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If you’re new to green smoothies—or just want one that actually tastes good—this is the recipe to start with. This simple green smoothie blends spinach with banana, mango, and pineapple to create a naturally sweet, tropical drink that comes together in minutes. It’s proof that healthy can be easy, delicious, and something you’ll actually want to make again tomorrow.
Table of Contents
What is a Green Smoothie?
A green smoothie is a blended drink made with leafy greens, like spinach or kale, and naturally sweet fruit such as bananas, berries, or tropical fruit. The fruit balances the flavor of the greens, creating a smooth, refreshing drink that’s easy to enjoy. Green smoothies are a quick and simple way to add more fiber, vitamins, and minerals to your day in one glass.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Everything you need to make my favorite green smoothie recipe is found in a garden, farmer’s market, or the produce section of your grocery store. I’ve found that the closer we eat to nature, the better we feel. This green smoothie recipe is a great way to start that journey.
- Fresh spinach: Baby spinach is the most mild version to use in smoothies, and also the most easy to find. I suggest using organic spinach because it’s on the Dirty Dozen List.
- Pineapple: I buy frozen pineapple at Costco in bulk to make Frozen Meal Prep Smoothie Packs. If it’s on sale, I’ll cut up pineapple and freeze it myself.
- Mango: You’ll find frozen mango next to the ice cream in the freezer section. I love how it’s already peeled and cut for you and ready to add to the blender. If fresh mango is on sale, you can always cut the mango and freeze yourself. Check out my guide on how to cut mango.
- Fresh banana: Bananas add a creaminess to smoothies that is hard to replicate. It’s magic! You can also freeze bananas to use them in green smoothies, yet the best results come from blending with a fresh, ripe banana.
- Water: The liquid base in the smoothie is water. Use filtered water to avoid any unnecessary chemicals or pollutants.
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How to Make a Green Smoothie
The only equipment you need to make this green smoothie recipe is a blender for smoothies. A juicer or food processor won’t work to get you a creamy smoothie.
- Blend 1 cup of spinach in a blender with 1 cup of liquid. Blend until all leafy chunks are gone.
- Toss in frozen mango, pineapple, and bananas in the blender. Blend on high until smooth and creamy. If you want your smoothie to be extra chilly or possibly even turn it into a smoothie bowl, use more frozen fruit. (You can freeze your favorite fruits like ripe bananas, grapes, pineapple, or berries.)
- Add in superfoods once the smoothie is nice and creamy. Chia seeds, hemp hearts, and flax seeds are all great choices.
- In order to break down the cell walls of the plants, you need to blend at high speed. You shouldn’t have any leafy chunks or weird texture in your smoothie if your blender is powerful enough.
- Drink immediately. To get the maximum amount of nutrients from a smoothie, drink it immediately after blending it.
Recipe Tips
- Following a simple smoothie method in my How to Make a Smoothie guide helps balance greens, fruit, and liquid for a smooth, great-tasting blend. Tossing in random greens can lead to bitter flavors or a thin texture.
- Frozen fruit makes smoothies thick and creamy without ice, which can dilute flavor and strain your blender. I use a fresh banana for creaminess, plus frozen mango and frozen pineapple for sweetness.
- Invest in a high-speed blender for smoothies if you plan to make green smoothies a daily habit—it makes blending faster, smoother, and easier to stick with.
Ingredient Swaps
- Banana: You can substitute it with a quarter of an avocado.
- Mango: Swap with frozen pineapple, red apple or peaches for a fiber-rich alternative.
- Pineapple: Swap with a naval orange to get that juicy citrus flavor.
- Water: Use oat milk, almond milk, coconut water or orange juice depending on your health goals.
- Spinach: Swap for kale, Swiss chard, beet greens, or any leafy greens of your choice.
How to Store a Green Smoothie
Store your green smoothie in the fridge with an air-tight lid (ex: mason jars are great) for up to 48 hours, yet I think it tastes best if consumed within 4 hours after blending. The longer your smoothie is exposed to oxygen, the more it breaks down and the nutrients deteriorate (aka: oxidation).
Green Smoothie Add-Ins
- Protein powder: You can turn any green smoothie recipe into a meal replacement by adding a serving of my Homemade Protein Powder to the blender.
