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I’m trading in the processed sugar and dairy in the traditional Orange Julius for a smoothie version sweetened with fruit. It’s honestly still a super sweet treat, yet my healthy Orange Julius smoothie fuels my body the right way.
Raise your hand if you remember walking by the shopping mall food court and seeing people lined up at Orange Julius? And who remembers recreating the creamy orange smoothie in 7th grade Home Ec?
Table of Contents
How to Make a Healthy Orange Julius
I can’t wait for you to try this sweet treat! It definitely hits the spot for my sweet tooth and has no weird ingredients.
- Blend spinach, oranges and almond milk until smooth (I’m talking no leafy chunks floating around).
- Add the banana and blend again until smooth. It helps to use frozen banana to get a chilled smoothie. Here’s how you can freeze bananas easily.
- Add in 1/2 tsp of vanilla to make this taste even more like a traditional Orange Julius.
My healthy smoothie version is loaded with goodness and doesn’t mess around with the sweet factor either. No fake sweeteners are needed! Just make sure you use a ripe banana.
We all know oranges = vitamin C (80% of the recommended daily intake), but did you know that oranges are also full of fiber? Your digestive system will thank you for eating more oranges.
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Tips for a Great Smoothie
If the sugar is a little much for you (even though it’s 100% natural!), swap half of the banana for a quarter of an avocado. You’ll still get the dream cream texture, but not as much sugar in this healthy Orange Julius smoothie.
- You can choose from these almond milk brands, make almond milk, or swap with any non-dairy milk of your choice. You can also choose from these coconut milk brands, or oat milk brands. There are so many great options. Whichever milk you use, make sure it is unsweetened.
- When blending this orange smoothie, blend it twice to help your blender chop up the spinach as much as possible. If you don’t have a high-speed blender getting one of these blenders for smoothies is a game changer.
- Adding ice cubes to the glass when you pour out the smoothie will cool down the beverage if using all fresh ingredients. You can also pre-prep your smoothies in my frozen meal prep smoothie packs to save time.
- For more awesome tips, check out my guide on how to make a smoothie.
When is the perfect time to drink a smoothie?
- For breakfast or even on the go with a Mason jar, cute lid and straw.
- As a nutrition-packed snack that helps you step away from the vending machine!
- Before or after a workout to add that protein after and MCT oil before to fuel your body during your workout.
Anytime you need a refreshing, fruity drink loaded with fiber, vitamins and minerals, consider blending up a smoothie. It’s the healthiest fast food out there and can provide energy, fuel and promote health. Some smoothies like the Orange Julius smoothie recipe contain more natural sugar. Boost these smoothies with a plant-based protein powder to help your body process the sugar.
More Orange Smoothie Recipes
If you love green smoothies like I do, here are some more recipes with juicy, sweet orange flavor you’ll want on repeat:
If you make this orange julius smooothie, I’d love to hear how it turned out in the comment box below. Your feedback helps me and all the readers in this community. And if you’re interested in more plant-based recipes (and exclusive content), sign up for my weekly recipe newsletter.
Orange Julius Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 cup spinach
- ¼ cup almond milk
- 2 oranges
- ½ banana frozen
Instructions
- Place spinach, oranges and almond milk in blender. Puree until smooth.
- Add banana and blend again.
Helpful Tools
Notes
- Use at least one frozen fruit to make the smoothie cold or serve over ice.
- Another non-dairy milk can be substituted for the almond milk, such as hemp, cashew or coconut milk.
- Swap 1/2 banana with 1/4 an avocado to lower the natural sugar. Here’s how to cut avocado if you don’t know how.
- Add 1/2 tsp vanilla to make this even more reminiscent of the original Orange Julius.
- Swap spinach for any leafy green vegetables of your choice.
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review for a chance to win signed copies of my cookbooks!Common Questions
The original Orange Julius consists of orange juice concentrate, milk, vanilla, sugar and ice. While it is sweeter than my version, I bet mine still tastes deliciously orange-y! My smoothie contains spinach, oranges, almond milk and banana.
