Even with the best will in the world, it can be difficult getting all the green vegetables that we know we need into our diet – but a healthy green smoothie can go a long way to rectifying that. Bursting with vitamins and nutrients, a green smoothie is the best way to start a day – and the fact that they are also delicious helps too!
Make this green smoothie recipe below – it takes a few minutes to prepare, but will give you a boost which lasts for hours! There are plenty of variations listed below as well, so you can tailor it to create the best green smoothie recipe for your needs and tastes.
Best Green Smoothie
Packed with flavor and healthy ingredients, such as avocado, broccoli, mango and spinach, you can't go wrong with this incredible green smoothie.
Prep time: 3 mins
Course: breakfast, snack
Servings: 1x 12 Oz
Calories: 162kcal
Equipment
- blender
Ingredients
- 1 cup mango frozen or fresh mango cut into chunks
- 1 cup baby spinach frozen works well too
- 1/2 cup broccoli florets ideally blanched
- 1/4 cup fresh coconut chunks or use coconut chips
- 1 tbsp lime juice ideally fresh
- 200 ml apple juice not from concentrate
Instructions
- Pop everything in your blender and blitz on high for 30 seconds
- If a bit too thick, add a splash of extra apple juice or water and blend again
- Taste and add more lime juice to get that perfect balance of sweet and tart
Notes
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Editor’s Rating: 5 stars
Green smoothie recipe variations
Obviously we think that above is the best green smoothie recipe ever created, but we are well aware that everybody will have slightly different tastes, and be looking to get different things out of their green smoothies. One of the (many) wonderful things about smoothie recipes is how easy they are to customise – so we are now going to look at the different ways that you can create your own favorite green smoothie recipes.
Let’s start with some fruit. We are big advocates of the policy of: if it looks like it’s going off – chop it up and freeze it to use in a smoothie. That makes it so simple to throw in some frozen banana, apple, pineapple or peach to give your smoothie an extra burst of flavour. Most frozen fruit will work well, but we’d avoid berries and red fruit as they may compromise the flavour – and turn the smoothie a disconcerting brown colour!
The great advantage when you add frozen fruit is that it will make your smoothie cold and refreshing, but if you have any over ripe bananas or other fruit, you can use them too. You can always add ice cubes to ensure you get it at the right temperature.
We love a spinach smoothie, (spinach has so many incredible health benefits that we will cover later) but in truth you can replace the spinach with any dark leafy greens, like fresh kale, swiss chard or even romaine lettuce. Again, fresh or frozen greens are fine to use.
As you can see, we’re pretty flexible with our green smoothie ingredients, but one I think you really need to keep is avocado. It’s such a great source of healthy fats and phytonutrients, plus the creamy texture a flavour that it really makes or breaks this green smoothie.
Having said that, you can supplement the healthy fats by adding in some chia seeds, or add in some Greek yogurt to create an even creamier smoothie.
In terms of liquids, there is plenty of room for experimentation here. Oat milk is a favourite of ours, but alternatives include coconut milk, almond milk (vanilla almond milk gives a pleasing sweet aftertaste), apple juice, coconut water, orange juice and pineapple juice. Using fruit juice can add to the sugar content, so do take that into account.
Finally, there are tons of extra little ingredients that you can chuck in – either to enhance the flavour or to get a few more health benefits. Take protein powder, for example – a green smoothie is the perfect vehicle for nutritional supplements. As well as chia seeds, you can add hemp seeds, ground flaxseed, and any nut butters (like peanut butter or almond butter) to get a boost of healthy fats, or maybe some maple syrup or honey to give it an extra sweet finish?
To tempt children to drink a green smoothie (or even their Mum, see Day 18 of our Reels challenge), try adding a little bit of honey or syrup. If you can get them into the habit of drinking a healthy green smoothie, then it could help you out next time you serve broccoli for dinner – “well, you have broccoli in that delicious green smoothie…”.
We’ve listed a load of customization options above, so you can create more green smoothie recipes whenever you have some spare ingredients.
Health Benefits of drinking a Green Smoothie
Start your day with a green smoothie and you can shake off those morning cobwebs and get yourself to face the morning head on. It’s got the perfect balance of low calories and high nutritional value.
What makes green smoothies healthy? They contain a broad range of different benefits – vitamin C and E and iron from the fresh spinach, antioxidants from the mango, and more vitamin C and K and fiber from the broccoli. There is so much going on here!
Then there are all the extras you can add, like protein powder and more frozen fruit. There is a whole world of potential health benefits when you tailor a green smoothie recipe to your exact needs and tastes.