, which makes green.

Is a shamrock shake healthy?

It depends on what your definition of healthy is! If your definition of healthy includes enjoying novel holiday foods and beverages once a year when they roll around then yes! If your definition of healthy includes avoiding artificial food dyes at all costs, then no.

This smoothie recipe is not meant to replace McDonald’s Shamrock Shake – it’s really just a fun smoothie twist on the holiday favorite. There is room for both!

This smoothie would pair perfectly at breakfast with my:

And if you want more St. Patrick’s Day recipes, check out mine below:

This recipe was retested, reshot and revamped to bring you the most delicious (and most beautiful) dish! The original post was published in March 2015.