It depends! Spinach is typically mild, and the orange and banana in this Orange Julius smoothie are definitely the dominant flavors. You might still get a slightly earthy taste if you’ve got a sensitive palate.
They can be! Make sure yours are loaded with only whole food ingredients (no added sweeteners). Use unsweetened, plant-based milk or water for the base. Boost your smoothies with protein and healthy fats to help your body break down the natural sugars.
The Orange Julius was good but not my favorite BUT I believe it was because we cannot get juicy ripe oranges this time of year. Will make again.
Wow, this citrus smoothie is delicious, this will definitely go into my breakfast rotation!
Another delicious and refreshing smoothie. Thank you.
I need to try this again with the frozen banana, mine was only refrigerated and it just wasn’t cold enough. Flavor was good though.
I really liked this one! I’ve never had an Orange Julius, so I don’t know how it compares, but this is yummy! A little creamy but still light for summer. I’ll be making this regularly. Thanks!!
I thought this was a good mix of spinach & banana as I only used half a banana and 2 oranges as the recipe I had called for. Had a great orange flavor with just a hint of banana. Again, I have oat milk open, so I used that instead of almond milk. I also drizzled some hemp hearts on top. I think I many try adding some vanilla next time.
Not too impressed with this one.
Good taste; I only used one orange, but would have been perfect with two.
Refreshing. Only had one large orange left so that is what I used.
I added hemp, chia, flax. It turned out khaki colored. The taste was okay but not my favorite. Next time, I might use less spinach, more orange (I used 1 & 1/2), and coconut milk or coconut water instead of almond milk. I also look forward to trying some of the other substitutions and added-ins suggested. This recipe has lots of potential to be made more like Orange Julius or something even better.
I have always loved my Blueberry, banana and spinach smoothies since my brother-in-law introduced smoothies to us when he owned a GMC store. And I do remember the Orange Julius stores, but I never tried one.
This one I made today was fantastic!!! I could taste the banana a little bit, but the orange flavor was the highlight! This one is definitely on my regular lunch or dessert regimen. It’s so very good. Thank you to you all at Simple Green Smoothies for reaching out to me and so many others to teach us more about smoothies than we have thought about before! I can only speak for myself really, but I’m sure most of us feel the same way. I have always wanted to try other recipes but for some reason, the combinations I used didn’t turn out nearly as good as these. I don’t know what I did but, some of my concoctions were so bad, even the disposal spit it back out
at me—Seriously!! That was sometime ago so I don’t remember that combination. Besides, I only tried to remember the good ones!
Anyway, this one is really good!! It goes into my index!!! Again, thank you!
Oh, I forgot to add the vanilla, but mine didn’t need it.
We did not like today’s smoothie. It was to thick and the taste was a bit bland. I will attempt to finish the smoothie because of the vitamins from the fruit and spinach. It was not tasty to us.
We did not like today’s smoothie. It was to thick and the taste was a bit bland. I will attend to finish the smoothie because of the vitamins from the fruit and spinach. It was not tasty to us.
LOVE Orange Julius – and now I can make it on my own! (Even with the green spinach addition 🙂
I grew up drinking Orange Julius and this smoothie recipe nailed it! If you haven’t tried it – you need to!
Yummy
Tasty smoothie! Never had an orange julius before. This was a great combination of flavors. I added vanilla protein powder to make it more a meal.
Simply delicious! I added the vanilla and was pleasantly surprised at much it tasted like an Orange Julius. This one is a keeper for sure. Added some extra ice cubes though to make it colder as the half frozen banana didn’t quite do the trick.
This was delicious. I followed the idea of substituting mango for one orange. I did add some vanilla extract. I would make it again with these changes.
It was OK…I could tell where it was going but my oranges must not have been very flavorful because I really couldn’t taste the orange! I used avocado instead of banana which was nice…good texture and no banana flavor. Just needed more orange. The vanilla was a nice add.