It’s my favorite season and I can’t wait to blend this pumpkin smoothie with you. It’s a delightful blend of sweet and warming flavors, just like a pumpkin pie! Season it with my homemade pumpkin pie spice seasoning and sip on joy in a cup.

While the weather might be getting cooler, I’m still sippin’ a daily smoothie. You can change up your ingredients to match the weather, and even blend warm smoothies if you can’t stand drinking something cold when it’s cold outside!

2 glass mugs with pumpkin smoothie topped with pumpkin pie spice next to a mug of pumpkin puree and a jar of spice.

Fall is my favorite time of year, from the weather to the food. This season you’ll find my family filling up on Loaded Sweet Potatoes and Sweet Potato Nachos like they’re going out of style and my smoothie creations will fall in line ingredient-wise as well!

Swing by the market and get some Autumn ingredients to blend along with me.

Table of Contents
  1. Recipe Ingredients
  2. Buying Pumpkin Puree
  3. Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend
  4. How to Blend the Perfect Pumpkin Smoothie
  5. FAQs
  6. More Recipes with Pumpkin
  7. Pumpkin Smoothie Recipe

Recipe Ingredients

labeled ingredients for a pumpkin smoothie recipe including spinach, vanilla extract, pumpkin pie spice, pumpkin puree, almond milk, banana and mango.

This is such a fun recipe and shows how easily you can turn even pumpkin into a tasty green shake in minutes. Here’s what I’m blending in my pumpkin pie smoothie:

  • Spinach: I know this doesn’t sound very dessert-like, yet I bet you don’t even taste it!
  • Unsweetened almond milk: There are a lot of creamy ingredients in this smoothie so I picked slightly less creamy milk. Feel free to swap it with the dairy-free milk of your choice since a nut-free option like hemp milk works great, too!
  • Pumpkin puree: Use store-bought or homemade, either works great! Just make sure the can is pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie mix. They aren’t the same.
  • Banana: This is where the sweetness comes in since pumpkin isn’t naturally sweet.
  • Mango: I like to add this as another creamy ingredient. It might take the sweetness too far for you so if that’s the case then swap it out for frozen cauliflower or avocado.
  • Pumpkin pie spice: I make my own jar and keep it in the spice drawer so I can easily shake some into my Healthy Coffee or some Vegan Pumpkin Pancakes. If you live in the United States then you can find this blend in the spice section of the grocery store. If you live abroad then check out my simple recipe below.
  • Vanilla extract: Just a touch of vanilla is the icing on the cake… or smoothie in this case.

If you’ve never made your own almond milk then you need to try that for this recipe. It doesn’t take much time, uses the same blender as your smoothie and is 100% worth it.

Buying Pumpkin Puree

tin bowl full of pumpkin puree.

If you’ve been around Simple Green Smoothies for a while then you know what I’m going to say about store-bought puree. Check the ingredients! Did you know that many cans of “pumpkin puree” can contain squash or even sweet potatoes as a filler?

Look for a brand that only has one ingredient, pumpkin. Also, make sure you aren’t accidentally buying pumpkin pie filling. The cans look similar and are often on the same shelf in the grocery store.

While that would be tasty, it contains spices and sugar. All we want is pumpkin for this recipe.

Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend

This pumpkin pie smoothie calls for one teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice per serving. I found out several years ago that this is an American thing and that people blending this recipe around the world couldn’t find pumpkin pie spice!

I played around with the spices in my cabinet until I came up with a winning combo to give you that classic pie flavor:

  • 1/4 cup ground cinnamon
  • 3 tablespoons ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)

Just add all these spices to a small jar, add a tight-fitting lid then give it a good shake to mix. Now you’ve got a fun blend that can come in handy this season!

How to Blend the Perfect Pumpkin Smoothie

glass mug of pumpkin pie smoothie on a wooden tray next to a jar of spice and a tin cup of pumpkin puree.

While the ingredients might be a slight departure from the more tropical green smoothies I often share, the blending process is the same.

  1. Blend spinach and almond milk until no leafy chunks remain. Depending on your blender this could take a bit, so be patient!
  2. Add the remaining ingredients and blend again until smooth. Stop and scrape down the insides of the blender as needed to ensure the creamiest texture.

Pro Tip: Use at least one frozen ingredient to get a refreshingly cool smoothie. I like to use frozen banana and frozen mango for smoothie recipes because they are easy to freeze and use in a wide variety of smoothies.

This is a great way to use the leftover pumpkin puree from your latest baked goods, so don’t throw it away! Instead, turn it into a fabulous smoothie snack.

FAQs

Can you make a pumpkin smoothie?

You can definitely, easily make a pumpkin smoothie! Grab that leftover pumpkin puree and your blender and let’s go. I’m using spinach, banana, mango, pumpkin pie spice and almond milk with a touch of vanilla extract for the perfect pumpkin smoothie recipe.

