Step aside salad. You’re no longer the only way to get dark leafy greens into my diet. I’m sharing a leafy green list of greatness with you as well as how to use greens in a smoothie like the best green smoothie (or salad or soup or anything) as well as why it’s good to rotate your greens and try something like a kale banana smoothie every so often. Ready, set, go green!
Table of Contents
What are Leafy Greens?
Leafy greens are super important for a healthy diet. They’re nutrient-dense, green veggies that provide tons of vitamins and minerals. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, a daily serving of leafy greens can lead to slower age-related cognitive decline.
Greens can be found as the tops of other plants (here’s looking at you, carrot tops and beet greens), or as plants in their own right. They come in all shapes, sizes, textures, shades and seasons. They aren’t even all in the same plant family.
If your taste buds have ever balked at something dark green and leafy, never fear! I’ve got some great new options for you to blend.
The Ultimate Dark Leafy Greens List
I often talk about rotating your greens. This is because greens come from all different plant families, each offering different health benefits. Yet if spinach is your jam, no worries! Your body will tell you when it’s time for a leafy green change-up. Read on to learn about some different types of greens, as well as my favorite options in each family.
Crucifers
Kale
Having a health issue? Kale can help with that. Seriously, kale is at the top of the superfood chain. With 684% of the recommended daily value of vitamin K, 206% of the RDV of vitamin A and 134% of the RDV of vitamin C, this dark leafy green packs a health punch. Kale has the highest level of antioxidants when consumed raw, yet does retain some health benefits when cooked. Try kale in this simple kale smoothie.
Collard
Like their other cruciferous family members, collard greens are great cancer fighters. They are also pretty good at helping your body digest foods properly with all the fiber inside. They are most popular steamed, but adding them raw to your smoothies will provide greater health benefits. Try some alkaline recipes to experiment with collards.
Cabbage
Cabbage is yet another example of a cruciferous cancer-fighting leafy green. This veggie can actually be purple, red, white or green, but is definitely still considered a leafy green. I love using cabbage as a plant-based taco shell, blended in a cabbage smoothie or roasted cabbage with light seasoning. Loaded with fiber, folate, vitamin B6 and antioxidants which help fight inflammation.
Bok Choy
This unique green vegetable is typically grown and harvested in China. Full of vitamins A and C, bok choy ranks high for nutrient density as well. All parts of the plant can be used: shredded in a salad, my vegetarian ramen, cooked in soup or blended in a smoothie.
Arugula
More than just a garnish, this leafy green has a peppery taste and a full nutrient profile. One cup contains 27.7% of the RDV of vitamin K. It has a stronger flavor than other cruciferous greens on my list, yet is fun in lemon arugula salad or strawberry arugula salad, homemade arugula pesto, or as a pizza topping on my incredibly delicious plant-based pizza recipe.
Amaranth
Spinach
It’s hard to beat spinach when talking about nutrient-packed greens. Just one leaf contains a sampling of more than 20 different nutrients. The list of benefits is nearly as long as the number of nutrients:
- cancer-fighting
- blood pressure lowering
- bone strengthening
- cardiovascular helping
- brain boosting
- skin smoothing
- vision improving
- inflammation reducing
- energy increasing
Beet Greens
I recommend branching out and trying beet greens for your next smoothie! They include a wide variety of nutrients, and can easily be substituted in any recipe with spinach, kale or chard. Our friends at Epicurious will kick-start your love for dark leafy beet greens with some of their favorite recipes.
Chard
Looking to put a pep in your leafy green step? Chard is a colorful, dark leaf known for its ability to regulate the body’s blood sugar. Translation? If diabetes or maintaining blood sugar levels is a concern, add this veggie to your regular rotation. Perfect for the afternoon smoothie pick-me-up!
Asteraceae
Romaine Lettuce
Romaine lettuce is good for the heart and low in calories. The vitamin C and beta-carotene content help to lower cholesterol and prevent build-up on artery walls, which reduces the risk of a heart attack.
Not a fan of lettuce salads? Then use romaine as a food wrap like I do in these Thai lettuce wraps or blend it into this gazpacho soup recipe.
Apiaceae
Carrot Tops
Who knew those frilly greens on the tops of carrots could come in handy? #NoFoodWaste. Filled with chlorophyll, which can fight against tumor growth and acts as a cleansing agent, carrot tops are the perfect addition to smoothies like this carrot top smoothie.
If you really want to boost your next smoothie, toss in the carrot and its top.
How Often Should You Rotate Greens?
Most of the smoothie and meal recipes I create use kale or spinach. That’s because these are the most easily found and affordable leafy greens available at the grocery store. Plus, they are in different leafy green families, so it makes rotating my greens easy-peasy.