- Natural sweeteners: Increase sweetness by using more natural sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, bananas, or dates. A smoothie can taste like dessert without any refined sugars.
- Chia seeds: A simple way to add more healthy fats and protein is to add 2 tbsp chia seeds. It won’t alter the taste, but drink fast or it will congeal. Some recipes suggest adding almond butter, yet that’s disgusting in a tropical green smoothie
- Collagen: Unflavored collagen is a simple way to add additional protein and support gut health.
- More vegetables: Try adding 1/4 cup frozen cauliflower for a fiber boost without altering the flavor.
More Green Smoothies
Once you try the recipe below, you’re gonna want more green smoothie recipes. It happens every day in my inbox! I love it! Here’s some of the most popular ones on my blog to try next:
- My son is obsessed with this Mango Orange Smoothie recipe.
- This Simple Kale Smoothie will surprise even the pickiest smoothie drinkers.
- I love this Glowing Green Smoothie with spinach and romaine lettuce for digestive support.
- Escape with this tropical Detox Island Green Smoothie to heal from within.
Dietary Adjustments & Substitutions
Need to accommodate a food allergy? Click the button below for tailored suggestions just for you:
Best Green Smoothie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup spinach
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup pineapple frozen
- ½ cup mango frozen
- 1 banana
Instructions
- Measure: Tightly pack spinach in a measuring cup.
- Add: Put spinach to blender with water. Blend together until all chunks are gone. (Should resemble green water when blended well).
- Toss: Pineapple, mango and banana to blender. I like to use frozen pineapple and mangos to chill the smoothie down and save time cutting and prepping. It’s a win-win!
- Blend: It all together until smooth and creamy. Depending on your blender, this could take as little as 30 seconds or as long as 2 minutes.
- Pour: Into a glass and serve immediately.
Video
Helpful Tools
Notes
- Try adding a serving of Homemade Protein Powder, it’s super clean and easy to make.
- Not a fan of bananas? Swap it for 1/4 avocado, additional 1/2 cup mango or 1/2 cup peaches.
- You can use 1 cup pineapple if you’re out of mango.
- Frozen fruit is recommended to chill the smoothie (and save time cutting and washing).
- Store in the fridge with a lid until ready to drink.
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review for a chance to win signed copies of my cookbooks!Common Questions
You won’t be able to taste the spinach if you use the proper ratio of fruit to spinach (1½ : 1). This green smoothie recipe tastes like a mango pineapple smoothie with a hint of banana flavor.
For busy weeks, you can create Frozen Smoothie Packs that you prep on the weekend and enjoy all week, or month. It’ll only take you 5 minutes every morning to have a green smoothie ready to go. You can also blend your smoothie the night before and store it in your fridge until ready to drink.
Green smoothies are the healthiest fast food out there. Blending spinach and fruit into a smoothie is a great way to boost your immune system, increase fiber intake, and boost your energy levels. Adding kale or spinach in a smoothie has incredible health benefits with additional phytonutrients. What we eat can truly transform our body in powerful ways!
Most smoothies you buy or find online are made with just fruit and fruit juice. This makes them crazy high in sugar, which can cause inflammation and consuming excess calories. A green smoothie, on the other hand, is made with fruit and leafy greens, typically spinach or kale. They’re loaded with iron, potassium, fiber and vitamins galore.
Any blender will work, yet to get the creamiest green smoothie you’ll need a high speed blender. Check out my Best Blenders for Smoothies guide, where I reviewed countless blenders to find the best ones for green smoothies. The key is to get rid of leafy chunks, blend quickly and provide tons of value for the price. Hint: not all of them cost $400.
HI, I can’t get fresh pineapple or mango at the moment, so what can I use to replace them, thanks.
You can use frozen pineapple and mango (which is actually what we use all the time).
