Tropical Green Smoothie — I promise this healthy green smoothie doesn’t taste healthy at all! It tastes like a virgin piña colada that just happens to be bright green and good for you.
The BEST Green Smoothie Recipe
Sometimes strange looking things taste amazing. If you close your eyes, it tastes like a beautiful, tropical, sunny beach vacation.
You’re thinking, no it doesn’t. It tastes like bitter, blended up green stuff. But I assure you, it does not. Celery, kale, mizuna greens, chard, dandelion greens, and cucumbers have very strong and dominating flavors, which is why I don’t use them in smoothies. Spinach, however, is a different story.
I find spinach to be the leafy green equivalent of iceberg lettuce; totally mild and harmless. Plus, when it’s coupled with a handful of frozen mango, pineapple, banana, almond milk, vanilla, and a bit of sweetener, you can’t even taste it.
I promise. Even though this is healthy, it doesn’t taste it. It tastes like a green Pina Colada.
The color is much more jarring than the flavor. Sometimes plants are unexpectedly bold and vibrant in all their chlorophyll-filled glory.
My 6-year old bounces off the walls after drinking one of these healthy green smoothies. Some parents claim their children get hyper after too much sugar. Well, mine can eat chocolate chip cookies and candy and not really do much. But give her one of these green smoothies, and she’s talking a mile a minute, running around the house, laughing, and giggling.
I’m glad to see plants have that effect on her. They really are so powerful.
This tropical spinach keeps me full for awhile and between the almond milk, mango, pineapple, and banana, it’s tropical, sweet, and creamy.
After drinking a green smoothie, I feel invigorated, refreshed and recharged, and my head is clear and my energy is pure. Coffee wakes me up and gives me energy, but it’s a bolt of semi-jittery energy versus clean, sustained energy.
I love that this tastes like a virgin pina colada. It just happens to be green.
What’s in This Green Smoothie?
To make this healthy spinach smoothie, you’ll need:
- Frozen spinach
- Frozen pineapple
- Frozen mango
- Banana
- Strawberries
- Milk
- Vanilla extract
- Sweetener of choice
How to Make a Green Smoothie
After you have everything in your blender canister, blend until smooth and creamy.
Since I have to wash my blender anyway, I make double the amount I need. I fill freezer-safe platstic cups with the extra portions, freeze them, and when I’m ready for a smoothie for a snack or quick breafast, nuke the cup for a minute.
It saves time not having to remake and then rewash my blender. Having them ready and grab-able prevents me from reaching for cookies, which are equally grab-able.
Can I Add Different Fruits to My Green Smoothie?
There’s no wrong way to make a healthy green smoothie. Substitute any fruit you like. I use frozen because it’s cheaper and that way I don’t have to add ice, which waters it down, but use fresh if that’s what you like. Strawberries, blueberries, mixed berry blends, peaches, and nectarines are favorites.
What Type of Milk Should I Use?
For the milk, try cow’s, goat, soy, rice, almond, coconut, Coconut Milk Kefir, or Homemade Horchata. Or add a dollop of yogurt, Greek yogurt, or frozen yogurt.
Do I Have to Add Spinach?
If you don’t like spinach, try romaine lettuce. Both are very mild and neutral when blended. I buy frozen spinach for the same reason I buy frozen fruit; it’s cheaper, and I can buy in bulk and keep it in my freezer for a rainy day.
How Should I Sweeten Green Smoothies?
I sweeten my smoothies just a bit, but it’s optional. Use agave, honey, maple syrup, granulated sugar, stevia or your favorite sweetener. Sweet Medjool dates are nature’s candy and also work well.
Tips for Making the Best Green Smoothie
A tip for bananas is that I peel over-ripe ones, break them into chunks, and keep them in a big Ziplock in my freezer, making it easy to toss a few chunks into smoothies. When blended, they add plant-based creaminess that’s unparalleled to anything else. Bananas are naturally sweet, inexpensive, and readily available. But if you don’t like bananas or are allergic, simply omit.
If you want to boost the staying power of the smoothie, add fat. Coconut oil, coconut butter, peanut butter, almond/cashew/sunflower seed, or protein powder.
Add coconut flakes, nuts, seeds, dried fruits, or your favorite smoothie add-ins’ to either the blender canister before blending or garnish smoothie with them after blending.
