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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.
Hi I’m a newbie to this site and just joined the challenge. I have borderline diabetes, high blood pressure and bipolar disorder. The medications I take have caused me to gain a great deal of weight over the past several years. My goal for this challenge is to lose weight and feel better physically and mentally. Good luck to everyone, I’m excited to be on this journey with you all!
Thanks for this wonderful challenge. I have Sjogren’s Syndrome (autoimmune disorder) and have just been through a scary time with a horrible virus and SS flare. During one ER trip discovered that my potassium level was almost not there. Sodium low, too. I’m still too weak to walk far and wheezing like crazy, but determined to claw my way back out of it. I want to get as many of the nutrients I need as possible from food, so this is perfect. It’s also something I used to do and then gradually stopped. No clue why. So again, thanks. This can do nothing but good for me.
Hey Kristin! I’m so glad you found us!!! Super low potassium and sodium is scary stuff! So glad you are recovering and motivated to bounce back. You are an inspiration. I wanted to suggest adding coconut water to your green smoothies (swap it for water or any other liquid base in a recipe)– it’s considered nature’s gatorade and will give your smoothies an extra boost of potassium. And feel free to add in some Himalayan sea salt to your smoothies too for the sodium boost. You can do this and we are here cheering you on! Cheers to your health!
So I am very excited to start this challenge. 🙂 I also just purchased a Blendtec, and can’t wait for it to arrive. I purchased your recipe cards and info sheets. I want to loose about 25 lbs, get mentally and physically fit and better memory and more energy. I am so tired of being tired all the time.
Hey Tayna.
So glad you are joining us, hope you enjoy your Blendtec. 🙂 Wishing you all the best success, we are cheering you on!! 🙂
I’ve been having a lot of health issues and when I cut out eggs, gluten, dairy and gmo’s as well as other foods I found out I’m alergic to and went organic for about 6 months my heath got better. I”m still not 100 % as I cheat from time to time and more since I did get better. I went to a natropath, my doctor did not have a clue what was wrong and kept perscribing me creams and ointments for the excema I kept getting. The natropath had a food alergy test ran and found out I”m alergic to a lot of things and he said some could be temporary due to geting auto imune disorder somehow. My guess is from all the GMO’s and chemicals they use to fight the bugs etc.As well as stress helping out too.
Hey Tanya.
Thanks so much for joining us on the 30-Day Challenge. Glad to hear the natropath is helping you figure things out, hope you feel better soon. 🙂
Question.. am I able to add ice to it to chill it along with the water or will that mess it up?
Hey Marge,
Thanks for the question. We like to add frozen fruit, rather than ice. It is easier on your blender. 🙂
I have 2 questions before I start. i have just a plain ole Kitchenaide blender, will that work? I have to use fresh greens or can I use frozen? I already have some frozen baby spinach. And the spinach is it just the salad type stuff you can buy in bags or is it something else?
Hello all,
I love the 30 day green smoothie challenge! I’ve never tried it but plan to this month. Just a question about these smoothies-I am looking for healthy habits to add into my diet to help me lose some pounds. I noticed that many of these smoothies (even only 1 serving) have lots of calories (definitely more than I would want in a snack). I’ve noticed that lots of these calories come from almond butter or large amounts of fruits.
I know that your challenge doesn’t claim to help people lose weight which I totally understand. I was just wondering if anyone has experience drinking them (along with eating other healthy meals), and noticed a weight difference.
Sorry for all the questions. Thank you!
I’m also a newbie, waiting for the Challenge to start. I have Fibromyalgia & suffer from serious fatigue, among other health issues. I’ve read that the right smoothies can help reduce the pain & fatigue. I got so excited after reading everything on the site, that I went shopping! 🙂 My only problem now is that, the bananas, mangos & pineapple need to ripen. It’s always something right? lol So, I’ll be trying the Beginner’s Luck in a couple of days! I can’t wait! Lastly, I just want to thank you ladies for putting this all together. Great job! 🙂
Hey Cecilia.
