Creamy Chocolate Hazelnut Shake! A lower fruit smoothie-ish treat with hazelnuts, cacao, chia seeds, and dates. Or add ice for a healthy dairy-free frosty!
Hi, hello. Popping in with a quick, mid-week dose of chocolate for you.
I shared an impromptu chocolate smoothie on Instagram last week, but it was too good not to remake for myself every day since post on the blog. So here we are.
We could call this a smoothie – it’s made in the blender, it contains fruit. But it’s really not a smoothie. There are no bananas involved (although you could add one). There is no heaping handful of greens shoved into the blender (although you could add them). There is no sneaky frozen cauliflower to make it veggie-thick (although you could add that too).
Luckily this beverage is much easier to drink than it is to categorize. MUCH. Like you may make a double batch to share with a beloved friend, and then find yourself slurping the last sip straw-in-blender style before you even know what happened. Sorry beloved friend.
If you make the non-frosty version, expect an ultra creamy, nutella tasting, almost pudding, definitely need a spoon experience.
If you make the frosty version, then you are smart and you just found your new favorite 2 minute summertime snack. Or dessert.
So what’s in this banana-less chocolate beauty?
- Hazelnuts. Just the whole toasty little nuts, no soaking required if you have a high speed blender. And yes, other nuts or even hemps seeds will work (I think walnuts or cashews would be really yummy too!)
- Non-dairy milk.
- Chia seeds.
- Dates. Or a little bit of maple syrup or honey. Or whatever sweetener you like.
- Cacao powder (or cocoa).
- Sea salt!
- Vanilla. The powder would be extra good, but extract is okay too.
- (Optional) ice.
It’s not that I don’t love bananas, I just don’t love (or feel awesome eating) lots of bananas. But I do love lots of smoothies, so finding banana-free alternatives is one of my current life’s missions.
If you really love those bananas, omit the dates and swap the ice for frozen banana.
If you are looking for lower sugar smoothies, swap the dates for stevia or whatever sweetener you like – hello low carb smoothie.
Shake. Dessert smoothie. Potentially a frosty. Chocolatey thing you need in your life.
This recipe is all of the above.
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Creamy Chocolate Hazelnut Shake! A lower fruit smoothie-ish treat with hazelnuts, cacao, chia seeds, and dates. Or add ice for a healthy dairy-free frosty!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (30g) toasted hazelnuts*
- 1 cup (240g) non-dairy milk
- 2 tbsp cacao powder (or cocoa powder)
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
- 2 pitted (40g) medjool dates**
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
Make it a frosty: add 1 cup ice OR a frozen banana OR 1/2-1 cup frozen cauliflower
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients in a blender (if you don’t have a powerful blender, soak the nuts beforehand).
- Blend on high speed until smooth and creamy. About 30 seconds.
- Add ice if using. Blend again briefly.
- Top with coconut whipped cream, chopped hazelnuts, and dark chocolate. Enjoy!
Notes
*You can use other nuts (cashews or walnuts would be yummy!) or hemp seeds for a nut-free option.
**Or 1 tbsp sweetener of choice (honey, maple syrup, coconut nectar, etc.) Or use stevia or another sugar-free sweetener instead for a low carb/sugar option.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 shake
- Calories: 384
- Sugar: 14g
- Fat: 27g
- Saturated Fat: 2g
- Carbohydrates: 32g
- Fiber: 10g
- Protein: 10g
Keywords: vegan, chocolate, smoothie, shake, easy, nutella
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Wow, Natalie, just in time. Last week I bought a carton of organic hazelnut rice drink and made my bulletproof coffee with it. But, you know, the sugar level was too high. So I thought, I want to make my own but the whole process of making the hazelnut creamer, soak, grind, squeeze was just too much in this heat (Jerusalem, Israel). And now you just gave me a better solution (minus the dates). The almond milk will be sweet enough for me. And adding the ice was terrific! 😋
Ha we are totally on the same page with the hazelnut drink love right now, they are one of the yummiest nuts! I still want to get around to making my own homemade hazelnut milk one day, but this is a MUCH speedier way. And I bet it would be wonderful with coffee in place of some of the milk too…oooh now you are giving me ideas😋😋
Ahh you had me at nutella! Love how this uses such nutrient-dense ingredients yet still tastes amazing. You seriously always have the best recipes! I don’t know which version I’ll try first…with ice or without!
