If you ever find yourself needing a quick energy boost, we’ve got a solution for you. All you need to do is whip up this tasty and simple spinach smoothie. spinach smoothie recipes give you a healthy treat that is full of beneficial veggies and fruits, including sliced bananas, frozen pineapple chunks, baby spinach leaves, and apples. This spinach smoothie is nutrient-rich, with fiber, protein, minerals, and vitamins in every single sip. Best of all, this apple spinach smoothie is super easy to make.
Many people remember Popeye, who would crush open a can of spinach and gulp it down quickly for instant superhero strength. Popeye is just a cartoon, but it did teach an important lesson: Spinach is really good for you! These leafy greens deliver health benefits that will make your body stronger.
Spinach is loaded with antioxidants and nutrients that include potassium, magnesium, iron, calcium, soluble fiber, and vitamin C. Additionally, spinach leaves are mild in flavor, so it’s easy to add them to green smoothies. Once your spinach is mixed with the pineapple, frozen bananas, and apple, you can barely detect the spinach taste.
The other ingredients in this smoothie add even more nutrition and fiber. The almond milk and Greek yogurt give you some probiotics and protein, not to mention delicious creaminess. This quick and easy smoothie is satisfying and refreshing. Best of all, it’s ready to enjoy in just 10 minutes.
Selecting Your Spinach
While you can use large spinach leaves for healthy smoothie recipes, baby spinach leaves are better for making a spinach smoothie. Baby spinach leaves are super tender, don’t require any other preparation, and have much less bitterness than mature spinach leaves. Also, you can make individual freezer packs for meal-prepping and quick smoothies on the go.
If you’ve got some individual smoothies in the freezer, all you have to do is grab the frozen mixture from the freezer and blend it. You can even add your baby spinach leaves and freeze them right along with the other ingredients. You won’t notice any difference in taste.
Apples Add Even More Fiber to Your Spinach Smoothie
Spinach gives you a lot of fiber, but the apples you add to your spinach smoothie give you even more fiber. Apples add both insoluble and soluble fibers to your healthy smoothie recipe or green smoothie recipe.
While you can use whatever type of apple you want, you’ll get more natural sweetness if you use varieties such as gala apples, red apples, or Fuji apples. Green apples will make the smoothie more tart. Pureed apple pulp has the extra benefit of making the smoothie nice and thick.
Using Frozen Fruit
You need a higher ration of frozen fruit to make a super thick smoothie that stays cold for longer. The ice crystals that have formed inside the frozen fruit serve as miniature ice cubes inside the cells of the plants. When you chop them during the blending process, the solidified juice crystals create a more substantial feel in your mouth, and they also hold their shape well.
Here’s a bonus to using frozen fruit: The ice crystals in fruit don’t dilute when they melt. If you have fresh bananas and pineapple and want to use them, cut the banana into slices about 1/2 inch thick. Then, cut the pineapple into pieces about 1 inch thick. Freeze the pineapple and banana on a cookie sheet in a single layer until they’ve solidified completely for minimally 6 hours.
Are you concerned that frozen fruit isn’t as good for you as fresh fruit? As it turns out, frozen fruit has even more nutrients because the fruit is picked at peak ripeness and frozen within hours. This locks in all of the nutrients and vitamins. Fresh fruit usually has a long road to the grocery store, gets imported via trucks, goes on display at the supermarket and into your shopping cart, and finally sits on your countertop until you make your smoothies.
How to Make Spinach Smoothies
This spinach smoothie recipe has a high frozen ingredients ratio. You’re going to add the frozen pineapple chunks, ice cubes, and frozen banana slices to the blender first so that they break down into chilly smooth particles. Then, add the apples so that the blender can break down the apple’s fibrous skin.
Next, add the spinach leaves. The spinach leaves are very tender, and because of this, they break down much easier. You can use a tamper if you need to push the spinach leaves down into the high-speed blender’s blades.
After adding the spinach leaves, it’s time to add your almond milk. The almond milk serves the purpose of processing the smoothie so that it develops a consistency that’s drinkable. If you like your green smoothie recipes to be creamy and thick, you can gradually add in the almond milk slowly until you reach the consistency you like.
What if you don’t have a high-powered blender? Many of us are working with inexpensive blenders that don’t have the power of more expensive blenders. If you have a low-powered blender, you can still enjoy smoothies. What you need to do is add the almond milk to the blender first. Then, begin adding your frozen fruit. Do this in batches and blend each batch before you add the next batch. Blend your ingredients until they’re nice and smooth. Doing this will ensure that your blender is creamy and smooth.
Customize Your Spinach Smoothie Recipes
You can easily customize your spinach smoothie with other ingredients.
To get more fruity flavor, use orange juice or pineapple juice in place of almond milk.
If you want a vegan smoothie or a dairy free smoothie, you can make substitutions for Greek yogurt. Consider almond yogurt, coconut yogurt, cashew yogurt, or soy yogurt as a substitute for Greek yogurt.
