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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
The only equipment you need to make this green smoothie recipe is a blender for smoothies. A juicer or food processor won’t work to get you a creamy 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.
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
Once you try the recipe below, you’re gonna want more green smoothie recipes. It happens every day in my inbox! I love it! Here’s some of the most popular ones on my blog to try next:
- My son is obsessed with this Mango Orange Smoothie recipe.
- This Simple 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.
It says 2 serves for 5 day does that mean it makes 10 drinks and thats all u have each day is to drinks? We are starting this Sunday PLEASE HELP US
Hi John and Wendy! If you buy everything on the shopping list above with the correct quantities, then you can make 2 servings (16oz in each serving) of Beginner’s Luck smoothie on 5 different days. We do not suggest just drinking 16oz of green smoothie a day and not eating anything else. We want you to add a green smoothie each day to your food intake–eat normal the rest of the day. Hope this helps!
Started my 30-day challenge on Monday. I have more energy than I have had in months and months. The smoothies taste great (even though everyone looks at me funny when I am drinking this electric-green smoothie). I am really excited to see where this challenge takes me and my body.
What is the serving size for each smoothie?
16 ounces 🙂
Uh-oh. I’ve been having the whole blender full each day!! Is there a limit?
As much as I was enjoying drinking my green smoothies and they are great! I think I’m going to have to stop drinking them because they cause me a severe stomach ache that lasts about 1-1 1/2 hours after I drink it. I’ve been drinking them for about two weeks now around 16 ozs but no more than that. But it’s almost every single time and it’s not getting any better. I guess my stomach is just too sensitive to it. 🙁 I’ll just have to eat fruits in the morning and then maybe have a spinach salad for lunch.
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 the high fiber can shock your body. Make sure you drink lots of water to help flush things out. I hope this helps 🙁 We don’t want your body to be angry with you!
I’m try the green smoothies for the first time on tomorrow. My only question is I see that all smoothies require water. Can I use bottle water or what.
You can use bottled water, tap water, filtered water, coconut water, etc. 🙂
Well, the Green Smooothie was delicious the next day too! I even got my dad to drink it!! He loves it. I can’t believe you can’t taste the spinach. I think I’ll try strawberries next!! Thanks!
I finally got the chance to drink my first green smoothie. It was good, but I expected a better tasting one. I didn’t have the mango, so I added an orange, an extra banana and some blueberries too (just to make it more purple). Did I use too much fruit? Should I be varying the types of fruit I put into a green smoothie? And how often? Or should I use the same ingredients?
Hi Lori! Not sure if you used too much fruit–it depends on how much you used of each fruit 🙂 Personally, we think that you can use too many types of fruits in a smoothie and the taste will not be as good. We try to stick to combinations that we know are yummy and that we love, but are also good for our health. Varying fruits is a good idea, because you want to give your body access to a variety of nutrients. Different fruits have different nutrients that your body craves. You can check out our recipe page for inspiration:
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/recipes
Hi, I was reading some comments on when you should drink the green smoothies and I know you said you would make one for breakfast or in place of a snack..now if i were to make the smoothie as a snack am I still using the same amount of fruit veggies? I normally drink the smoothies to replace a meal.
Hi Marsha! The best answer we can give is that it is totally up to you how much you make and when you drink it. If you are used to replacing meals with a full smoothie, then maybe you would only want half of a smoothie for a snack. We also encourage eating a small helping of almonds or a hard boiled egg as a snack 🙂
Hello I’m starting this beginners smoothie today and just wanted to know is this all I’m suppose to be drinking through out the day or do I replace it with a meal
Hi Samara So glad you found us! We usually do a one of two things: 1) Drinking a green smoothie for breakfast, or 2) Drinking a green smoothie as a snack. You can feel free to substitute your lunch or dinner with a green smoothie, too
I don’t know why, but everyday I drink my green smoothie my stomach hurts later in the day. But I LOVE my green smoothies and will continue to drink them. They actually do make me feel better! I figure maybe it’s my system getting use to all the nutrients and such that’s causing it. Because I know I have eaten all the ingredients individually and never had a problem. If I could afford to, I would drink them twice a day, that’s how much I love them!
Hi Kimberly! We have heard this from many people, and it usually happens toward the beginning of the green smoothie experience. How many ounces are you drinking? If you are drinking a lot more than 16 OZ at one time then that may be a reason why your stomach hurts. Otherwise, we have found that it is usually the increased nutrients–especially fiber in the green smoothies!
I’ve got a simple Hamilton Beach Blender that we paid twenty something for and it works great!
Just tried my first green smoothie with this recipe and I LOVE IT!
substituted pineapple for strawberry’s and tastes great!
Yes, I could take out either the banana or the pineapple. On Fitness Pal one Beginner’s Green Smoothie shows like 27 grams of sugar while another Generic Green Smoothie says only 19 grams, so it depends on which green smoothie you choose. Not sure which one is correct, so I just chose the latter one instead. It has less sugar, less fat and less calories.
Another thing to keep in mind is that these calories are definitely not empty calories. They are packed with nutrients that do so many good things for your body! Hope this helps 🙂
Had the wind sucked out of my sails. When using Fitness Pal to log my calories & etc., unfortunately, just the smoothie alone makes me go over my sugar intake for the day. Not good. The sugar intake for the day is 27 and the Green Smoothie alone has 42 grams of sugar. And the calories are kinda high for a smoothie 226 how can this be good for you???
Hi Kimberly. Sorry the sugar levels are high for you— but feel free to use the measurements as a starting point and tweak so it can work for your daily need. For example, cut back on the fruits (maybe remove the bananas) and you will easily reduce your grams of sugar.
Also, please note that these smoothies make two servings.
I just have a basic Hamilton Beach blender about $20-$25 and it works just fine. I imagine you could replace any of the fruits or add fruits with whatever fruit you love. I’m just on my second day. I’ve been replacing my lunch with the smoothie. I figure I’ll switch it up between breakfast and lunch.
Sorry for all the questions. Can I use frozen blueberries in the green smoothie?? What do I take out?? Or can I just add to the mixture?
Don’t apologize 🙂 You can definitely add frozen blueberries. Our recipes serve as inspiration for you to go on and blend bigger and better things!
Thanks!! I would rather it look purply-blue than green 😉