This spinach apple banana smoothie is jam-packed with fibre, antioxidants, and essential vitamins and minerals.
It is also the perfect way to get in a lot of greens without compromising on taste!
If you’re not the biggest fan of green smoothies, give this one a try. With the sweet apple and banana, complemented with a citrus-y blend of lemon and orange, you won’t even taste the spinach!
How to Make a Spinach Apple Banana Smoothie
Step 1: Gather ingredients
This green smoothie uses spinach as the leafy green. You can use fresh or frozen spinach in this recipe.
Spinach is such a great option for most green smoothies because it blends fairly well in a blender (no one likes graininess) and can be masked by sweet fruits.
The sweet fruits in this smoothie are apple and banana. Both apple and banana are naturally very sweet.
Apple also adds a wonderful freshness that goes well in green smoothies. Make sure you leave the peel on and blend it well. The peel is where the apple contains the bulk of the amazing nutrients it offers (see below).
Banana also adds a wonderful creaminess and thickness, especially if you use frozen banana like I do.
To boost the flavour and take away any green-ness even more, this recipe also calls for some orange and lemon juice!
Citrus juice is a tried and true way to tone down the taste of leafy greens like spinach.
I toss in one peeled orange, but another option could be to just use orange juice instead of water.
I love these two citrus fruits because I think apple and lemon, and orange and banana are two perfect flavour combinations.
Lastly, this recipe calls for some lovely toasted hemp seeds. This is mostly for the health benefits as hemp seeds are incredibly nutritious (see below).
Another optional ingredient you can add in if you like is almonds, for a bit of a nutty flavour. You can try adding in some whole almonds or simply a scoop of almond butter.
Step 2: Blend!
Spinach Apple Banana Smoothie Benefits
Spinach offers plenty of essential vitamins and minerals.
This includes large amounts of vitamin K and some calcium (both important for bone health), plenty of vitamin A and vitamin C (important for immune system), folate, iron, magnesium, potassium, and more.
Spinach also provides fibre which helps with metabolism, blood pressure, and digestion.
Additionally, spinach contains many important phytochemicals that help reduce oxidation, inflammation, and disease risk. Some of the protective health benefits include protection against heart disease, eye disease, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and cancer.
Apple adds a lot of natural sweetness to the smoothie, which eliminates the need to add sugar to the smoothie.
Apples are also packed with nutrients and fibre, and the peel of the apple contains plenty of anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory polyphenols.
Like the apple, the banana also adds a lot of natural sweetness to the smoothie, as well as fibre and important nutrients like potassium.
The orange and lemon help give your immune system a boost with their significant vitamin C content.
Finally, hemp seeds are considered a superfood because of the numerous nutritional benefits they offer.
Hemp seeds have a high protein content and are a great source of essential amino acids.
They also contain healthy polyunsaturated fats and are a great source of essential fatty acids, including omega-3 fatty acids.
Additionally, hemp seeds are high in fibre (especially if you can get your hands on hemp seeds that haven’t had the hull removed), as well as numerous vitamins and minerals such as vitamin E, B vitamins, phosphorous, potassium, magnesium, and iron.
Give this spinach apple banana smoothie a blend and let me know how you like it in the comments below!
Spinach Apple Banana Smoothie
This spinach apple banana smoothie is jam-packed with fibre, antioxidants, and essential vitamins and minerals. It's also the perfect way to get in a lot of greens without compromising on taste!
Ingredients
- 2 cups spinach
- 1 apple, core removed
- 1 frozen banana
- 1 orange, peeled
- Juice from half a lemon
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tbsp toasted hemp seeds
- Optional: handful of almonds or a spoon of almond butter (for an added nutty flavour)
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to blender (frozen ingredients added last).
- Blend until smooth (about 30-60 seconds).
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- If this smoothie recipe turns out too green for your taste, cut down the spinach to just 1 cup!
Delicious 😋