Want more protein? Add protein powder to your spinach smoothies for a more filling treat. You can also use a protein shake to make your smoothie instead of the almond milk.
For extra omega-3 fatty acids and fiber, you can add flaxseed or chia seed to your spinach smoothie.
Do you want a sweeter smoothie? Slowly add in the honey or pure maple syrup. We recommend adding 1 teaspoon at a time until the smoothie is as sweet as you like.
If you have kale in your fridge instead of spinach, you can make your green smoothy with kale. If you use kale, reduce the amount of the greens to about 3/3 of the spinach because kale’s flavor is stronger than that of spinach.
Can You Use Frozen Spinach?
Technically, you can use frozen spinach for this recipe, but the problem with that is that frozen spinach has been blanched. Blanching is a cooking process that cooks the spinach slightly so that it’s perfect for freezing. However, using frozen spinach that has been slightly cooked will change the flavor of your spinach smoothie.
If you do use frozen spinach for this smoothie, keep in mind that frozen spinach is more compact than fresh spinach. So you’ll need to use 1/3 cup of frozen spinach instead of 2 cups of fresh raw spinach. Don’t thaw the frozen spinach. Simply add it to the blender directly while still frozen.
Storing Your Spinach Smoothie
Smoothies are best if you consume them immediately after blending them. However, you can store smoothies in the refrigerator for as long as 24 hours. If you can drink your smoothie within 12 hours, you’ll reap more of the nutritional benefits, but 24 hours is also OK.
If you make too much of your spinach smoothie, you can keep the leftover smoothie drink in mason jars (canning jars) with lids. These jars are convenient to have on hand, and they have a tight seal. This allows you to carry your smoothie to the park, picnic, office, and more. You can also send smoothies in your kids’ lunches in smaller mason jars.
Shake it very well before you open the jar and drink it.
Making Smoothies Ahead of Time
It’s great to have quick and easy smoothie ingredients prepared so that you can grab a smoothie on the go. To make your smoothies ahead of time, measure out all of the ingredients and freeze them in zippered freezer bags. Don’t add the liquid ingredients. When you make smoothies and freeze them, you can grab a pouch of smoothie mix from the freezer, blend them, add the liquid, and go on about your busy day.
Spinach Smoothie
When you need a quick energy boost (or want to sneak some leafy green veggies into your daily diet!), you can whip up this delicious spinach smoothie that's made with various veggies and fruits, including banana, pineapple, and apples.
1cupapplediced and cut into 1-inch pieces (you can use green apple, red apple, or Fuji apple)
1cupalmond milkunsweetened
1/2cupplain nonfat Greek yogurtyou can also use dairy-free yogurt
Instructions
Add frozen pineapple, ice cubes, diced apple, frozen banana slices, Greek yogurt, almond milk, and baby spinach leaves to the blender.
Cover the blender and process the ingredient for approximately 30 seconds on medium speed. Use the tamper function as needed.
Increase to high speed for approximately 10-30 seconds or until your spinach smoothie is smooth and thick.
If you need more liquid, you can add more almond milk to reach the consistency you desire.
Notes
Make it Sweeter: To make your pineapple spinach smoothie and other healthy recipes sweeter, you can add honey or pure maple syrup. Add 1 teaspoon of the sweetener at a time, and add more until the spinach smoothie is as sweet as you like.Fruit Juice: If you don't want to use nut milk, you can use fruit juice or coconut water instead. You can also use plain water.Add more fruit: Feel free to add kiwis, oranges, frozen mango (for a mango spinach smoothie!), apples, or whatever fruit you like. Does a blueberry spinach smoothie sound delicious to you? A blueberry smoothie sounds yummy to us! Add frozen blueberries. You can also make a strawberry spinach smoothie with frozen strawberries. Love cherries? Make a delicious and tart cherry smoothie.Add More Protein: You can also get even more protein into your smoothie by adding peanut butter, cashew butter, almond butter, flaxseed, or chia seeds. Nut butter also gives you healthy fat.Use Kale: If you have kale in the fridge, you can use it instead of spinach. If you do this, add more frozen pineapple and less kale.Low-Powered Blender: You may not have a high-powered blender, and if this is you, you can still enjoy smoothies. Add the milk to the blender first, then slowly start adding the frozen fruit. Do this in batches and blend every batch before you add the next. Doing it this way will ensure that your smoothie is creamy and smooth.Make Your Spinach Smoothie DAIRY-FREE and VEGAN: If you want a vegan smoothie or a dairy-free smoothie, choose plant-based yogurt instead of plain nonfat Greek yogurt. Dairy-free yogurt substitutes include soy milk, almond milk, coconut milk, or cashew milk.
Cassie brings decades of experience to the Kitchen Community. She is a noted chef and avid gardener. Her new book "Healthy Eating Through the Garden" will be released shortly. When not writing or speaking about food and gardens Cassie can be found puttering around farmer's markets and greenhouses looking for the next great idea.
