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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.
how many calories are in the beginner’s luck green smoothie?
Hi Melinda,
We personally don’t count calories, so we don’t include them in our recipes at this time. You’ll find that when you consume more nourishing whole fruits and veggies, you will not only feel full longer, but you’ll also have lessened cravings for high-calorie, nutritionally empty foods. So in the end it balances out. But we know many people would like to have calorie info. Three great resources for tracking calories are Self Nutrition Data, and the phone apps: My Fitness Pal and Lose It.
So happy you guys are out there in proofing healthy eating habits!
Thanks for blendin’ with us, Ann!
We are on day 2 of our green smoothie journey…I made this one on the first day and husband loved it. I was a little iffy on consistency which got better as I drank it and could be due to sub-par blending skills, but I loved the taste and it kept husband full until lunch. I do my best to eat healthy and I do not have weight issues, but I frequently crave Cokes and bad carbs in my mid-afternoon slump. I was super happy and surprised to find myself craving another one of these that afternoon instead of the usual junk. Hooray!
Hi Carol,
Wahoo!! We love hearing you’ve got that green smoothie crave! Looking to blend a creamy smoothie without any leafy chunks? Check out our blending tips here…
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/smoothie-formula
hi, I was wondering if water is the preferred liquid base? I like unsweetened almond or soy milk but does that take away from the nutrients or add too much fat to the smoothie?
Hi there..just found ur pages while waiting d rain to stop. M from malaysia…currently struggling to reduce weight..to eat all d green stuff as m not vege lover.. will try ur recipe this coming weekend..hope it will ‘suit’ my appetite..hehe..
Hi Nor,
Thanks for joining us! How did you find out about our page? We hope you love Beginner’s Luck as much as we do.
Please reach out with any questions!
I stumbled upon green smoothies last week and signed up for your emails. Saturday morning I went shopping for ingredients — my parents had bought me a Black&Decker blender 4 or 5 years ago the last time I wanted to make smoothies. I made the ‘Beginner’s Luck’ smoothie Saturday night to share with a friend, and now here we are today and I find myself craving the same smoothie at lunch time! Sometime soon, I need to learn how to freeze my own mangoes and pineapples.
Hi Brenda,
Wohoo!! We’re so excited to have you blendin’ with us!! Looking to freeze your own fruit? Rawk on! We suggest laying your cut fruit in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Once frozen store your fruit in a ziploc or freezer safe container. Freezing your produce this way will prevent everything from freezing together.
Have you ever thought about freezing your leafy greens? Learn more here…
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/how-to-freeze-spinach
I’ve been thinking about doing green smoothies for a while. I signed up for the next 30 day challenge. The Beginners Luck looks good. Going to go get a blender and get my feet wet before the challenge starts.
Hi Gary,
YAY! We’re so excited to have you blendin’ with us. Reach out with any questions!
Hi just found this have signed up for your chanlege as a very low iron person anemic in fact just finished my 2 iron infusions
Hubby been making spinach smoothies for me the last 2 weeks
Am going to try yours but use pineapple as no mango yet
Thanks
Hi Fransrose,
Thanks so much for reaching out! We’re so happy to have you as part of our community :). Always feel free to tweak our recipes to use what you have on hand! It’s all about making it work for you.
Take care :).
Found your website after a quick green google search. Even with determination for healthy living there was a month of procrastination until I took the plunge today. Only made half the quantity of the beginners luck – so I didn’t waste it if I didn’t like it. Presented the glass of green to husband who dutifully drank and …………. yeah, green smoothies win!!! Thanks for your great website which encouraged me to go for it!
Hi Ruth!
Thank you so much for reaching out + for your kind words! So happy to have you as part of our community, and love hearing that your husband is a fan, too! Thanks so much for blendin’ with us, and can’t wait to hear what you think of all the other recipes :).
Hi… Just found your website and excited to get started. However, I have read you must be careful with combing fruits and veggies together. Is this true? thanks
Hi Kris!
Thanks for reaching out! All the research we’ve done suggests that combining fruits + veggies together is completely fine (like a salad!). However, we always encourage our community members to do what they feel is best for them, personally :).
Cheers!
Kris, Possible you misunderstood? …. What I believe they meant: Be careful of the combinations you put together, as they can taste bitter or not go together well…. Example: Cantaloupe flavor is soooo strong, I cannot combine it with any other fruit or veggie …. Overpowering….. So a mono (one flavor) of this works best….and super healthy!
For the recipes how many servings does it make? I am wanting for two people so do I just double the amounts? Thanks in advance.
Hi Adriane!
Thanks for reaching out! Our recipes make two servings, so they will be perfect if you’re blendin’ for two people!
Cheers :).
I’ve become interested in green smoothies because my doctor tells me I have a fatty liver and need to eat a lot less meat. However, I wonder if the smoothies can be beneficial to me because I’ve had a sleeve gastrectomy for weight loss and my stomach doesn’t hold very much, so I can’t drink much of a smoothie at one time. I’ve gained some weight again a few years since my surgery from eating too much of the wrong types of food. Another concern is that I take a water pill each day, along with potassium and other medications. Will the efficacy of these medications be affected by the green smoothie?
Hi Valerie!
Thanks so much for reaching out. Welcome to our community!
Since we are not health care professionals, we recommend speaking with your doctor to determine if green smoothies are a good choice for you at this time. Everybody is so different, and they will be better equipped to help you decide what is best for you, personally :).
so is this beginner luck -just like 10 day smoothie cleanse? I was just about ready to do???
Hi Karri!
Thanks for reaching out! We personally don’t smoothies as part of a cleanse or restrictive diet :). We usually have one serving of green smoothie a day (2 cups or 16oz), but still consume regular meals. If you’d like, you can use your green smoothie as a meal replacement for up to two meals per day. Just be sure to add some healthy fat + protein! Here are some of our favorite combos :).
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/meal-replacement-smoothie
As an extreme sportman (well at 51 I think that I am), after a 2 hour run, can I trow in 2 spoons of protein powder in my smoothie? BTW, great work you are doing, keep it up. Its making me younger!!
Hi Gary!
Thanks for reaching out! You can absolutely add protein powder to your smoothie :). Some healthy fat wouldn’t hurt either! Here are some of our favorite combos:
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/meal-replacement-smoothie
Nice recipe. I love smoothie.
Hi Mary,
Thanks for blendin’ with us + sharing your love for our Beginner’s Luck Green Smoothie!
Cheers!
Thank you for this, you really made me happy. I made smoothies by myself before but I think with group it’ll be easier because I have a lot of questions to ask.
Thanks once more, lots of love!
Hi Edina,
We’re so excited to have you blendin’ with us! Please reach out with any questions!