Berry Good Spinach Smoothies
I got on the smoothie bandwagon three years ago when I was pregnant with my first kid. I felt carsick from sun-up sun-down, every day for the first 4 months. Nothing sounded appealing. I remember sobbing over a bowl of cheerios one Sunday morning with my poor alarmed husband standing over me asking what was wrong. “I just don’t want to eat this, but I need to eat something,” I cried. It tasted like cardboard in my mouth and every bite required herculean effort. I couldn’t even look at a vegetable until about 22 weeks, and that’s when I developed this spinach smoothie recipe. It was delicious, nutritious, and went down easily. I felt better knowing I was getting at least one serving of fruits and veggies in my day.
I had the presence of mind to try this smoothie with my picky toddler about a year ago, and it has been PURE GOLD. My toddler is extremely texture sensitive (we’re talking clinically picky…) and he won’t eat a vegetable straight up. He doesn’t mind flavors so much and actually prefers bold flavors, but he has trouble getting past textures, so the smoothies have been an awesome way to help make sure he’s getting his fruits and vegetables (not to mention milk and protein from the Greek yogurt). I will sometimes serve them over a chia pudding as well, and he goes to town. So if you’re not already giving your kid smoothies, I highly recommend it.
If you’ve never tried a spinach smoothie recipe before, I highly recommend it. I know it might not sound as appealing as a straight fruit smoothie, but the spinach doesn’t add much of a taste, and if anything it adds a bit of mild… richness? I’m not quite sure how to explain it, but it doesn’t detract from the tastiness of the smoothie and actually adds a new dimension that’s surprisingly pleasant, let alone just tolerable.
If you’re new to the smoothie trend, there’s a few key building blocks to help you build delicious, healthy smoothies. It really is possible to make really tasty smoothies without added sugar—I’m talking no juice, no flavored yogurt, just fruits, veggies, plain yogurt, and milk. It all starts with a ripe banana. This is they key to getting the sweetness you want from your smoothie, as berries and other fruits can be very tart on their own, especially when mixed plain yogurt. Plus the banana adds a nice rich, creamy texture to your smoothie. It’s very important it’s a ripe banana, too. If you add a green banana to your smoothie, you will taste it (and it’s not good).
The next building block is frozen fruit. Aside from the banana, which I add fresh, I used exclusively frozen fruit. This eliminates the need to add ice to your smoothie, which will only dilute your flavors and can be hard for some blenders to break down. I use frozen strawberries in almost every smoothie I make because they are sweet and work as a nice, neutral base for almost any combination of fruit.
I also make most of my smoothies with plain Greek yogurt (I prefer Fage 2%). Plain Greek yogurt has no added sweeteners, adds a delicious creaminess to your smoothies, and as a bonus it packs a lot of protein.
Then you’ll need a liquid, and I always opt for a milk of some kind vs. a juice (and water just…isn’t good. Though you could do coconut water, if you like). You can use whatever kind of milk you like. I typically use unsweetened almondmilk in my smoothies because it’s low calorie, has a yummy flavor, and adds some nice thickness to your smoothies, but you can use whatever kind of milk you like.
Another important part of making smoothies is the order in which you add the ingredients to the bowl or the ingredients can tend to get stuck. I always start banana first, then the berries, yogurt, spinach (if you’re making a spinach smoothie recipe like this one), and lastly the milk.
This recipe is designed for a single-serve blender cup, but you can make it in a regular blender bowl (though I’d recommend doubling the recipe). Our blender is one of the most-used appliances in our house. We have the Nutribullet Blender Combo and I love it because it has both the individual blender cups as well as the large bowl, which is great for when I’m making this spinach smoothie recipe for the whole family or if I want to blend up a marinade.
I’d love to hear how your experience is with this unsweetened spinach smoothie recipe, so give it a rating and enter your comments below!
Berry Good Spinach Smoothie
Equipment
- Blender
Ingredients
- 1 ripe banana
- 3-4 frozen strawberries
- scant ¼ cup frozen raspberries
- scant ¼ cup frozen blueberries
- ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt
- ½ cup almondmilk or milk of your choice!
- 1 handful baby spinach
- 1 tsp chia seeds
Instructions
- Break the banana apart and place it in the bottom of a blender.
- Add the frozen berries to the blender.
- Add the Greek yogurt and almondmilk to the blender.
- Add the spinach leaves and place the top on the blender.
- Blend well until there's no remaining lumps.
- Remove the top of the blender and add the chia seeds. Pulse briefly just to incorporate.
- Pour into a cup and enjoy!