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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.
This was delicious! The banana makes it a little sweeter which I love and the flavors worked together perfectly. If I wanted to, could I do 2 cups spinach instead next time?
For sure! You can also use less fruit if you want. This is just our baseline to get people started, yet you can tweak the heck out of this recipe!
Tastes great…went with ll frozen fruits and used half a banana. Really refreshing and filling. Great start to 10 day challenge.
Use fresh fruit not frozen with coconut water…
Can i just use frozen mangoes without adding the other fruits? And soymilk instead of water? Thanks!
Of course! That sounds really good 🙂
Since I’m on the keto diet, 34 grams of sugar is totally unacceptable for me.
Donna— you can double up on the spinach and cut down on the fruit here. I hope you try it so you can give your body tons of vitamins and minerals that it needs to thrive. Also, eating a plant-based diet can immensely help with long term weight loss, energy and longevity— and allow you to enjoy a fruit smoothie. Check out my plant-based meal planner if you’re at all interested: https://simplegreensmoothies.com/meal-planner
Thank you for suggestion replacing. Banana with avacado. I don’t like bananas so wasn’t able to make many smoothies they all have the ingredient. Will try it.
Avocado to the rescue! Hope you enjoy it— and you can also swap with frozen peaches. They seem to help make the smoothie creamy and not alter the taste too much. 🙂
So good! You can’t taste the spinach at all.
I know!!! Isn’t that awesome?! I love drinking my greens. 🙂
Can I use frozen spinach instead?
Hey Erin! You can def use frozen spinach, just check the label to make sure it contains just spinach and no salt, preservatives, or other yucky additives. 🙂
Delicious! (Did it with 1/2 avocado instead of the banana) So good that my 13-year old son made one for himself and now my picky eater has had all kinds of good greenage today!
That’s awesome, Holly! 🙂
Is it healthy to use OJ instead of water to add some Vitamin D and up the Vitamin C?
Could you please let us know how much vitamin A is supplied? Thanks.
Gail, the amount of vitamin A in one serving of this smoothie is 191% DV based on a 2,000 calorie diet. If you need the exact amount of mg, I believe there are websites and apps that will help you find that information. 🙂
I need to get more greens in my diet. I grabbed the spinach and threw it in the smoothie and added the fruit & water. This is delicious and I would definitely make it again!
Woo hoo, Ashley!! If you liked this smoothie, you should def give our free 7-day green smoothie challenge a go. 😀
I just used the Vitamix blender link you have posted above. There is no Vitamix blender on that page for under 300.00. Yours is listed for 500.00.
Hi Susan! Our apologies, that’s an old deal that is no longer valid. But stay tuned because we love partnering with Vitamix and often do promotions with them! If you are looking to order a blender sooner rather than later, I suggest checking out their page of Certified Reconditioned blenders. They are still amazing Vitamix machines but at a reduced price. Here’s the link: https://www.vitamix.com/us/en_us/shop/certified-reconditioned-series. 🙂
Is this enough for breakfast? What are your thoughts on having fat/protein in a smoothie? I have tried using protein powders but they upset my stomach.
Hey Adrianne. If you want to turn a green smoothie into a meal, make sure to add a healthy fat + a plant-based protein. We have a great article on it here: https://simplegreensmoothies.com/meal-replacement-smoothie
Also, if you’re looking for a protein boost for your smoothie, we have *just* the thing for you. We recently rolled out our SGS homemade protein powder and it’s been a huge hit. It’s made from three simple ingredients, has no added sugars, and doesn’t have that chalky texture/taste. I’m betting it won’t upset your stomach. You can learn more about it here: https://simplegreensmoothies.com/homemade-protein-powder
Starting out with smoothies I used to drink this one all.the.time! It is seriously so good and so refreshing!
It totally is! 😀
I have read most fruit & veggies don’t mix with the exception of appls & pears. What’s your opinion about that? Thanks.
Hey Deborah. I believe you’re referring to the food combining philosophy. To be perfectly clear, there is absolutely no scientific basis for adopting rules about food combining. In fact, the food combining hypothesis was thoroughly debunked almost 80 years ago, there is absolutely zero scientific evidence to support it, and no credible scientists or doctors support food combining today.
Supporters of the food combining approach to eating believe that fruit should only be eaten on its own and on an empty stomach. Furthermore, they promote eating food groups separately to help optimize digestion rather than confuse your digestive system. But your digestive system isn’t easily confused. In fact, it’s efficient and powerful, and it isn’t necessary to eat fruits on their own or to avoid eating fruits and vegetables together.
When you eat, your digestive system sends out all types of enzymes at once into your stomach and small intestine. It doesn’t send out specific enzymes that digest only fruits or just vegetables. All of the enzymes and stomach acid do a good job of working together to break down whatever food is eaten.
The bottom line is: Your digestive system can handle different types of foods at once. The most important thing is to make sure you’re eating enough fruits and vegetables to get all the nutrients you need.