Alkaloid Build Up
Why is it important to rotate through this leafy green list? All greens have small amounts of toxins. If you only consume greens from one family, your body may start to experience alkaloid build up. This is very rare and easy to avoid. Just try a different leafy green every once in a while.
I recommend rotating your greens once a week. This way, your body doesn’t get too much of a good thing in one leafy green family, and you get the chance to reward your body with new nutrients from a different green family.
Basically, by rotating greens on a regular basis, you avoid building up the toxins from one green. And, this gives you a reason to try that new fun green you’re always eyeing at the farmer’s market.
While our green smoothies are super easy to swap out one green for another, I’ve also got a meal planner full of plant-based recipes. Rawk the Year makes finding new recipes a breeze, and helps you incorporate the whole rainbow into your week. This meal planner also equips you with the kitchen skills to change up your veggies with ease!
Freezing Your Leafy Greens
Ever wonder how to use up all that beautiful produce you just bought, before it starts to wilt? Even though I make green smoothies daily, I still find that my greens never stay fresh as long as I need.
To lengthen the shelf life of those leafy greens and make rotating your greens as easy as opening your freezer, I came up with a way to freeze your greens. This way, you can have your greens and eat them too! Since I typically buy spinach and kale at Costco, I found that freezing them in ice cube trays and then storing them in freezer containers is the perfect solution to maximizing the freshness.
Bonus: Frozen greens can help keep that smoothie cool.
Leafy Greens FAQs
You’ve probably heard of spinach, kale and lettuce, but leafy greens also include carrot tops, beet greens, swiss chard, arugula and more! They can grow all on their own, or be found on the tops of other plants (like broccoli, beets and carrots).
All leafy greens are incredibly nutritious and great to mix into your diet. Kale and spinach are probably the most nutrient-dense, yet you need a variety of greens (and other fruits and vegetables) for the best health. Don’t be afraid to give a new one a try next time you’re at the store. You might be surprised by mustard greens, bok choy and more!
Greens don’t just take place in salads or garnishes for burgers. You can use them in green smoothies, all kinds of pesto, filling for stuffed mushrooms or potatoes. Pretty much anything you want! Next time you are grocery shopping, grab a new-to-you leafy green and get adventurous with how you prepare it.
The Ultimate Green Smoothie App
Our amazing app, Daily Blends Smoothie app., has hundreds of recipes ready for you to work your way through the leafy greens list! You can sort by the ingredients you have on hand or the type of smoothie you want to try. It’s a great app to try a new recipe and catalog your favorites.
What are your favorite leafy greens? Drop a comment below and let me know if this list has inspired you to try a new ingredient, or if you’ve got a new green for me to try!
What’s your take on wheatgrass? I’m going to buy a tray today. Also, what about green vegetables? Like broccoli which is also cruciferous.
Just wondering what’s the best way to freeze greens? Thanks!
Rinse, pat dry, put in an airtight container, freeze 🙂
Hi!
I bought the e-book. It is correct that challenge #1 would be week 1? So it is alright that in that week I only have spinach right? I see on challenge there are more veggies variety.
Final question, can I still go on the 30-day live challenge even if I’m only halfway on the 30-day challenge of the e-book?
thanks.
Hi Arlyna!
Yes, it is ok to have only spinach during the first week of the challenge in the eBook 🙂
Yes, you can do the live challenge in July! Maybe after the July challenge you can pick up where you left off in the eBook challenge 🙂 Sign up for July challenge here:
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/challenge
I recently bought some vegetable protein powder to add to my smoothies. It caused me to be nausea until I ate lunch. It’s definately not fun to be too alkaline. I love making smoothies without any type of protein powder. Just getting my nutritional needs from fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables makes me feel so much better.
Jadah any recepie that contain Romaine instead of spinach or kale. I’m new to this so I’m trying to varie my greens w/my smoothies based on your recepies.
Sol,
You can substitute romaine lettuce into any of your green smoothies! You do not have to keep the exact same greens that are in our recipes 🙂 Use our recipes as inspiration to create something that you love!
I appreciate you guys writing about this! When I would try to look up new recipes for the green smoothies, I would come across articles of how bad green smoothies are for you. That started to freak me out a little since my husband and I have been drinking them for a month. But that’s not going to stop us. We love green smoothies! My husband never eats kale till now thanks to you guys! He fell in love ever since I made one of the recipes shown in this website. Our skin is glowing and we do not crave junk food anymore, very surprising since my husband loves burgers! Thank you! 🙂
Thank you for sharing, Elise 🙂
Hi Jen: I’ve been having a daily green smoothie for 8 months now and I look and feel great! But like 2 months ago I started losing huge amounts of hair (I notice it clearly when I’m showering) and suddenly started freaking out I might have an iron overload, because the base is always spinach and kale. I’ve been also cutting out animal protein, although I still consume it, it’s only once every 2 weeks or so. Everything else in my health seems perfect, but the hair loss is shocking.
