This easy to make Keto Shamrock Shake Recipe doesn’t use avocados or require you to buy or make keto ice cream. 

After I posted my keto deviled strawberries recipe for Valentine’s Day, I started thinking about what keto treat I could make for St. Patrick’s Day.  When I couldn’t think of anything, I asked The Husband if he had any ideas for a treat I could make a keto version of.

Of course, he instantly suggested a shamrock milkshake.

The Husband loves Mc Donald’s shamrock shakes, but I honestly don’t care for them.  While I don’t mind mint in things like gum or breath mints, it’s just not a flavor I like in a drink.

I did like the idea of coming up with a keto milkshake though.

I don’t remember the last time I had a milkshake, and making a keto shake didn’t sound that hard. 

Even though I would be leaving the mint out of mine, I figured coming up with a healthy shamrock shake recipe for The Husband and Lil Sis (who shares his love for them) would keep them from going to Mc Donald’s all month.

I don’t think either of them minded being my taste testers while I played around with the recipe either.

McDonald’s Shamrock Shake’s

Whether you like mint in your drinks or not, you’ve probably heard of Mc Donald’s popular St Patrick’s day milkshake.

But, do you know how much sugar is in those things?

In the US a small contains 63 grams and a large has 112.

Here in Canada, the smallest is child size with 67 grams of sugar and our large has 153 grams!

Even if you aren’t on keto, that’s too much sugar. 

The American Heart Association recommends that women only eat 25 grams of added sugar per day and men eat no more than 36.  So even a US small or Canadian child size is around twice as much as recommended.

The amount of sugar in them isn’t the only problem with Mc D’s shamrock shakes.

In addition to regular sugar, these milkshakes contain corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup (called glucose-fructose in Canada), and other junk thickeners, emulsifiers, and preservatives.

Low Carb Shamrock Shake Ingredients

Frozen Whipped Cream

When I was trying to figure out how to make my own sugar-free shamrock shake, I started by looking at recipes for a normal homemade shamrock shake. 

The base of most of the recipes that I found was, of course, ice cream.

It would be easy to make a keto milkshake with Rebel ice cream, or another brand of keto-friendly ice cream, but I have yet to see Rebel or any other brands where I live.

While I do have an ice cream maker, I haven’t experimented with any keto ice cream recipes yet and didn’t want to. Instead, I looked to see if I could find any milkshake recipes that didn’t use ice cream. 

What I found were recipes that used ice cubes.

To me that sounded like it would be more of a keto mint smoothie than a milkshake. But the ice cube milkshake recipes did give me a good idea.

What if I just froze my keto whipped cream?

Since homemade whipped cream can be made in 3-minutes, this keeps the recipe simple and it gives the milkshake the texture I had hoped for.

Almond Milk

A basic milkshake recipe is a combination of ice cream and milk.

But with 12 grams of carbs per cup, regular milk isn’t the best option.

Almond milk on the other hand only has 1 gram of net carbs per cup and mixed with the frozen whipped cream it makes the perfect base for any keto milkshake.

Shamrock Shake Flavor

There are 3 options I found for giving the keto shamrock shake its mint flavor.

• LorAnn Oils Natural Peppermint Oil.
• Peppermint-flavored stevia drops
• Regular peppermint extract

While I wanted to try the peppermint oil, I couldn’t find any in Canada with free and fast shipping, so I went with the peppermint extract instead. 

Shamrock Shake Color

Most keto green shake or smoothie recipes use avocado or spinach to make them green.

I’m honestly not a big fan of avocadoes. While there are some foods, I will eat them in (like Wendy’s Southwest Avocado Salad) it just wasn’t appealing to me for a milkshake. And spinach didn’t sound much better.

To make a green keto shamrock shake with no avocados or green vegetables in it, the only real option is to use food coloring.

If you prefer to avoid artificial colors in your food, you can buy a natural food coloring like this Suncore Foods Pandan Leaf Supercolor Powder, which only contains 100% pandan leaf powder.

Or you can just skip on the color all together. 

I chose to just skip on the color when I made them for the kids, and they still loved them.  I did make one batch with some regular green food coloring so I could test out how much was needed for the recipe and get some pictures of it, but I gave that one to The Husband.

How to Make A Keto Shamrock Shake

While this keto shamrock shake is easy and quick to make, it does require waiting 4-6 hours for the whipped cream to be frozen solid.

Otherwise, the rest of the work can be done in 5 minutes or less.

First, you need to make the keto whipped cream by combining ½ a cup heavy (or whipping) cream with 2 Tbsp of Swerve (or another keto sweetener).  Beat the cream on high speed with a hand mixer until it has thickened enough that it holds its shape when you take the beater out.

Spoon the finished whipped cream into a Ziploc bag and flatten it so it freezes quickly and can easily be broken into small pieces so it will blend quicker too.

Leave it for at least 4-6 hours or overnight.

Once it is frozen solid, break it into pieces

Place them in the blender with ¼ cup of almond milk and blend until smooth.  If the mixture is too thick and isn’t blending smoothly add more almond milk 1-2 tbsp at a time.

While a regular blender should work fine to make this milkshake base, you’ll be able to make it thicker if you have a good blender. I found that I had to add a lot more almond milk when I made it in my Nutri Ninja cups than I did when I made it in the full-size Ninja blender.

Once the whipped cream and almond milk are well blended, add your mint flavor and color and blend for another minute.

Paleo or Vegan Shamrock Shake

While the above recipe was perfect for The Husband, Lil Sis and I, Big Sis is on the Paleo diet so she can’t have dairy. 

Luckily it is easy to convert this to a Paleo shamrock shake, by using coconut whipped cream instead of the keto whipped cream.

Just refrigerate a can of coconut milk overnight, then carefully remove the top and scrape out the thickened cream, leaving the liquid in the can. Beat it for just under a minute, then add your choice of sweetener (I use honey, but maple syrup would work too) and beat it until smooth.

Of course, to keep it paleo you will need to use the peppermint oil and the natural food coloring option or no color.

The coconut whipped cream freezes differently than the regular whipped cream so you will need to add up to a full cup of almond milk to get it to blend smooth.

The Husband and Lil Sis both enjoyed this healthy keto shamrock shake as much as they enjoy the Mc Donald’s ones, and I am happy to know that I can keep those 63-112 grams of sugar out of them every March.

While I didn’t care much for the mint shakes, I did make myself a keto vanilla milkshake using just the frozen whipped cream and almond milk and it was as good as I remember milkshakes being.

Now that I have found an easy to make keto milkshake base, I will be experimenting with some other flavors.  I may try making a keto cheesecake milkshake for me, and maybe do a keto mint chocolate shake for The Husband and Lil Sis.

While it may still be a while until we see a keto shamrock shake at Mc Donald’s (or any keto milkshake in a fast food restaurant), at least this healthy shamrock shake is easy to make at home.

Do you like Mc Donald’s Shamrock Shakes?  Give my Keto Shamrock Shake a try and let me know how it compares to the real thing on my Facebook post.

Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook for more keto recipes and treats, and to see what else I learn on my journey to live a healthier and happier life.