How to Make a Green Smoothie- Recipes and Tips

Drink your salads!!!  Just think of your green smoothie as a way to get your green veggies and/or fruit in each day. Try at least getting in one 16-20 oz smoothie a day. Or replacing up to 3 meals a day and getting in 60 oz.   Here are some guidelines to make them and also a few simple recipes. 

The recipes can be made ahead of time and refrigerated for the day ahead. You may also find the need to tweak these recipes to your liking, which is Absolutely fine! Swap out the liquid with the liquid of your preference. Don’t have chia seeds?  Use another protein source, like almond butter.  Don’t like the consistency? Add more liquid.

As a base, I am gonna suggest starting off by stocking up on spinach, kale and maybe romaine lettuce. They are more mild greens and then you can go into arugula and collards which have a stronger taste next. Ideal fruits would be apples, oranges, berries, bananas and avocados.  They will add sweetness or a smoothness to your drink.  If you use at least 1 frozen fruit, your smoothie will already be cold. If not use ice.  

There are many guides, such as this one on how to build your green smoothie

Simple recipes

Here are a few recipes I came up with and found while reading more about green smoothies. Dont worry about exact measurements. A handful of greens.... is sometimes what you need. These recipes can make up to 32 ounces or 2 servings, give or take.  Pick 3 recipes and try them out for the day. If you have any recipe suggestions, please leave them below.

Beginners Breakfast

2 cups fresh spinach

2 cups water

1 cup mango

1 cup pineapples

2 bananas

Beginners Lunch

1 Cup Almond Milk

¼ Cup Kale

¼ Cup Spinach

½ Avocado

1 Apple

Honey or Agave to sweeten

Island Smoothie

1 Cup Coconut Milk

¼ Cup Spinach

¼ Cup Kale

¼ Cup Frozen Pineapple

¼ Cup Frozen Mango

Juicy Orange 

1cup of coconut water

1- 1 1⁄2 cups collard greens leaves,

1-1⁄2 cups frozen banana chunks

1apple (core removed, skins intact)

1orange (peeled)

1 to 2 tablespoons of hemp seeds

Immunity Smoothie

Handful of kale

1 cup frozen banana chunks

1 large apple

1/2 cup of frozen mango chunks

1/2 tablespoon of freshly peeled ginger

1-2 cups of water

Purple Dreams

8 oz or more of preferred liquid

2 handfuls of collard greens

1 cup of frozen banana chunks

1/2 cup fresh blueberries

1/2 cup of purple grapes or red apple

1 tbls chia seeds

Ginger Smoothie Recipe

1 banana

5 blackberries or small handful of blueberries

1 cup of water

1 tbsp fresh chopped Ginger

Handful of kale

1 tbls of chia seeds (optional)

4-6 ice cubes

Spinach Orange Smoothie

2 oranges

1 banana

2 handfuls of spinach

1/2 cup coconut water

1 tablespoon hemp seeds

Ice

Ginger Orange Smoothie

·         1 1/2 cups water

·         4 handfuls fresh spinach

·         4 romaine leaves (optional)

·         2 oranges

·         2 ripe bananas

·         1"-2" knob of fresh ginger

·         1 cucumber (optional) 

Which One is Better~ Blending or Juicing?

Juice or Blend?

Honestly, I like both methods. I see where there is a little confusion. Both juicing and blending have great health benefits and can aid in weight loss. No way is bad. We can all definitely use more fresh vegetable and fruit in our daily diet either way.

Juicing vs Blending

When you juice, your juicer extracts the juice from your produce, leaving behind the pulp. The juice is the water and most of the nutrients that was extracted from the produce. When you blend, the blender pulverizes everything. It pulverizes the entire produce, leaving behind no pulp to discard.

Juicing will remove the pulp or the insoluble fiber. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Here's why. The fiber slows down the absorption of some nutrients and some nutrients actually just stay in the fiber. So when you juice, your body is able to absorbs 100% of the nutrients in your glass. I like juicing because you are getting MORE nutrients in one glass. You have to juice like 4 apples, 2 carrots, 2 celery sticks and a 2 inch piece of ginger to get a glass and that's a lot of nutrients at once.

Cons- Juicing takes a little more produce, time and cleanup.


Green Smoothies are sometimes called 'Blended Salads' . They are generally lower in calories because they contain lots of water and fiber and it requires less produce to make them. But because of that insoluble fiber, you will fill fuller longer and you will actually feel as if you just ate a full meal.

Finally, My Thoughts on The Matter~

This week, I am actually gonna do both green smoothies and juicing. I am gonna do 5 days of green smoothies and juice on the weekend but also snack on fresh veggies, fruits, soups and herbal teas.  In the future, especially during the winter, I will incorporate at least one green smoothie in my diet daily as a way to get my salad in.

I think both green smoothies and green juice serve their purpose in a well balanced diet and can truly help with developing discipline, help with managing medical conditions and with certain food addictions. We need to learn to eat and our diets should include a variety of nutrient sources. We should not completely rely on green smoothies or juicing daily. I am a girl who enjoys eating. Eating whole foods and a salad or two wont hurt at all!