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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
- 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. A juicer or food processor won’t work to get you a creamy smoothie.
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
Here’s some of the most popular green smoothie recipes on my blog to try next:
- My son is obsessed with this Mango Orange Smoothie recipe.
- This Tropical 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, Do you know of the effects of these smoothies on someone with IBS/Crohn’s? Thanks
He Cece,
I would suggest asking your doctor about the affects this may have on the body when you have IBS or Crohn’s disease. Make sure to keep in mind that these smoothies have a lot of fiber in them and do help move things along in the digestive area.
Hi everyone, whatMs a good substitute to banana?
Hey Lerato,
A great substitute for banana is avocado!
It makes your smoothie super creamy too.
This is probably a dumb question….but what else goes well in substitution for mangoes? I can’t stand them! Thanks!
Hey Amy,
You could substitute mango for pineapple or papaya if you like those instead 🙂
Cheers!
The 3rd world problems BZWIfe wrote about have to do with clean water to grow those greens. It isn’t safe to eat uncooked and unpeeled vegetables in a lot of countries.
Thank you for sharing that Cat!
That is so great that BZWife has an article to help with using raw uncooked veggies. We definitely want everyone to have clean veggies and avoid bad bacteria at all cost. I will have to check her article out!
Best and simple green smoothie my family keep asking for!
Hey Sandy,
Thank you so much for your feedback!
I am so happy to hear that you along with your family love this smoothie as much as we do.
Cheers!
I live in Honduras so I have some 3rd world problems when it comes to green smoothies. I’m happy that we are starting to have more spinach and kale greens here, but the green smoothies have made me sick a number of times now and I’ve had to mega dose probiotics to get the bacteria back in balance. I assume green smoothies made with cooked greens are better than no green smoothies, but I wonder how the nutrition compares?
Hi BZWIFE,
I am so sorry that you have experienced stomach issues after drinking green smoothies. This can be a common symptom if your body is not used to drinking or eating lots of fiber. Green smoothies are high in fiber which is great for digestion, but for newbies, the high fiber can shock your body. Make sure you drink lots of water to help flush things out. And if you’re new to green smoothies one serving a day is enough, which is 2 cups (16 ounces).
We have never done a smoothie with cooked greens before and a lot of the nutrients would be lost after cooking compared to eating it raw. However, if that is something that works for you then I would say go for it! 🙂
The first few times it happened I wrote it off as too much fiber (even though I eat a lot of veggies – like a Whole30 diet) and I thought I was using too much greens, but then recently it didn’t get better and went on for days with monsters in my belly. I had to take a probiotic every four hours for a few days to keep the monsters at bay. Today I cooked my kale and spinach in 160 degree water for 1 minute hoping that will kill any bad bacteria, but still retain as much nutrients as possible. The greens are still bright green. I’ll give raw another try when I go visit family in the states over the holidays, but for now will give the quick cook method a try and hope the belly monsters stay away. I won’t give up yet! Thanks! 🙂
That sounds so terrible I am so sorry you went through that! I really hope the cooked greens help and you can still enjoy a delicious green smoothie with all the terrible cramps… 🙁
I followed your recipe for the beginning simple green smoothie and found it delicious! My concern is with me being a diabetic, would the sugar hin the mango, pineapple & banana be considered
excessive & therefore unhealthy for me?
Hi Bob,
YAY! Love that you loved our recipe. When it comes to diabetes, it can be tough to give an answer. Everyone’s body and diagnosis is so different, so it’s hard to give advice. And that’s why I usually suggest reaching out to your personal physician to ensure our recipes are the right choice for you and your body.
If you’re concerned about the amount of natural sugar in our recipes, you can take a peek at our “low sugar, leafy greens” blog post here…
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/low-sugar-fruits
Also, you can always swap out banana for avocado! They’re lower in sugar + make your green smoothie sugar creamy!
I followed your recipe for the beginning simple green smoothie and found it delicious! My concern is with me being a diabetic, would the sugar in the mango, pineapple & banana be considered excessive & therefore unhealthy for me?
The sugar from the fruits won’t be a bother to you if you are keeping your fats low.
I apologize if already asked, but how long can you leave the green smoothie in the fridge for?
Hi Dana,
You can store your green smoothie in the fridge for up to two days! Just know that our recipes are free of any yucky additives or stabilizers, so separation is completely natural. Simply give your smoothie a quick shake and you’re ready to go!
Hey Jen, This is the cool recipe for a new beginner like my me, your recipe’s looks very delicious, my sister suggests me to follow your blog & youtube, Thanks for sharing your Recipe about green Smoothie.
Hi Amanda,
YAY! I’m so happy you’re here. And your sister sounds pretty cool to me! 🙂
Excellent! Absolutely delicious
You have a nice video presence. I’m new to plant based and this smoothie looks delicious! Hadn’t found one I think my son would like before and I think this one is it! Would love to win a Vitamix!!!
Hi Jen, I loved your video of you making the Beginners Luck Green Smoothie! Spinach smoothies are my favorite and I love your cookbook. I use it several times a week. I am a shift worker and smoothies are a quick way to have a healthy breakfast!
Hey Bonnie,
Yay! We are so happy that you love this recipe and enjoyed our video as well.
Cheers!
Hi Simple Green Smoothies, I signed up for the 7-day challenge. I cannot wait to start a healthy life choice!
Love those green mustaches! This is an amazingly refreshing tropical smoothie. Certainly helps to use a high-powered blender to get a creamy texture. The Vita Mix is a rawkstar to be sure and you, Jen, are the queen of Rawkstars! Keep on coming at us with more juicy blends!!
This is one of my favorite recipes! Love it & also your YouTube video