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My favorite green smoothie recipe is really a tropical energy drink in disguise. With over 1,300 5-star reviews, it’s time for you to see why blending spinach into a smoothie is a tasty morning habit.
I know a green smoothie doesn’t sound (or look) very appealing at first sight, but it can be beyond delicious. I’ve blended this recipe in kindergarten classrooms (and the kids ask for seconds)! I’ve made it for my teenage daughter’s volleyball friends and they chug it down. I drink this green smoothie recipe almost every morning to boost my energy levels and nourish my body.
Table of contents
Benefits of a Green Smoothie
Drinking this green smoothie is what gave me the body and energy levels to do some incredible things in my late 30’s after having two kids. I’ve run 47 miles of the Grand Canyon, rode a motorcycle across Morocco in a 7-day race, hiked Angel’s Landing and created a backyard garden for my kids.
This simple green smoothie is great for beginners because it’s naturally sweetened with fruit (no added sugars) and loaded with greens and protein. Some of the benefits I’ve noticed when I drink a green smoothie every day are:
- More energy from the natural fruit sugars
- Don’t get sick (my immune system is strong thanks to all the nutrients)
- My digestive system is happy with all the fiber and hydration from a green smoothie
This daily habit has kept my kids healthy when we didn’t have health insurance, energized us in between school and sports and nourished us so we rarely get sick. And when we do, we can usually bounce back with some of my own natural remedies.
My kids started drinking green smoothies when they were 2 years old. Now, they’re teenagers and still drink them. Here’s some photos of them over the years (they have no clue I put these on here!).
When I created this green smoothie recipe, it changed my family’s life in more ways than I ever imagined. It was love at first sip for me, my two kids and 1 million others, who were intimidated by spinach (just like me!). Since them, I’ve published a best-selling green smoothie cookbook and shared my recipes live on The Doctors TV Show…twice!
Best Green Smoothie Ingredients
Everything you need to make a green smoothie is found in a garden, farmer’s market or the produce section of your grocery store. The closer we eat to nature, the better we feel. This smoothie recipe is a great way to start eating healthier foods. Here’s the ingredients we’ll be blending:
- 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 one of the Dirty Dozen. The right ratio of spinach to fruit makes it sweet, as well as helps you reap all the health benefits.
- Frozen pineapple: I buy frozen pineapple at Costco in bulk to make Frozen Smoothie Packs. If it’s on sale, I’ll cut up pineapple and freeze it myself.
- Frozen mango: You’ll find this 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.
- Fresh banana: Bananas add a creaminess to smoothies that is hard to replicate. It’s magic!
- Water: The liquid base in the smoothie is water. Use filtered water to avoid any unnecessary chemicals or pollutants. I like using a Berkey Water Filter that I keep on my countertop.
Fresh VS frozen fruit
I prefer using frozen fruit because it chills down your smoothie without using ice, which can dull your blender blades overtime. I use fresh bananas in my smoothies because I like how creamy they make it.
How to Blend a Green Smoothie
The only equipment you need to make a green smoothie is a high-speed blender for smoothies. A juicer or food processor won’t work to get you a creamy drink you’ll want to make over and over. Once you have a blender, you can successfully make the best green smoothie recipe following the steps below.
Blend spinach with liquid base
Blend 1 cup of spinach (or another leafy greens of your choice) in a blender with 1 cup of liquid. Adding spinach to your smoothie boosts the phytonutrients and fiber, which then slows down the absorption of sugars into your body. Blend until all leafy chunks are gone.
Beginner Blending Tip
When you’re making your first few green smoothies, follow my Green Smoothie Formula to get the perfect blend. Don’t just throw spinach and kale in the blender. Chances are, it’ll taste nasty if you wing it right out of the gate.
Add frozen fruit to blender
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 be a smoothie bowl, use more frozen fruit. You can freeze your favorite fruits like ripe bananas, grapes, pineapple or berries.
How to sweeten a smoothie
If the smoothie isn’t as sweet as you would like, add in some natural sweeteners like bananas, mango, oranges, honey or pitted dates.