I add homemade vanilla extract to almost everything I make, including smoothies. Extracts like coconut extract, orange extract, or lemon extract are also fun to play around with in smoothies.
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Tropical Green Smoothie
Ingredients
- 2 cups frozen spinach
- 1 cup frozen pineapple chunks
- 1 cup frozen mango chunks
- 1 medium ripe banana, peeled (previously frozen in chunks is ideal)
- 1 cup strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, or a favorite berry, optional
- 1 cup milk, cow’s, almond, soy, coconut, kefir, horchata
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- sweetener, to taste (sugar, agave, stevia, honey, maple syrup, Medjool dates)
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in the canister of a Vita-Mix or blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Serve immediately.
- Pour extra portions into freezer-safe cups and freeze for up to 1 month, thawing before serving (or microwaving for about 30 seconds)
Notes
- All ingredients and amounts are to taste. Use seasonal fruits or vary the quantities of fruits, to taste. I use frozen fruit and prefer it to fresh because it keeps the smoothie cold, without adding ice which waters it down. Frozen is cheaper and I can buy in bulk and keep in the freezer and use when needed.
- Optionally, consider adding a scoop of protein powder, dollop of yogurt for extra protein; add fat for staying power such as coconut oil, coconut butter, peanut butter, almond/cashew/sunflower seed/Cookie Butter. Blend with juice to increase the amount of Vitamin C.
- Add coconut flakes, nuts, seeds, dried fruits, or your favorite smoothie add-ins to either the blender canister before blending or garnish smoothie with them after blending.
- Recipe is vegan (use vegan milk, avoid honey), gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free as written. Take care any ingredients used and added optionally are suitable for your dietary needs.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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I am very new to the Ninja System. I got the whole big set for my birthday and I thought I would be going crazy with it by now. I have only made 3 smoothies so far. I am a person who doesn’t always go by recipes exactly. I don’t have an ice maker so I was thinking I could use frozen fruit instead of ice and either water or almond milk. Big failure. For one thing, I used blueberries and I forgot how they can stain EVERYTHING! I need help with the ratio of liquid to fresh fruit and liquid to frozen fruit. I don’t know – I am just hoping you can help me.
Follow the recipe I gave here; it works. Or any of these work very well https://www.averiecooks.com/category/beverages
While I absolutely ADORE all your desserts, I like it even more when you post healthy recipes- because they taste equally as delicious and you feel so good sipping or eating the product!
I made this green smoothie this morning and it was SO good!! You’re totally right, you can hardly even taste the spinach!
Although mine is green, it isn’t as vibrant as yours! How do you do that? It’s gorgeous! Also, when you add strawberries does it still stay green?
Sometimes strawberries can make it a little muddy looking, it just depends. I use frozen green spinach from Trader Joe’s and just add it frozen. And that’s the color it comes out of my blender!
Hi there, I literally just made the tropical green smoothie, I don’t understand where you got the bright green color from because mine is more of like a mint green color. Anyways, it still tastes delicious, cant even taste the spinach which is nice because I hate spinach!
Wow Averie! That color is STUNNING! Gorgeous shots, and I LOVE green smoothies! Can’t wait to try your version!
Looks delicious! Thanks for sharing! Can’t wait to try this. :)
Wow, thanks for the delicious smoothie!
https://www.dieetuniversiteit.nl/afvallen-gezond-groene-smoothies-recepten/
I tried the spinach smoothie for the first time, today, and it tasted like more!
Thanks for trying it!
Averie, when you say a cup or two of frozen spinach, are you talking about packing the spinach into the measuring cup? I made this with a scoop of vanilla (and white) protein powder and it was unbelievably good, but it also wasn’t anywhere near the green color of yours. It tasted far better than the last green smoothie I made, but I also want to be sure i’m getting enough veggies in there!
I basically take a frozen bag of spinach which is rock hard and usually compacted, and chisel off two large hunks of spinach with a knife, and they’re size of baseballs or slightly bigger, and put those into the Vita. I don’t measure but instead just go for big baseballs. My spinach is always very frozen and hard as a rock and it’s like dealing with ice practically so I just eyeball it. Based on what you wrote, I would say at double what you used and go from there!