SOMETHING SIMPLE: Healthy Mint-Chocolate Shamrock Smoothie

There were two restaurants in my tiny hometown when I was growing up: an old gas-station-turned-breakfast-joint just off Main Street and, out by the freeway, one highly esteemed fast-food retailer that my friends and I affectionately referred to as “McDirt’s.”

In high school, we were all hooked on a particular seasonal milkshake — the minty green one that comes around every spring under the pretense of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.

As with most seasonal trends, I can’t say what it was about this shake that had a hold on us, but I know its grip was strong. I’m sure I slurped down at least one every March, whether I was rushing to my part-time job after school or en route to softball practice (a thought that makes adult-me feel slightly queasy). Wherever I was going, that green milkshake heralded the arrival of springtime.

These days, my version of eating seasonally looks a little different. Of course, March is still winter in Minnesota. Yet once the days start feeling a bit longer and lighter and the edges of the snowbanks begin to melt, I’m suddenly seized with a desire to eat everything green.

As an adult, I want my greens to be, well, greens: snappy scallions and tender cabbages and the spicy tops from the season’s first delicate radishes. I want to go to the farmers’ market and stuff an entire basket with fiddleheads. I want that vibrant, virtuous, belly-full-of-vegetables feeling. I want to literally drink a cup of spinach for breakfast.

That’s the genesis of this Shamrock Smoothie. To be clear, it’s not winning any side-by-side tastings with the original — which is mostly composed of various forms of sugar and artificial colors — but that’s OK by me.

I’ve revisited enough beloved treats from my childhood to know that I didn’t necessarily want to replicate the flavor of that minty milkshake. Most similar delicacies from my youth taste different to my adult palate: cloyingly sweet and strangely artificial, recalling only a shadow of the flavor memory I have in my mind. More often than not, they’re just not very good. (For more on how highly flavored processed foods can hijack your sense of taste, see “Take Back Your Taste Buds.”)

Instead, I filled this smoothie with plenty of greens. I love using fresh mint here to keep the flavor more natural, but if you want a mintier drink, you can add a drop of mint extract too.

Mint is one of my favorite herbs to grow at home, because it’s a tenacious plant that holds up well even under a bit of benign neglect. All you need is a somewhat sunny windowsill and moist, well-drained soil. I keep mine in a wide pot — never in the ground, where it would take over everything in arm’s reach. This way, I have fresh herbs at my fingertips all year long.

A frozen banana is the best ingredient for adding sweetness and creamy texture to most any blended beverage. Just be sure to taste your smoothie before you serve it. Depending on the ripeness of your banana, the flavor of your protein powder, and whether or not you add ice, you might want a bit of maple syrup for sweetness.

If you don’t have a high-speed blender — or if you’re not in the habit of freezing bananas for smoothies — you can make this recipe using a fresh banana plus a couple of ice cubes to give it that frozen texture.

And while you can certainly drink this smoothie at any time, I’m partial to having it for breakfast, mostly because starting my day with a healthy dose of greens has a way of making me feel like I’m part superhero.

My Shamrock Smoothie may not taste quite the same as the one I used to order at the drive-thru of the world’s most ubiquitous fast-food spot, but it does make me feel good — and I’m loving that.