Scoop in the superfoods
Once the smoothie is nice and creamy, you can add in superfoods. Chia seeds, hemp hearts and flax seed are all great choices. You can turn any smoothie recipe into a meal replacement by adding a serving of homemade protein powder to any smoothie recipe.
Blend smoothie on high speed
In order to break down the cell walls of the plants, you need to blend on high speed. You shouldn’t have any leafy chunks in your smoothie if your blender is powerful enough.
Drink green smoothie immediately
To get the maximum amount of nutrients from a smoothie, drink it immediately after blending it. The longer your smoothie is exposed to oxygen, the more it breaks down and the nutrients deteriorate. This is called oxidation. To minimize this, you can store your smoothe in the fridge with an air-tight lid for up to 48 hours, yet I think it tastes best if consumed within 4 hours after blending.
Green Smoothie Recipe Variations
It’s easy to swap ingredients based on what you have on hand. If you’d like more green smoothie recipes, check out these popular ones below:
- My son is obsessed with this mango orange smoothie recipe.
- Try this tropical pina colada smoothie to head to the beach asap.
- Want to boost your metabolism? Then this is a great fat burning green smoothie recipe.
- This kale smoothie will surprise even your taste buds.
Best Green Smoothie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup spinach
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup pineapple frozen
- ½ cup mango frozen
- 1 banana
- 1 serving homemade protein powder optional
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.
- Store: In the fridge with a lid until ready to drink.
Equipment
Video
Notes
- 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).
Nutrition
Common Questions
You won’t be able to taste the spinach if you use the proper ratio of fruit to spinach. This green smoothie tastes like a mango pineapple smoothie with a hint of banana flavor.
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. A kale or spinach smoothie has incredible health benefits with additional phytonutrients. What we eat can truly transform our bodies and our lives 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, vegan milks and leafy greens, typically spinach or kale. They’re loaded with iron, potassium, fiber and vitamins galore. If you’re not sure which leafy greens to use in your smoothie, check out my Ultimate Leafy Greens Guide for Smoothies.
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.
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.
I am looking forward to the 30day challenge !
I signed up for the April challenge, but wanted to give the smoothies a try ahead of time. I made one with what I had on hand (Kale, carrots, apples, frozen berries, green tea base) and the results were…OK. I’m sure I’ll get better as time goes on. The taste was good, but the consistency was pretty off. Of course, that’s likely because my blender isn’t up to the challenge.
Don’t, worry…this hasn’t put me off. It’s just made me want to get better at making them! And possibly buy a new blender.
found your website reading this: and i think it’s just so fine of you to share all this recipes!!
i’ve tried Tropicolada Fiesta yesterday and it’s a part of my breakfast today!!! so yummy!!!
can’t wait to april =)))
thank you!
We can’t wait ’til April, either! Thanks for sharing this with us.
OMG I am so happy that I pick your site to read. I will be part of the April 1st. challenge. Many Blessings to the both of you. 🙂
So glad you are joining us, Sharon! We’re really looking forward to the challenge!
Jadah & Jen,
I’m a new reader – I love your recipe, especially since it isn’t “juicing” and doesn’t require equipment I don’t have. I have a really hard time getting affordable produce where I am, and my budget is really limited. I know frozen isn’t as nutritious as fresh, but given the procurement problem, what do you think of freezing “smoothie cubes” and saving them, especially for the fall/winter. (“Smoothie cubes” = blend up a bunch of kale with water or almond milk, freeze into ice cubes, and use as ingredients later on.)
Thanks!
It’s a great idea, and lots of people already do it! Go for it 🙂 We suggest using water and a tiny bit of coconut oil when doing this.
Hi, with the beginners green luck smoothie and any other smoothie how much ice do you put for a thicker drink? Thanks
Hi Alicia!
We rarely add ice… We only add it if none of our fruit is frozen, but prefer to use one frozen fruit to chill the smoothie 🙂
I just got my reconditioned Blendtec yesterday and made our first green smoothie this morning. My husband, son and I just LOVED it! I am so excited to start the 30 day challenge! Thank you!
