This vegan date shake recipe could hardly be simpler to make, and it's so good! Dates are whizzed with a banana, almond butter, almond milk, and ice for a refreshing and nourishing drink.
If you're looking for a simple and vegan shake, you will love this naturally sweetened date shake recipe! All you'll need to make it is a few pantry ingredients, a banana, and a blender. It's a lovely treat enjoyed after a run, or a visit to the beach. I started making this little gem of a date shake when we lived in Morocco to take advantage of the flavors there.
Fall has magical qualities -- the light shifts, leaves drift down softly (even in North Africa), the sky is the deepest, bluest sky you'll see all year. The wind has picked up off of the ocean here and on afternoons it scrubs the houses of my neighborhood and burnishes the wild leaves on the hedge and tosses about the great fronds of the banana tree that is cozied up to my front door. Sierra and I have been taking advantage of these cooler days by sitting on a blanket in our yard and looking up at the palm trees, the birds already heading south, the clouds blowing out to sea. This season is my favorite and I am glad to find it's still so, even in a new(ish) place. First fall in Morocco, first fall with the wee one awake and aware of it all. It's impossible not to want to slow down and soak up the sun, the wind, these precious days before her first birthday. And so we are; we are paring life down to its most simple and trying to get out of doors as much as we can manage.
My friend Lisa wrote a post recently, the kind of post that when I read it last week I was struck immediately and took a pause. It was about finding the wild in the seemingly more familiar or more cluttered places, in urban and in not. Too often I have lamented being in what I describe as an 'urban suburb' here in Casa, forgetting to remark upon the flora and fauna that surrounds us even in this hectic and crowded city. From where I sit in my living room typing this I can see the neighbor's house, true, but I also see my green and unruly fig tree, the bananas dropping low, the palm tree dripping what are perhaps edible dates. And the birds! They fly in droves over the house and last spring a hawk made my skylight his home base for a time. The ocean is visible from the upstairs back bedroom and reminds me that for all the beeping cars and hectic sounds off the crowded road outside our little housing area the earth still reigns. Nature is everywhere and anywhere; sometimes you just have to look a bit harder to find it.
I have not always been a fan of dates. They're too sweet for me and eating them one by one has never appealed. And yet. Their presence in cooking goes part and parcel with living in Morocco. So I have explored other ways to use this very North African fruit in ways that may tempt my appetite.
Enter the date shake.
This is an incredibly simple date shake recipe but it is incredibly satisfying! A mix of almond butter, dates, almond milk, and banana makes it a wonderful post-run or workout snack. The protein in the almond butter and almond milk replenishes tired muscles, the banana makes it substantial enough to shave the edge off of hunger, and the dates give a kick of sweetness to bring it all together. I imagine peanut butter would be nice here as well but the combination of almond + dates is just sublime and, you know, quite a la marocain.
You can also make this shake just with almond butter, although the dates are lovely and add a bit of natural sweetness. If you do omit them, add another tablespoon of almond butter.
I have a version of homemade harissa (and then, harissa butter) in my sights but until I gather up the ingredients to do so I am making shakes, and logging some morning miles along the coast, and soaking up this sun. Fall is fleeting as I'm well aware, and I don't want to miss it.
Date Shake
Ingredients
- 1 cup almond milk , unsweetened if possible
- 1 banana
- 2 tablespoons almond butter
- 3 dates , pitted
- Splash maple syrup , optional
- 2 cups ice
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and the ice is crushed. Drink immediately.
Jill says
Just made this! Yum!!
Lisa says
Oh Nicole! I'm so touched by this. You know our moves have been rough on me too. Even needing people and girlfriends as much as I do, seeking the wild around me - and beginning to dig in to understand what I'm seeing - has in big, big ways been the thing that keeps me going as I figure out how to belong in these new places.
Dates! I love them. A's dad lives in California and sends us big packages of dates regularly (they freeze really well!) and they make me feel so rich. For the longest time, small A had them in his oatmeal, with yogurt, almost every morning for breakfast. They're great in scones - there's a banana date scone recipe in Veganomicon that's so good, although I like it with way less dates than called for. And do you like larabars? Dates are perfect for homemade ones (I made some last year during my pregnancy for some healthy-ish whole foods sweets during my pregnancy that I loved, with dates, cashews, cacao nibs, and dried cherries, mmmm). And Jess's sauteed dates with ricotta and butter lettuce (http://www.sweetamandine.com/2012/01/there-you-have-it.html) look totally fascinating but I've never tried them.
I would love to take a class on Moroccan cooking. I imagine it's quite varied! My MIL didn't ever much care for cous cous but she fell hard for tagines. In one of my favorite childhood pictures of (big) A he's sitting on his front steps, feet dangling down through the open steps, eating lamb tagine. I don't think I tried lamb until I was 27! Anyway now she makes a tagine for us every time she visits. I think it would be pretty easy to do a veg one.
helen says
Lovely post.......more great descriptions please....happy fall!