Are pumpkin seeds good in smoothies?

You can blend pumpkin seeds into smoothies, they just might not grind up as smoothly as something like hemp hearts or chia seeds. Try instead to use a vanilla protein powder with pumpkin seeds as the main protein if that’s what you’re looking for.

What fruits should not be mixed together in a smoothie?

Honestly, I’m not sure there is a fruit I wouldn’t blend in a smoothie. While you might not like every flavor combination out there, you really can blend up pretty much any fruit you want to. I try to avoid dairy milks when doing smoothies as dairy makes me bloated yet I don’t have to worry about that with whole fruit.

2 glass jars of green smoothie topped with pumpkin pie spice.

More Recipes with Pumpkin

If you used some new canned pumpkin puree for this recipe then you need to find ways to use up the rest of it. Here are a few of my favorite pumpkin recipes that you can make after falling in love with this healthy pumpkin pie smoothie:

Does this sound like a smoothie you want to try? If you do, drop a rating + review and let me know your thoughts!

4.80 from 29 votes

Pumpkin Smoothie

This Pumpkin Smoothie is packed with fiber (great for digestion and feeling fuller longer), vitamin A (great for your eyes), and iron (great for healthy blood). Autumn has never tasted and felt so good!
Print Pin Rate
Prep: 5 minutes
Total: 5 minutes
Author: Jen Hansard
Course: Smoothie
Cuisine: Plant-Based
Serves: 1

Equipment

Ingredients  

  • 1 cup spinach
  • 1 cup almond milk unsweetened
  • ½ cup pumpkin puree unsweetened
  • ½ banana frozen
  • ½ cup mango frozen
  • 1 tsp pumpkin spice
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 serving homemade protein powder optional

Instructions 

  • Blend spinach and almond milk until smooth.
  • Add remaining ingredients and blend again until smooth.

Notes

  • Feel free to use fresh pumpkin puree instead of canned.
  • Swap the spinach with the leafy greens of your choice. 
  • To lower the natural fruit sugar, swap the mango with 1/4 an avocado or 1/2 cup cauliflower.
  • If you can’t find pumpkin pie spice, use my homemade blend: 1/4 cup ground cinnamon, 3 tablespoons ground ginger, 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon each ground cloves, ground allspice and ground cardamom. You can keep this in a jar with your other spices and use in smoothies, cookies, pancakes, and more!
  • Add in plant-based protein powder to turn this smoothie into a meal replacement.
  • Swap almond milk with the unsweetened, dairy-free milk of your choice.

Nutrition

Calories: 172kcal, Carbohydrates: 33g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 4g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 2g, Sodium: 352mg, Potassium: 731mg, Fiber: 5g, Sugar: 21g, Vitamin A: 8686IU, Vitamin C: 49mg, Calcium: 368mg, Iron: 2mg
Tried this recipe? Show me!Mention @SimpleGreenSmoothies or tag #SimpleGreenSmoothies!

Posted October 6, 2023

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Comments

  1. Almond milk is not allowed for me since I have a severe allergic reaction to almonds and other types of nuts. Would this smoothie still work with water instead of the almond milk? Any other suggestions that I could substitute for the almond milk? Thanks!

    Reply

  2. I’m surprised the recipes don’t show more chia and flax as well as other seeds and nuts, like sunflower, pumpkin, almonds, cashew etc.

    Reply

  3. I have to say I was a little dubious. I have only recently begun to appreciate the flavor of pumpkin (in pumpkin spiced lattes and in pumpkin cake rolls!) I have never liked pumpkin pie. BUT, I had leftover canned pumpkin from a pumpkin roll I made and decided this would be a good way to use it. I used 2 mangoes (a little more than a cup, perhaps, but I didn’t measure it after I cut it up) 1 cup coconut milk, 1 cup water, 1.5 banana (1 frozen, 1/2 room temp) and the recommended spice, vanilla and spinach. As someone else pointed out, the color was that of split pea soup, but I didn’t let that stop me from trying it. I told myself I couldn’t waste it even if I didn’t like it, mostly because I don’t like to throw food away, but also because I know it has amazing nutritional value. All that to say, I loved it! Unlike the comments from another post, I found this smoothie to be very filling, and full of flavor. I had to come out of my smoothie box to try it (I usually always go back to beginners luck-type smoothies), but am so glad I did! Thanks.

    Reply

    1. Hey Carol.

      Thanks for the post. So happy to hear you stepped out of your comfort zone to try this one. We love Beginner’s Luck so much too and it can be hard to switch it up sometimes, even for us! 🙂 Keep blendin’ those leafy greens, Carol. 🙂

      Reply

  4. This was not my favorite out of all the recipes. I don’t like mangos either so I used frozen peaches and just a few pineapples. I couldn’t taste the pumpkin so I added a little extra pumpkin spice. Love everything you all do though!

