This mint chocolate chip smoothie is light and refreshing yet indulgent at the same time! The cool mint flavor and decadent chocolate chips come together perfectly in this creamy smoothie! Perfect for breakfast, a refreshing snack, or delicious dessert!
While this smoothie is extremely popular for St. Patrick’s Day because of its fun green color, it can be enjoyed all year round! It reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream, which was my favorite ice cream flavor growing up! Which is why this is one of my favorite smoothie recipes! You could also compare it to the popular shamrock shake only in healthy smoothie form!
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Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Plant-Based Milk - We like to use soy milk for its protein, but unsweetened vanilla almond milk, cashew milk, oat milk, or coconut milk would all work well!
- Fresh Spinach - This is what makes this such a beautiful green smoothie! You could also swap it out for other leafy greens or kale if that is what you have at home. If you like kale smoothies, you could also try this strawberry kale smoothie!
- Medjool Date - Medjool Dates are a great way to give your smoothies natural sweetness (as are ripe bananas). If you don't have dates, don't worry, you can use a tablespoon of maple syrup to achieve that same sweetness!
- Frozen Banana - These give the smoothie a deliciously creamy texture. If you want less banana, you can swap out one of the bananas for about ½ cup of plant-based yogurt. It is delicious! Both are great for a creamy base and thick texture. If you want to use yogurt, but keep the amount of fats in the smoothie the same, just leave out the hemp seeds! The yogurt and hemp seeds are both healthy fats so either would be fine!
- Protein Powder - Vanilla protein not only gives this smoothie a great flavor, but rounds out the wholesome ingredients for an easy breakfast!
- Mint - You can use either fresh mint leaves or peppermint extract. I have tried both with similar results. Mint extract is a good option just because you likely already have some in your cupboard. It is very potent though, so remember that a little goes a long way!
- Chocolate Chips - I usually use the Hu Chocolate Gems, but you can use whatever dairy free chocolate chips you have on hand. Cacao nibs also work well if you don’t want the added sugars! If you use cacao nibs, you don’t have to worry so much about over blending them. If you use chocolate chips, add them in very last and give the blender a few pulses so that you have perfect size little chunks! If you want more chocolate and aren't worried about keeping your smoothie green, you could also add in a tablespoon of cacao powder or cocoa powder.
- Hemp Seeds - these are a great source of healthy fat. If you don't have hemp seeds, you could also use flax seeds, flaxseed meal, or chia seeds. Or you could even use a tablespoon of almond butter. I wouldn't suggest peanut butter though as that would change the flavor of the smoothie too much.
For a full list of ingredients and quantities see the recipe card below.
How to Make
You want to blend this smoothie in a high-speed blender in three stages! The first stage helps to completely break down the spinach, date, and hemp seeds. This will result in the most creamy results. If you try to blend them with everything else, they won’t break down as well!
Add milk, spinach, mint, date, and hemp seeds to the high speed blender and blend until smooth.
Next add bananas, vanilla protein powder, and ice and blend again until creamy.
Add your chocolate chips and pulse the blender two to three times.
Look at that gorgeous mint chip smoothie!
Hint: It is always a good idea to blend your greens first in whatever smoothie you are making. It helps make it super creamy without you needing to chew green chunks!
Storage
Smoothies are best on the day that you make them. If you want to make them ahead of time for storage, the best option would be to store the separate ingredients together and blend them when you are ready to drink your smoothie.
If you have leftovers, you can either put them in popsicle molds and freeze for a fun treat later, or you can freeze them in ice cube trays to blend into another smoothie another day. We also like to freeze them in creami containers to have as more of an ice cream treat later!
If you are looking for some fruity smoothie recipes, check out this strawberry peach smoothie, or this strawberry banana smoothie!
If you make this smoothie, let me know how you like it in the comments!
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Pairing
These are my favorite dishes to serve with [this recipe]:
Mint Chocolate Chip Smoothie
Equipment
- 1 high-speed blender
Ingredients
- 1 cup plant based milk
- 1 cup fresh spinach or ½ cup frozen
- 1 medjool date
- 1 tablespoon hemp seeds
- ¼ teaspoon mint extract or 20-30 mint leaves
- 2 frozen bananas
- 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
- 2 tablespoons chocolate chips or cacao nibs
- 4-6 ice cubes
Instructions
- Add the first five ingredients to the blender.
- Blend until smooth.
- Add the bananas, protein powder, and ice cubes to the blender.
- Blend thouroughly.
- Add the chocolate chips.
- Pulse the blender a few times.
- Pour into a glass and enjoy!
Notes
- If you want less banana, you can use 1 banana and ½ cup of plant-based yogurt.
- If you use mint extract, be careful not to overdo it. A little goes a long way!
Chantry says
This is one of my kids absolute favorites! All three of them like it which is a miracle 😂