Chocolate-Cherry Vegan Protein Shake

Sometimes, you want a healthy green smoothie. Other times, you just want a dang chocolate milkshake. The two don’t need to be mutually exclusive, though. I learned this quite by accident, when a chocolate milkshake craving—the likes of which I’d never before experienced—struck at midnight on a Monday. I made do with what I had in the kitchen and, lo and behold, it was as good as the real thing. Probably even better once you factor in that I didn’t want to barf after drinking it, as is often the case with me and milkshakes. Plus the satisfaction of nutrients making their way through that straw rather than just fat and sugar.

This shake is sort of a smoothie disguised as a chocolate shake—it has greens and plenty of protein, but it tastes chocolaty, rich and decadent. Hand it to an unsuspecting party (although who accepts milkshakes from strangers, but whatever) and they’d never guess it was a protein shake, let alone a vegan protein shake.

The way I’ve written it here, there’s about 15 grams of protein per serving, but if you were to un-veganize the shake and use dairy ice cream, milk, kefir and/or yogurt in place of the soy milk, you could increase that number even more. A decent amount of the protein comes from kale, cherries and banana (all together they add about 3.5 grams per serving), but soy milk, chia seeds (you could also use hemp seeds) and nut butter do most of the heavy lifting.

The key to the milkshake texture is to use the coconut ice cream (I don’t like using soy ice cream with soy milk because I don’t consume a ton of soy products, but have at it if you like). The shake will be super thick when you’re done blending; if you like it a little thinner, let the ice cream melt a bit beforehand or add a bit more soymilk and blend a second time. This recipe makes about 24 ounces, and it freezes nicely if you want to have the second serving the next day. Or, if you have one of those cute old-timey stainless steel malt-shop cups, you can scarf the whole thing or share it with a friend.

Go to Chocolate-Cherry Vegan Protein Shake recipe