    Reply

  6. I tried this today because I LOVE pumpkin but I have to say it was my least favorite. I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t have pumpkin spice so I used cinnamon & nutmeg or what…but I couldn’t drink it. Plus my blender overheated and it made the drink warm so that didn’t help. I think my smoothie blender is done in. But I have a back-up Ninja. So I dumped out the pumpkin because I couldn’t drink it and decided to
    create something new (or maybe it’s a recipe here but I haven’t seen it). I’ll call it a Choco Coco Nutty I guess and here’s how I made it – it makes ONE serving:

    1 cup fresh spinach
    3/4 cup unsweetened chocolate almond milk
    1/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond coconut milk
    1 frozen banana
    1/2 cup fresh or frozen pitted cherries.
    Add a serving of chocolate or vanilla protein powder if you want, or 1/2 cup soaked raw almonds.

    Blend the milk and spinach first, of course.
    Add frozen banana and blend well
    Add the rest of the ingredients and blend til smooth.

    I added protein powder this time because I forgot to soak almonds. Substitute the cherries for strawberries or whatever fruit you’d like with chocolate. Oh and I added 1 tsp of chia seeds as I always do. You can add cacao powder, too if you want it even more chocolatey.

    I love it. Hope you do, too.

    Reply

    1. P.S. the vanilla almond coconut milk mentioned above is ALMOND milk, not coconut milk, I typed that backwards, just thought I should clarify that. I use Almond Breeze – they have an unsweetened vanilla coconut almond flavor, it’s yummy.

      Reply

    2. Hey Green Smoothie Fan!

      Thanks so much for sharing your recipe and your input on the recipe! Glad you found a recipe that you enjoy! Keep blending those leafy greens!

      Reply

  7. I accidentally emailed you yesterday with a blank email-my bad 😉

    Please can you clarify for me the issue with dairy milk?are coconut and almond milk different? How?

    Reply

    1. Hey Robyn!

      Great question! We’ve talked with a lot of nutritionists and milk isn’t all that it’s been hyped up to be. Dairy is one of the highest diet allergies (and often goes undiagnosed), yet can cause inflammation and infections. And if you aren’t buying organic milk, you’re also getting doses of antibiotics, hormones, etc that can tip your own body out of whack. So we just avoid milk for our family (and opt for almond milk). We get our calcium from plant-based sources mainly— broccoli, spinach and kale.

      It’s definitely a personal choice, and you just have to decide what works best for you and your family.

      Coconut milk is squeezed from the meat of the coconut which produces a sweet and tasty liquid. Though it is high in protein, fiber, and other micronutrients, it is also high in calories and fat. For this reason we recommend using coconut milk as a liquid-base only for special indulgences–maybe for date night desserts. This milk does help to protect your heart, but it will cost you in other areas if used on a regular basis.

      Almond milk is a lactose-free, warm flavored liquid that will provide you with vitamin E, protein, and fiber. Since it is lactose free it is easily digestible, and its even low in fat and cholesterol free. If possible, find an unsweetened kind of almond milk to stay away from the high amounts of sugar. Its a great base for those fall months!

      Reply

  9. Hi, first of all, LOVE LOVE LOVE you all. Thanks so much for all that you do! I just wanted to let you know that this recipe populated under banana-free recipes, although it includes banana. Anyway, I saw the comment about doubling the mango, so that’s great to know. Just wanted to let you know, thanks again for everything!

    Reply

    1. Hey Beka.

      Thanks for joining us and for you excitement for green smoothies. If you’re allergic to bananas (or just can’t stand the taste), some great banana substitutes are:

      Mango
      Papaya
      Pear
      Chia seeds
      Fresh dates
      Nut Butters
      Unsweetened applesauce
      Avocado (won’t add the sweetness, but will definitely add the thick and creamy texture)

      Reply

    1. Hey Jiyu.

      Thanks for the comment. We suggest using, unsweetened (canned or fresh). If you would like to cook it, here is a great link:

      Reply

      1. Thank you!! Since I live in Korea I couldnt find any puree or canned. Fresh didnt appeal to me neither. Thanks again for such a great link! X

      2. Thanks for being an active part of our community. 🙂

      1. Here is a great link for DIY pumpkin spice. 🙂

  13. Hey Janet.

    Thanks for the comment. Yes. Next time try 1/2 or 3/4 cup instead of the 1 cup. Was your pumpkin in the can sweetened? Sometimes that can cause it to be overpowering too. 🙂

    Reply

    1. Hey Rachel.

      Try doubling the mango or adding an avocado in place of the banana. 🙂 Hope that helps.

      Reply

  15. LOVE THIS! I didn’t have banana handy so I used a cup of red apples instead. It was AMAZING!

    Reply

  16. I’d like to use sweet potatoes instead of pumpkin, and because I’m allergic to mango use peaches, kale instead of spinach (affects my gout).

    This is going to be my Thanksgiving dessert!

    Reply