Hmm… Most of the time green smoothies give nutrients that are good for hair growth and skin. We would suggest seeing your local doctor about this :-/ Please let us know if everything is ok!
Hair can fall out from a protein deficiency, and/or over cleansing – something that happens to people who are heavily into juicing/raw. Probably better to reintroduce more animal products, especially if your diet is now highly cleansing! Sometimes the hair issue can turn around in a week or two, so give it a shot!
I was wondering with the pineapples do they have to be fresh are can I use the cans of pineapples.
They recommend fresh fruit against canned/jarred.
I blended a mix of greens together (spinach, kale, bok choy, romaine). Will using the mix be considered the same as rotating?
I have wondered the same thing.
I love the 30days challenge! I have joined my boyfriend and my dad, and they both are craving the green smoothis, me as well!
I cant find any other greens at the marked around here, so im starting to use sprouts, any better then others? Thanks 🙂
hi jadah & jen 🙂 jo here from oz again……….do you have any tips on whats fruit & veg you can freeze and not freeze!?? i freeze most of my greens when they are starting to wilt, but i have found celery isn’t the best to freeze 🙁 also with your leafy greens like spinach & silverbeet is it best to freeze them as is or should we slightly sautee them & freeze?!?? when i have too much fruit i usually blend them up & put in ice trays for storage & that way they never go bad 😉 would appreciate any freezing tips you have, do’s & don’ts 😀
much love xo
Hey Jojo: I freeze raw kale, spinach and pretty much any leafy green. I wouldn’t freeze melon, celery stalks, apples or cucumbers — they have so much water that freezing them just weirds them out. Berries freeze great, grapes as well and even peaches, mango and pineapple.
I also recommend wash produce first to avoid pesticides. Once you freeze it you can’t really wash and clean it.
Great questions Jojo!
So I started the the smoothie challenge, which I’m loving! But I noticed that I a started breaking out is that normal?
It is pretty normal for people to experience some changes with their body while starting a challenge like this. When our bodies aren’t used to taking in the nutrients that they are craving on a daily basis it tries to flush out all the bad stuff that has been piling up inside us for a while. Hope this helps!
Jen, the smoothies are delicious and I’m liking the energy from them. I drink them in the morning, however, I find that I’m hungry before lunchtime. Have any recommendations?
Try adding some superfoods that have protein and/or fiber. This will keep you fuller longer. Here is the link to an article on superfoods:
https://simplegreensmoothies.com/superfoods-list
Hope this helps!
When you say to rotate outer greens, is it by family group? Would one use a few greens from one family group for a few days or so then switch to a few greens from another family group? I have been doing spinach, kale, parsley, celery, zucchini, cucumber, apple, pear and at times also add some ginger and a squeeze of lemon. I add a cup of water and a scoop of unflavored protein powder as well. If I have a glass of lemon ginger water in the morn then I leave these out of my smoothie. This wk I haven’t had celery so haven’t been using it and then I usually use the topless kind. I guess I gotta get the ones with tops. I also use a vitamix. Thanks for sharing all that you both do!
You got it— we broke down the leafy green families so you can see the best way to rotate is outside of the same family.
Hi there, a bit of a slow start for me… didn’t realise that the recipes were down further. Had my first smoothie this morning YUM ! I am in New Zealand & some things, like cherries are hard to get hold of as the season has been & gone (can’t get them frozen either) What is a good substitute. Also tricky getting mangoes (nice ones) … just wondering if canned mangoes & pineapple is okay xx
thaaank you soo much, great information 🙂 i pretty much switch between spinach, kale & some cabbage already but i think i will be adding some lettuce & chards to that mix when my newly planted veggie garden is ready to harvest (got some bok choy in there too) pretty excited eek
i have been into the green smoothie movement for about 6 weeks now & it really does change your life, habits & health 😀 thank you for your blogs they are helping me fine tune my smoothies & are a great place of nutritional info & recipes all in the one place 🙂 i love the banana in a blender kisses the bitterness goodbye….and thanks for the tip on celery i have not been able to handle too much of it in my smoothies as it overpowers everything else & was ready to toss it for good, but i will try some strong fruit next time to mask the taste, thank you x
green smoothies have stopped my cravings & stopped me from eating empty carbs & processed foods all day long, i actually crave smoothies & healthier meal choices, i have more energy, great moods, healthy hair, lost 5kgs (with exercise of course) they even helped heal a fungal toenail (ewww i know) but nothing from the chemist worked for months & within weeks of having a smoothie a day it was cleared right up!!!!
thanks again am loving your april challenge 🙂
congrats & keep up all the RAWking work x L♡VE your blog, IG & fb xo