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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.
This is seriously one of the easiest and tastiest smoothie recipes there is! Enough sweetness to satisfy your sweet tooth but still refreshing enough to feel like and KNOW you are treating your body well! This is even one of my go-to smoothies when I feel like I need a mini one-meal cleanse. In fact, I just made one a few days ago – delicious!
Always love this recipe!!! We’ve made it for the kids the last 7 year and they still ask for it!
Absolutely love the recipes and easy to make!
Hey Fiona,
I have to agree this one is delicious and so simple! It’s a win win!!!
Can I make my smoothie and then have it a few hours later or does it have to be drank right away. I want to make it, go to the gym, go to work and have it for breakfast.
Hey Cheryl,
You can totally drink it later. What we like to do is seal it in a glass air-tight container and stick it in your fridge. You can keep it in your fridge for up to 3 days.
Enjoy!! 🙂
I would like to try smoothies for awhile for cancer provention. On meds that allow me to eat ..but can cause cancer infortunatley. Although i have been on the meds for 10mths i am still too scared to try citrus fruits. Are there any fruits that offer the same punch as citrus fruits that i can use in a smoothy.
Hey Sarah,
Have you checked out our recipe specifically for cancer prevention? You can check that out here: https://simplegreensmoothies.com/pineapple-ginger-smoothie
If you have any questions just let us know!
Absolutely love this smoothie. I tried several of your smoothie recipes the last few days and love every single one of them. Thank you very much for sharing 🙂
Yay Philipp!!!
So happy to hear that you love our recipes so much 🙂
I just wanted to say I am a 49 year old woman who suffers from chronic pain and am on meds. I suffer from certain side effects as constipation and low energy. I decided to try your green shake and am so pleased. I now don’t have to take anymore additional otc medicine to help with side effects. I take your green smoothie but I put kale and spinach (both because where I live is small town & doesn’t carry just plain kale), pineapple, banana. I don’t like mangos so sometimes I substitute other frozen fruits or add extra pineapple. I can’t explain enough how your smoothie has changed my life. I know, silly for saying a drink will do this but it did. I have more energy and have found myself losing weight, which I could do to lose 45 lbs. God bless you, your family and business. I hope others will see this and believe your green shake does work. And, No, to the disbelievers, I do not work for them or got paid for my comment.
Hello, could I substitute frozen spinach for raw? Seasonally tough to get hands on raw. If so, any quantity suggestions? First time mom newly post-partum and needing some immune system and health boosts! Thanks!
Hey Ames,
Absolutely! Frozen spinach will also make your smoothie cooler which is an added bonus.
Cheers!
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.