Best Green Smoothie Recipe (Beginner-Friendly)
Servings: 1
This beginner-friendly green smoothie tastes like a silky, tropical fruit smoothie, with barely a hint of spinach. It takes four whole-food ingredients plus water, one blender, and five minutes, and it’s vegan.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup spinach
- 1 cup water
- ½ cup pineapple frozen
- ½ cup mango frozen
- 1 banana
Instructions
- Measure the spinach. Pack 1 cup of baby spinach tightly into a measuring cup.
- Blend the spinach and water. Add both to the blender and blend until no leaf pieces remain. The mixture should look like smooth green water.
- Add the fruit. Add the frozen pineapple, frozen mango, and banana. The frozen fruit chills the smoothie without watering it down.
- Blend until creamy. Blend on high until smooth. That takes about 30 seconds in a high-speed blender and up to 2 minutes in a standard one. Use a tamper if the blender stalls.
- Adjust and drink. If it's too thick, add water 1 tablespoon at a time. If it's too thin, add a few more pieces of frozen fruit. Drink it right away.
Notes
- Blend order: Blend the spinach and water first, until no leaf pieces remain. That takes about 30 seconds in a high-speed blender and 60 to 90 seconds in a standard one. Then add the frozen mango, frozen pineapple, and banana.
- Make it more filling: The base has 3g of protein. Add protein powder, 2 tablespoons of chia seeds, or half an avocado. Drink it quickly if you add chia, because it thickens fast.
- Make it ahead: Freeze the spinach, mango, pineapple, and banana in a bag. Then add water and blend each morning.
- Storage: Refrigerate the blended smoothie in an airtight jar for up to 48 hours. It tastes best within 4 hours, so shake well before drinking.
- Swaps: Replace the banana with a quarter of an avocado for less sugar. Replace the mango with frozen peaches or red apple, and the pineapple with a navel orange.
- Make more than one: This card makes one 16-ounce smoothie. Double the ingredients to serve two, and blend in batches if your blender is small.
Nutrition
Serving: 16oz, Calories: 203kcal, Carbohydrates: 51g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 1g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 1g, Sodium: 38mg, Potassium: 818mg, Fiber: 6g, Sugar: 34g, Vitamin A: 3829IU, Vitamin C: 88mg, Calcium: 63mg, Iron: 1mg
