My favorite green smoothie recipe! This healthy, delicious drink is easy to make in the blender, and it's packed with leafy greens and fresh fruit.
New year, new green smoothie recipe! Ok, well actually, this recipe is not new new, but it’s new to the blog. Behind the scenes, it’s my favorite green smoothie recipe, the one that I make whenever I want to pack a bunch of fruits and vegetables into a single meal and have them taste like dessert. It’s thick and frosty, lightly sweet, and brimming with fresh produce like citrus, spinach, and banana. If you’re looking for a new healthy breakfast or snack to add to your rotation, I can’t recommend it enough.
Green Smoothie Recipe Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this green smoothie recipe:
- Leafy greens, of course! I love using baby spinach here because you can barely taste it, though kale works great too. Freeze the greens ahead of time (or buy frozen greens) to give your smoothie the best frosty texture.
- Half a frozen banana – It sweetens the smoothie and makes it thick and creamy. Tip: Wait to put bananas in the freezer until they’re ripe and spotty! Ripe bananas will add much more sweetness to a smoothie than unripe ones will.
- Almond butter and chia seeds – They add healthy fats and make the smoothie even creamier.
- Frozen orange segments – They add delicious natural sweetness (and tons of vitamin C!) to this vibrant spinach smoothie. I like to buy a bunch of fresh mandarins or clementines, peel them, and freeze them to have on hand.
- Unsweetened almond milk – To get the blender moving! Use store-bought, or make your own.
- And ice cubes – To perfect the green smoothie’s frosty texture.
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
Green Smoothie Recipe Variations
Though I love this green smoothie recipe as written, there are all sorts of ways to change it up! Feel free to adjust it to suit your tastes or use what you have on hand. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Change up the veg. Spinach and kale might be the most popular veggies to put in a smoothie, but they’re not the only options! Try replacing them with half the amount of Swiss chard, collard greens, or even frozen broccoli, adding more to taste. Cucumber would be a great addition too!
- Have fun with the fruit. When it’s not citrus season, I love to make this green smoothie recipe with frozen mango or pineapple. Your favorite frozen berries would also be delicious.
- Use another liquid base. Instead of almond milk, blend this smoothie with a splash of coconut milk, oat milk, or even orange juice.
- Swap the seeds. Use hemp hearts instead of chia.
- Add a protein boost. Blend in a scoop of protein powder or Greek yogurt.
- Make it sweeter. If your smoothie tastes less sweet than you would like, blend in a little honey, maple syrup, or one of your favorite natural sweeteners. Or add more frozen fruit!
Let me know what variations you try!
More Favorite Smoothie Recipes
If you love this green smoothie recipe, try one of these plant-based smoothie recipes next:
- Kale Smoothie
- Strawberry Banana Smoothie
- Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie
- Blueberry Smoothie
- Creamy Avocado Smoothie
- Cinnamon Coffee Smoothie
- Berry Superfood Smoothie Bowl
Green Smoothie
Ingredients
- 1 cup frozen spinach or kale
- ½ frozen banana
- ½ tablespoon almond butter
- 1 to 2 cups peeled and frozen orange segments, or frozen pineapple or mango chunks
- ½ teaspoon chia seeds, optional
- 1 cup almond milk, plus more as needed to blend
- Handful of ice
Instructions
- In a blender, place the spinach, banana, almond butter, 1 cup frozen fruit, and chia seeds, if using. Add the almond milk and blend until smooth, adding more almond milk as needed to blend. Add the ice and blend again.
- Taste and add more frozen fruit if you’d like your smoothie to be sweeter. Blend until smooth, adding more almond milk as needed.
I have made this for breakfast almost every day for the past 6 months. It is so delicious and provides me with the nutrients to power through my day. I will switch up the ingredients from time to time and it always comes out great. Really cannot thank you enough for this amazing recipe!
I’m glad you enjoyed this one too!
This a really good. I don’t freeze the spinach but i used 1/2 cup frozen mango and 1/2 cup frozen pineapple and add 1 scoop of plant based vanilla protein powder. So good I’ve made it quite a few times already!
I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed it!
All of your smoothies have banana, I’m allergic. Is there another option?
Hi Dawn, this smoothie bowl recipe doesn’t have a banana – you make just the smoothie part without the toppings. Hope that helps!
oops, forgot to link it: https://www.loveandlemons.com/berry-superfood-smoothie-bowl/
hello, if I’m allergic to nuts, what can I substitute the almond butter with?
Hi, you have a few options. 1) You could skip it. The smoothie is still great without! 2) You could replace it with sunbutter or tahini. 3) You could increase the chia seeds to 1 tablespoon or add 1 tablespoon of hemp seeds. Hope this helps!
I enjoyed these smoothie recipes. Thanks very much 💝
So glad you enjoyed it!
So easy to make, but so delicious! I tried it this weekend with coconut milk since I didn’t have any almond milk left, otherwise I used the amounts and types of ingredients as listed here. Such a flavorful and healthy treat!
Oooh I bet coconut milk was delicious! So glad you loved it.
I never met a green smoothie that I like until THIS one! I used frozen chopped kale, chia seeds, and some frozen clementine segments I had in the freezer. I used 1 whole frozen banana because that’s how I freeze them, and I added a splash of vanilla extract. It’s delicious and will be on my regular breakfast rotation now! Thanks for another healthy and delicious recipe, Jeanine!
Hi Jan, I’m so glad you love the smoothie!
Re: Frozen spinach. Is this purchased frozen? As this is quite dense so I want to make sure I am using the right amount.
Hi Karen – yep, I buy it frozen.