Thanks for the comment. I am happy to hear you are joining us. Beginner’s Luck is a sweet and tropical green smoothie, that I think you will enjoy! 🙂
For best results ask your doctor or healthcare provider which fruits and leafy green would work best for you and will help with pain & fatigue. 🙂 We wish you all the best! 🙂
Enjoy your Beginner’s Luck! I love that recipe! 🙂
Thanx Jessie…I am excited about this Challenge. Especially after watching the documentary Kristen Mullaney mentioned below. I’ll be seeing my Dr on Monday to have her monitor my progress. I might turn the Challenge into an all out fast. 🙂 BTW, I enjoyed the Beginner’s Luck! I do have to say, never having been big on fruit, I’m sure I can adjust. <3
Hi Cecilia,
Saw your post and wanted to tell you that using frozen fruit is also ok to do! I buy mine from trader joes and sometimes in bulk from Costco! I also wanted to pass along the recommendation for a documentary that you might be interested in watching. It’s made by Joe Cross and it’s called Fat, Sick and Nearly dead…horrible name i know, but it tells the story of a man who was chronically ill and then went on a juicing diet, only to come off all of his many meds, lose weight and become pain free. It is truly inspiring to watch!
Good Luck on your challenge!
Kristen
Hi Kristen…I just watched it last night! lmao The countdown on Phil’s weight lose & both of their health returning was AMAZING! I’m considering the fast while doing this 30 Day Challenge. Makes sense to incorporate the 2, if I can. 🙂
Question: Recipe = 2 cups of spinach tightly packed. So is it actually 2 c spinach which after tightly packed equals about 1 cup or 4 cups which after tightly packed equal 2 cups. Confused.
Hey Lauri.
No need to stress over the leafy measurements. As long as you have two handfuls of leafy green, you are good to go. Some people measure them out, (tightly pack in measuring cups) or other just grab and go. Either way works, as longs as you are adding your leafy greens. Our motto is, the more the merrier! 🙂
Hi there! I’m signed up for the 30 day challenge and I’m really looking forward to getting started. It coincides with a campaign here in the UK called ‘Go Sober for October’, which I’m also doing. Not that I need to ‘sober up’ as such, I’m not drunk!! haha! Its giving up alcohol for a month :-).
Anyway, my question is, being in the UK, can you provide recipes using UK measurements please?
Kind regards
Jo
xx
Hey Joanne.
Thanks for the comment. Our RAWsome RAWkstar team is working on a awesome graphic chat for conversion, but until then we ask that you use google conversion. 🙂 Thanks.
I am a bit confused about the challenge. I am a beginner do I have to do the Beginner’s Luck Green Smoothie? Before we start? … Also i received the smoothie crash course when I click on it , it gave me a few smoothie recipes are those the first smoothies we doing in October?
Welcome Shirley!
Thanks for the questions. A few days before October 1st, we will need you all new recipes, until that time you can try our any recipes you would like from our website or emails. 🙂 Hope that helps. Beginner’s Luck is a great one to start with. 🙂 https://simplegreensmoothies.com/recipes
🙂
Love this site .. made the beginner smoothie taste great : ) thanks . I will definitely participating in the challenge starting October
RAWsome! You can sign up here to get all of our shopping list and recipes. 🙂
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/challenge
Where can I get the last challenges recepies/ weekly shopping list?
Can they be emailed to me? Godz_princezz@yahoo.com
Hey Nena!
Yes indeed! Click here: https://simplegreensmoothies.com/challenge and shopping list/recipes will be send a few days before the October Challenge. 🙂
I’m not sure if I can do this after all… For some reason my body is rejecting meats and its tiring to eat solid foods… so smoothies have been great… but now I don’t have much money and I’m not sure how I can budget all these different ingredients… Its starting to seem more and more impossible for me…
Don’t I have to drink like 3 a day? Its like 3 meals a day right? I dunno.. It seems like a lot to buy and impossible under a budget…
Hey Ed.
Thanks so much for the comment, Ed. Our intention is not for you to drink green smoothies three times a day. Our smoothie recipes make about 4-5 cups (32oz – 40oz). Jadah drinks at least 2 cups (16 oz) everyday in the morning as a breakfast meal replacement. Jen drinks hers for lunch or sometimes as a mid morning snack Since green smoothies are full of fiber, they keep us both full for a while. If either of us needs afternoon pick-me-ups, we have been known to make another green smoothie later in the day instead of drinking a caffeinated beverage. If you have any concerns about your health I would suggest consulting your healthcare provider, they will know you best, and what is best for you.
Hi Ed,
I’m not a doctor but I can definitely say that if your body is rejecting solid foods, you should go see one. I hope you can get some good medical advice and return to a good health.
Tara
Hi Ed, chin up! Since these smoothie’s are meal replacements, I guessing it’s actually cheaper to eat (or drink 🙂 ).
I actually made the smoothie and substituted one banana with a half of avocado!
Sounds great, Kim! How was it?