I love your green moustaches. It sure “BEETS” the white ones that the movie stars display. (smile)
Hahaha. Love this! 🙂
Hi, I wondered if you can freeze the fresh spinach in bags that you but from a supermarket? I don’t have anywhere near by that sells spinach and when I do buy it I end up wasting loads as it goes off x
Absolutely, Karen! You can keep all your greens in a zip bag and toss right into your blenders. You can also do it with fruits too that are about to spoil. 🙂
I began one month away to start making green smoothie to add more variety and nutrients in my diet. Each time, I fall into a routine so your challenge will keep me excited 🙂 I do not use a cup but rather a handful portion, like for my green leaves or frozen stuff I simply use my hand or at leat a tbsp for chia seeds. Is you cup portion kind of similar of a handful portion?
Thanks 🙂
Hi Virginie! Not sure how many handfuls we use, probably close to 2 huge handfuls to get 2 cups of greens. And yes, at least a tablespoon of chia seeds or two is great. 🙂
Hi Ladies,
I was wondering if it would be fine to make the smoothie the night before to drink in the morning to save on time?
Heck yea, Robyn! You can make them and keep sealed in a tight fitting container for up to 2-3 days. Just remember to give it a shake before you drink! 😉
How often do I drink the smoothie for the 30 day challenge? Do I eat regular lunch and dinner? I can not wait to start the challenge in January 2014.
Hi Vanessa! The challenge is to just drink one green smoothie a day 🙂 You can have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or as a snack! The rest of the day you can eat normal meals.
I am going to start drinking green smoothies for breakfast before my morning workout. Since I would be using this as my breakfast would you suggest that I add anything extra to boost the protein or anything?
Hi Adrienne! Why don’t you try just a normal recipe for a couple days and see how you feel during and after your workout? Leafy greens are PACKED with protein! However, if you notice that you are feeling like you’re missing some nutrients during or after your workouts, then you can try adding some protein (i.e. almonds, almond milk, hemp protein powder, nut/seed butters). Hope this helps!
What can I use as a sub for the bananas?
What if you tried using extra mango in its place for this recipe?
Am I able to refridgerate the 2nd portion to have for lunch? I am very excited to get started!!
You can, Stephanie!
So I’ve been making trying out a new green smoothie recipe everyday for the past 2 weeks and this week has just been full of unsuccessful ones so I was really hoping that today would be different. I tried out this Beginner’s Luck recipe and I was in love at first sip! It is so delicious I drank an entire mason jar of it without even realizing. Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe 🙂 I will definitely be having it again soon
Hey there,
Do y’all ever do anything with aloe juice?
I love these recipes but I want to try getting more aloe in my diet and I wonder if it would be good in a smoothie.
Thanks 🙂
We did try it and weren’t fond of the taste, but thought that it had some pretty good nutrients. Try it out and let us know what you think! We were hesitant to recommend it to people if they weren’t going to enjoy the taste.
Can I use almond milk in these smoothies?, also can I replace spinach with kale?
Yes and yes. Here are some articles that give you more options with liquids and leafy greens:
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/dairy-free-smoothies
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/leafy-greens
Are these smoothies supposed to be meal replacements or just extra supplements? There doesn’t seem to be any protein to stick with you for any length of time and do you recommend more than one per day. It seems also a lot of fruit for more than one per day.
Hi Joan,
You would be surprised how much protein is in leafy greens! It is one of their top nutrient categories. They can be meal replacements or snacks.
I made this tonight. It was my very first green smoothie & I have to say I was pleasantly surprised! Very tasty!
Is there another option to replace the bananas? I simply HATE everything about them: the taste, smell, etc – lol …
Thanks so much ladies! LOVE this site and thoroughly enjoyed “meeting” you both! 🙂
Check out this post :: https://simplegreensmoothies.com/challenge/
You can pretty much sub in anything sweet you like. 🙂
I sooo agree with you. But this smoothie was still pretty good. I have a little bullet so I was tasting as I added each ingredient one at a time, it was fabulous until the banana. Next time I’ll try adding more mango (I didn’t read far enough down to see that suggestion) I also added a couple of basil leaves. Yummy
do you ever blend greens like mustards, turnips or collards?
Sure 🙂 Maybe not as often… You can check out our favorite greens to blend in this article (though there are more than just this list!):
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/leafy-greens
Since the serving size is 2, can you store the other serving for later and if so, what do you do, freeze it or just put in the fridge? Also, do you have to blend it in the blender again?
As you can tell, I’m a newbie;)