Cashew Date Shake (vegan, paleo)

Name: Cashew Date Shake (vegan, paleo)
Prep time: 120 min
Total time: 120 min
Ingredients: ⅔ cup raw cashews (soaked for 2 to 4 hours); 6 Medjool dates (pitted and soaked for 10 minutes); 1 frozen banana; ¾ cup water; 2 cups ice; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; pinch cinnamon; pinch sea salt

by Lisa Bryan

37 Comments

Updated Apr 02, 2024

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As a California girl I’m a date shake lover. And this cashew date shake version, while dairy-free, vegan and paleo, tastes exactly like the real-deal Palm Springs date shake.

Cashew Date Shake. Dairy-free, vegan and paleo.

It’s funny how recipe ideas come together. A few days ago I had a bunch of Medjool dates sitting on the counter, which I had planned to use as the base for a multi-layered s’mores tart. I ended up not using them for the tart, opting for a brownie layer base instead. The brownie layer was then topped with crumbled graham crackers, chocolate custard and marshmallows. It was four layers of s’mores decadence which was brilliant in theory…but…if you saw my snaps this week, you saw what happened.

A s’mores disaster! The custard layer never firmed up and when I pulled the parchment out of the pan, the entire thing oozed and blobbed everywhere. The custard layer squirted out like a chocolate waterfall and the other layers (which did turn out) just fell into a stack on top of each other, Tetris-style.

Yep, it was a complete recipe fail (and made for a very messy kitchen). But not wanting to waste lots of money in organic ingredients, I quickly transferred the goopy mess to a storage container, dubbed it a s’mores soup and proceeded to eat it (and probably way too much of it) for breakfast. #reallife

I’ve gone a totally different direction with my s’mores development and fingers crossed, you’ll have a new treat in about a week. But today, let’s get back to these dates. So I had them on the counter sitting next to a big bag of raw cashews and it was 108 degrees out (no joke) and instantly my brain screamed “date shake!”

(dairy-free, vegan, paleo) Cashew Date Shake. Inspired by the classic date shakes from Palm Springs, California.

Date shakes are a very Southern California thing. And more precisely, a Palm Springs thing. Date palms are grown throughout the low desert area but it wasn’t until one very smart date farmer created a roadside “shake shack” that dates surged in popularity. I still remember the first time I had a date shake. I’d actually avoided them for years on all our family trips to the desert. As a teenager, dates were the equivalent of prunes in my books, dark wrinkly and gross, so why on earth would I put either into a creamy vanilla milkshake?!

In my early 20’s my mom and I headed to Palm Springs for a girls weekend and I thought, alright, I’ll taste what all the fuss is about. So we hit up the historic Shield’s Date Garden and I still remember my mom laughing when a smile creeped up on my face and I blurted out, “oh, this is really good!” From that point on, I was a date shake lover.

Traditional date shakes are made with milk, ice cream, dates and a pinch of spices. Most of you know I’m not 100% dairy-free, but I am obsessed with using cashews for dairy-free creamy goodness. And you guys, this cashew date shake tastes so much like a traditional date shake it’s cr-a-zy. It’s thick, creamy, sweet and will definitely cool you down on a ridiculously hot day. I topped mine with coconut whipped cream, leftover from my video creation last week, but you can slurp it up plain as well.

Enjoy!