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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.
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 😉
Thanks a million for the suggestion. How powerful does the blender have to be?!?! I’m afraid I’ll have to purchase a heavy duty one to reap the benefits.
You definitely don’t need to purchase heavy duty! Some of the more affordable blenders we like are:
Ninja Professional
KitchenAid Artisan Blender
NutriBullet or Magic Bullet
Oster 12-Speed
Great! I have the Oster!
My Oster 14-speed works really well. I also have a Hamilton Beach juicer that I use to juice veggies that I like to add in to my smoothies such as cucumber, carrots or fruits like apples and pears. Yum!