Congratulations on the new blender!!!
I’ve recently gotten into smoothies. I’ve even gotten a Vita mix… which has been awesome! The only problem is that I can’t figure out the right formula for my smoothies. They’re either watery, not sweet enough (maybe from using too much frozen fruit or fruit not ripe), and I’ve also noticed that whenever I do “green smoothies” I miraculously get sick within a few days. I really want to get healthier and drink a smoothie a day, but I feel like I’m waisting a lot of money and almost to the point of giving up.
Do you think that adding water makes the smoothly too watery (can I add juice or does that defeat the purpose), or are there ways to chose fruits ( mango’s, pineapples, and strawberries) that are ripe and sweet?
Hey there, Tisha!
We don’t like hearing that you get sick within a few days of drinking green smoothies 🙁 Have you been following the formula that’s on this page? Also, keep in mind that most recipes are two servings!
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/how-to-make-a-smoothie
Hi Tisha!
I don’t mean to mess with their recipe, but before I found this website I was doing a similar smoothie using almond milk, and I was really happy with that. The best kind for you is unsweetened, with no flavor label (like “vanilla”), but they’re all better than milk from what I’ve heard. Maybe that would smooth out the experience for you?
I have been really enjoying my green smoothies! And all of the other wonderful meals I have made with my Vitamix 750! The 100% wheat bread was incredible. Took the left over half loaf to make some awesome croutons for our salads
We haven’t tried the wheat bread in ours, yet… Was it pretty simple to do, Mike?
My reconditioned Vitamix got here Friday and I made my first smoothie this morning . It was great . Love your site . Now just looking for a pre-workout smoothie
Woohoo, Tiffany! Don’t you love your Vitamix! I use one, too, and it’s fantastic. 🙂
Hi! Would you suggest the green smoothie challenge for kids in high school? Also, do you have any fast, easy school lunches. It’s almost impossible to not eat junk food for lunch. Thanks!
Absolutely! Anyone, any age can drink green smoothies! That’s such a great idea, we hope you keep us posted if you have a challenge for high school kids. 🙂
Hello, I am going to get my life back on track I have decide to start working out in the mornings and wanted to have a green smoothie before I work out but I am not sure which one. I am also a beginner in green smoothies so am not sure which one is best for before a workout. Do you have any suggestions that can help me out.
Thank you so much.
Hi Alexandra! Really, any green smoothie would be great. This one looks like a winner for your situation, though 🙂
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/almond-milk-smoothie
Just curious is baby kale and spinach as nutritious as the original versions?
It is pretty similar, Kelly 🙂 Any kind of kale works when blending green smoothies!
Hi if I want to try your beginner smoothie and don’t have a juicer can I use a blender to try? Does a blender take away the nutrients? Will it be smooth? Thanks
Hi Bri! We’re all about blending here! We don’t juice, and none of our recipes are designed specifically for juicing 🙂 There are people who juice that use our recipes, though, which is totally fine.
Are all your recipes easily halved for a one person serving or do you suggest making the 2 servings and just saving until the next day?
You can easily halve them, Linda 🙂 You can save the second for the next day if you’d like, too!
I want to try the next smoothie challenge but had a quick question
For the fruit portion can I use canned pineapple or pears that’s packed in its own juice but draining the juice of course
Hi Renee!
Our preference is to use fresh first, frozen second, and canned only on a NEED basis. Hope this helps!
Thanks for the quick response! I made my FIRST smoothie using the beginners luck formula above. I used blueberries in place for the mango because I didn’t have any. My two year old son was curious so I gave him a drink and he loved it!! His exact words were “mmmm tasty!!” I was so overly excited and almost in tears!! He’s a bit behind in the talking department well other then the usually momma and daddy. So for him to say the word tasty was huge for me! 🙂
I just had to come back and share this exciting news with y’all. I will defiantly be trying the other recipes.
Renee, your story is adorable! Love that even a 2-year-old can enjoy green smoothies too! 😉