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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 made my first green smoothie today, with kale,pineapple, banana and cantaloupe. Tasted okay but it hab too much pulp. How can I get less pulp and more liquid.
Thanks
Hi Bonnie,
We like to blend our leafy greens + liquid base first, and then add the remaining ingredients. It helps to create a great smooth texture! If you’re finding the smoothies too thick, you can always add additional liquid base to find the consistency that works for you!
Cheers 🙂
This has an awful lot of sugar with the fruits (avg. about 16g of sugar per cup of fruit). I love fruit but my insulin resistance and PCOS are pretty sugar sensitive. Do you have any suggestions/considerations for helping to lower the sugar content of some of these recipes? They all look so good and I’d love to participate in the challenges, but a lot of your recipes seem to rely on the more sugary end of the fruit spectrum
For example, the greener the banana, the lower the sugar content is.
Hi Natasha,
Thank for reaching out to us. Since we are not doctors or nutritionists, we suggest that any member of community with health concerns to speak to their healthcare provider to confirm that green smoothies and the natural sugars are okay for their eating plan. Here is a link to our favorite low sugar fruits.
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/low-sugar-fruits
Hope that helps.
I just made my first Green Smoothie ever and I made it just the way the recipe called for. It was a lot better than I expected.
Hi April,
That’s rawsome! This one is my favorite, so very happy to hear you enjoyed it! Let us know how you like our other recipes!
Cheers!
Hi! What is a good substitute for almond milk? I hate it!! Could I just use regular cow milk or water? Thanks!
Hi Jess,
Check out our suggestions for liquid-bases, feel free to swap any of them in place of almond milk!
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/dairy-free-smoothies
What kinda of water is used, regular tap?
Hi Linda,
Yes, we use just regular tap water for our smoothies. Feel free to swap out water for another liquid base!
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/dairy-free-smoothies
Hello Ladies,
Thank you soooo much for sharing you green smoothie recipes and information. I’m am looking forward to making the Beginners Luck smoothie.
I have been doing smoothies since Feb. 25th, looking to lower my A1C, to lose weight and most importantly to be an example to others that it can be done with Jesus help. 🙂
Hi Dee,
We love sharing our Simple Green Smoothies with you, and we love that you’re sharing your journey with us! Keep us updated on how you’re loving green smoothies, and let us know if you have any questions along the way!
Cheers to health + happiness!
For those who opt for almond milk, which I love, I recommend paying attention to the label. Much of the almond milk has sugar added. I prefer the unsweetened vanilla almond milk for added protein in my drinks. Organic is hard to find, but it’s out there too.
Lisa,
Thanks for the great reminder! It’s so important to look at labels to ensure we’re not adding unknown sugar to our recipes! We like all of the sweetness to come from the delicious fruits we add to our smoothies!
I’ve read that consuming too much raw kale can cause your body to block the absorption of iodine. Is this a myth?
Hi Melissa,
All raw leafy greens carry a small amount of toxins that protect plants from being entirely consumed by other animals—and wiping out the plant species. But before you dump your green smoothie down the drain, you should know that this isn’t anything to worry about as long as you are rotating your greens. Throughout the week, use a variety of leafy greens in your smoothies— like kale, spinach, romaine, herbs and carrot tops.
Here are some of our favorite leafy greens:
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/leafy-greens
My smoothie today consists of spinach, cilantro, freshly squeezed lemon juice, some cilantro/lemon/cucumber water, a banana and some frozen mixed fruits (peaches, raspberries, blueberries) It was delicious. I will not be going food shopping until Friday so I used what I had on hand.
Elecia,
Sounds delicious! Thank you so much for sharing!
Hello! At the moment I don’t even have a blender but will go to the city in a day or two when my funding comes in. The concept of drinking something green is still sounding a bit horrid to me, but in my 6.9 decades of life, I have ingested stranger stuff.
Fortunately, i live in Thailand and have all sorts of greens and fruits available.
Hi Richa,
We are so excited that you’ve found us, and that you are excited about the green smoothie lifestyle! They’re green + delicious!! Please let us know if you have any questions along the way!
I just registered with your web site as i have just started to take green smoothie.
since I am diabetic I am not allowed to take banana or mango or any sweet fruit.
i had nuts and raisins with apple and melon and make the smoothie with few mint leaves.
pl advise
HI Kausi,
Thank for reaching out to us. Since we are not doctors or nutritionists, we suggest that any member of community with health concerns to speak to their healthcare provider to confirm that green smoothies and the natural sugars are okay for their eating plan. Here is a link to our favorite low-sugar fruits.
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/low-sugar-fruits
Hope that helps.
used Coconut -Amond milk .We are hooked
Heck yes! My favorite! I couldn’t decide which one and then BAM there it was 🙂
Hi Erika,
This is one of our favorites as well! Cheers!
Yum!
My husband was skeptical but I added Coconut-Almond Milk, it’s a winner.
Joann,
Adding coconut-almond milk sounds delicious! It took a little convincing, but my husband loves the green smoothie life now too!
FIRST TIME TRYING THIS I WAS SKEPTICAL ON THE COLOR, BUT IT WAS ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD. I ADDED FROZEN PEAS, STRAWBERRIES, BANANA, ORANGE, AND JUICE FROM A LEMON INSTEAD OF THE MANGO AND PINEAPPLE.
Melinda,
We are so happy to have you blendin’ with us, and so happy to hear you enjoyed your first smoothie with us! Please let us know if you have any questions along the way!
I try the smoothie with kale and water orange pineapple, blueberries with flaxseeds it was very good thank you so much
Hi Rebecca,
Sounds delicious! Thank you so much for blendin’ with us! Cheers!
So I mixed some mint and sour apple into this and it tastes really good. Thanks for the recipe Rawkstars 😀
Hi Will,
Yum! Thank you so much for sharing, adding mint and sour apple sounds delicious! 🙂