Go for the ice!! Until it’s November again I will be sticking with the iced version myself, that texture is too good😋 And thanks for the kind words lovely❤️
Posting on a Wednesday?! Throwing me off in the best way possible 😉 I love how creamy, and dreamy and chocolatey this is without being full of milk and ice cream. Totally going to add a ridiculous amount of coconut whipped cream on top and grab a giant straw because I take my chocolate shakes/smoothies pretty seriously!
Haha!! Trust me you are not the only one who’s thrown off by it…it’s been a crazy week😜 Ooooh yes, I fully support the LOTS of whipped cream plan🙌 Maybe a cherry on top? While they are in season and we are going the full on milkshake route I mean why not🍒
I will try this. I am trying to lose weight. My son is 9 and he’s over weight and have alopcia., I need healthy and fat free receipes. Can you help me please
So if you go back further in my archives I used to do a lot more really low fat recipes, what sort of things were you looking for? Muffins, smoothies, ice cream, cookies? I can point you to some good ones. Also there is a blog called Fat Free Vegan Kitchen (not sure if you are vegan or not) that might be helpful: https://blog.fatfreevegan.com
What is going on over there Natalie, posting 3 recipes in the same week?! Do you have superpowers or something, hahahaha! This looks SO GOOD. I’m totally in love with this recipe and how thick, creamy and COLD it looks. I absolutely love hazelnuts in desserts. To be honest, I think they taste really nasty on their own…kind of weird, but mixed in with chocolate or cinnamon and sweetener they become so epic and delicious. I love, love, love that this has zero bananas. Bananas are just too strong in flavor no matter what you do, you can’t hide them, lol. I’m totally going to give this a try now that we are out of our chocolate milk, but I’ll sub with maple syrup (sorry dates!). I’m sure it will be tasty! I will top with lots of shaved chocolate and whipped cream, yummo! So simple and so chocolatey, the perfect thing I need to see today. I’m craving chocolate bad!
What’s going on is I am currently DYING😜😜 And regretting the decision to post three in one week, but I just have too many summery ideas! Wait you don’t like hazelnuts straight? But they are just so toasty and nutty, what’s not to like? Not as flavorful as pecans, I’ll give you that, but I do like them too. Swap you that maple syrup version for a glass of chocolate milk?🍫
This is so good! Just made it in the heat of the afternoon! Thank you for this awesome recipe.
I am so happy you enjoyed it Jackie! The frosty has been my favorite hot afternoon treat lately😊
You. Are. Killing. Meeeeeee!!!!! Not only am I incredibly behind in reading your posts, but now I have to figure out my priorities! What to make first?!?? You know I LOVE hazelnuts and chocolate so I’m thinking this needs to happen ASAP! And the frosty version 😍😍😍 I’m in love and I haven’t even tried it yet! Looks incredible!! On another note, I’d love to siphon some of your motivation and energy to post 😆 you’re on a roll, my friend!
I’m killing myself too, this week has been CRAZY lemme tell you. I won’t be doing 3 in a week again for a loooooooong time (aka until I am internet famous and have a staff…HA😂😂) But as far as priorities go, this is the easiest and the chocolatey-est so I think its a pretty easy call😉 See that’s why I just need to come visit you and be your in person photography/post-all-these-awesome-recipes-already motivation☺️ Love ya my dear, happy weekend! xoxo
Enjoyed this; Excellent without toppings.
★★★★★
I am so happy you liked it, Alexandra🤗
I made this for an after school snack for both of my girls (8 and 10) we all LOVED it! it tastes just like a chocolate milkshake. This is a keeper! Thanks!
Woohoo!! I love this one on hot FL afternoons too, I’m so happy it was a hit all around🤗
I tryed this recipe with high hopes only to find something went wrong, I did everything the way I was supposed to except for that I switched the nuts out for hemp seeds, the mixture was not solid at all. It was pretty much just soup. Any ideas as to where I went wrong!?
The hemp seeds are definitely the problem! That is why the texture was too thin/soupy, try it with nuts as called for next time😊