This easy mango green smoothie recipe is a delicious blend of savory and sweet delivering a powerhouse of nutrition and energy. 5 Minutes and you are out the door with breakfast or a snack.
The inspiration for this easy mango green smoothie recipe came from my favorite smoothie shop, Arden’s Garden, an Atlanta-based family-owned juice company founded in 1995. All of their fresh juices and smoothies are made from fruits and vegetables, nothing else. My choice when visiting Arden’s Garden is their green smoothie called Spinach Slam, love the name. I watch them pack the blender full of fresh spinach and then add fresh pineapple juice and frozen mango pieces. Listen to the whir of the blender and out comes a beautiful light green smoothie packed with tons of nutrition.
When making this easy mango green smoothie recipe at home, I typically don’t measure my fruit and vegetables. I just throw in a couple handfuls of fresh spinach, grab a few chunks of frozen mango, and add a packaged fruit cup of pineapple bits (or use frozen pineapple bits), including their juice, into the blender jar. Unless you are lucky enough to own a workhorse blender like VitaMix or Blendtec you will have to add about a cup of water to help the machine or you could burn the motor out. NutriBullet and Ninja will need the additional water. At first I tried using my regular counter top blender but it didn’t pulverize the spinach and I was left with a chunky mess, not an appetizing texture.
For an added zing I add some fresh grated ginger. I first tried a similar smoothie on my way down to visit my son in Milledgeville, GA at Georgia College & State. Farmview Market in Madison, Ga is a really cool place in the middle of nowhere, or so it seems. Farmview just has a really fun vibe to it along with an incredible selection of fresh meats, vegetables and gourmet packaged goods all locally sourced and/or farmed. When we stopped by to check it out, they had a little corner where they were making smoothies from all fresh ingredients. I enjoyed something similar to this Spinach Slam but with the added zing of ginger. My new addition to most green smoothies.
Lastly I also added some chia seeds for their nutritional value. Among other benefits, chia seeds add calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, protein, and fiber to your diet. Have you ever added chia seeds to water? It’s pretty cool, the seeds absorb 10-12 times their weight in water and turns to a gel consistency. Imagine this happening in your stomach, it should make your feel fuller and thus eat less calories. I definitely notice a difference when I add the chia seeds to my smoothies. And chia seeds are basically flavorless, so no off taste by adding them.
What cracks me up is that chia seeds are best known for growing grass out of small, orange clay heads and shapes. Remember seeing the commercials for Chia Pet in the 70s and 80s? Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia! They now offer shapes ranging from trolls, to emojis, presidential candidates and even Homer Simpson. Joseph Industries, the maker of Chia Pets, is still chugging away, offering new shapes to amuse us. But I digress, back to our Green Smoothie!
Spinach is the base for this powerhouse green smoothie. Why spinach? First because I love the taste and prefer it to kale, but the two super greens can be substituted in almost any recipe. Popeye had the right idea. Spinach is a super food packed with a variety of nutrients delivered in a low calorie treat. Spinach and other dark leafy greens benefit our bones, skin, and hair. It’s a great source of protein, iron, vitamins and minerals. All at an incredibly low calorie count.
Just one cup of raw spinach has 27 calories and is a great source of protein, magnesium, potassium, calcium, Vitamin A and folate.
Our third main ingredient, Mango, tops off our nutritional spinach and mango green smoothie. This tropical fruit is available year round and makes a great salsa to top fish or chicken or just to dip a crunchy chip into. In our green smoothie, the Mango adds antioxidants, valuable vitamins and immune boosting benefits. One cup of mango provides 2.6 grams of fiber, aiding in proper digestion. A cup of mango provides about 35% of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin A, aiding in healthy eyes and bone growth. Mango provides vitamin C, an immune booster. The folate is especially good for pregnancy. Folate is a B vitamin and naturally occurs in food, folic acid is the synthetic form added to cereals and other processed foods.
Meal Prep For Easy Mango Green Smoothie Recipe
Save time by using a meal prep method and freeze bags of premade mango green smoothies. To make 6 bags (12 small smoothies or 6 large smoothies) use a big tub of fresh spinach, typically 16 oz, a bags of frozen mango and pineapple (16 for more vegetable taste, 24 oz for a sweeter smoothie). When packing the bags make sure to squeeze all of the air out to keep ice crystals from forming. Also shape the bag so that when frozen it will fit nicely in your blender. I use a NutriBullet so instead of laying the bag flat I shape it into a long cylinder shape. Now you have no excuse not to make an easy mango green smoothie in the morning. 2 minutes and you’ll be out the door with smoothie in hand.
So drink up! An easy mango green smoothie is an easy and delicious way to add liquid nutrition to your diet. Especially for those that aren’t crazy about salads or choose a huge portion of starch over vegetables at meals. Try this simple spinach and mango green smoothie, it will convert you.
Easy Mango Green Smoothie Recipe
This powerhouse green smoothie blends savory and sweet flavors with spinach, mango, pineapple and ginger
Ingredients
- 2 Cups Fresh Spinach
- 1/2 Cup Pineapple or use a prepackaged fruit cup with juice
- 1/2 Cup Mango Frozen in 1/2" chunks
- 1 Tablespoon Chia Seeds
- 1 Cup Water
- 1 Inch Fresh ginger Peeled and cut into 4 pieces
Instructions
-
If using a Nutribullet or Ninja, add spinach to the blender jar first (read your blenders directions, some have you pack the blender opposite of this), pack down lightly, add pineapple fruit cup with juice (or dice your own fresh pineapple or use frozen chunks), add partially thawed mango chunks, about half a cup, Chia seeds, grated ginger and finally 1 cup water. Blend for about 1 minute until smooth, but no more than 2 minutes. See the above blog post for recommendations on how to use your blender.
Recipe Notes
Meal prep - This is a huge time saver, pack individual bags of smoothies before you blend and freeze. Then just pull the baggie out the day you want to enjoy the smoothie and blend away. See post for tips.
Depending on the type of blender will determine what order you put the ingredients into your blender jar. If using a Nutribullet or Ninja, put the ingredients in order as stated in the above recipe. If using a traditional blender, then use that manufacturers instructions. Typically a traditional blender design will have you load the ingredients in the opposite way as above. It has to do with the location of the blades.
Most traditional blenders will not do a good job of pulverizing the spinach and you may end up with a "stringy" smoothie. I experienced this with my old blender, switched and have been happy with the Nutribullet. The only traditional blenders that do a good job on greens that I am familiar with are the VitaMix and the Blendtec, both great options but pricey.
Play the amounts of spinach, fruit and ginger. I like my smoothie to taste more like spinach than the fruit. Others like it opposite. If so use 1 cup spinach and increase each of the fruit to 1 cup each. As far as the ginger I actually double what is in this recipe. But ginger has a real bite and that amount won't sit well with everyone.
And by all means leave the ginger and chia seeds out if you like. Originally I used to just use the spinach, pineapple and mango, that was it and the smoothie was delicious!
Save
Perfect blend of flavors. Love this smoothie. I’ve had it for breakfast 5 days in a row.
It’s one of my favorites too. Thanks and enjoy!