Quick & Healthy Kale Spinach Smoothie

Name: Quick & Healthy Kale Spinach Smoothie
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 cup milk; 1/2 cup baby spinach, raw; 1/2 cup curly kale, raw; 1 ripe frozen banana; 1/2 cup frozen mango chunks; 1 tbsp creamy peanut butter; 1/2 tbsp chia seeds

posted by Alex Aldeborgh, RD on Oct 10, 2023 0 comments »

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This green smoothie packs in TWO nutritious leafy greens! In addition to spinach and kale, this smoothie is naturally sweetened with banana and mango, and has protein from whole food sources (milk, peanut butter, and chia seeds). Blend up this creamy smoothie in 5 minutes for a healthy breakfast smoothie or snack!

two small glasses with spinach kale smoothie next to a small dish of chia seeds, spinach leaves, and bananas

As a Registered Dietitian, one tip for increasing your vegetable intake is to blend veggies into smoothies.

When you add the right vegetables to your smoothies, the taste is undetectable!

Some of my favorite fruit and vegetable smoothies: pineapple matcha green smoothie, almond butter and jelly smoothie, and chocolate cherry smoothie.

Leafy greens, including spinach and kale, are two of the best veggies to add to your smoothies. And this recipe features BOTH!

Spinach and kale each provide tons of nutrients, including vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, and fiber (more on the nutrition benefits, below).

Since these leafy greens differ in their nutrient make-up, you get the best of both worlds when you blend both into this smoothie!

This recipe makes one large smoothie. It’s filling because it provides 17 grams of protein and 9 grams of fiber! Gluten free and can easily be made vegan by swapping in your favorite plant-based milk.

Ingredients

Here is everything you need to make this kale and spinach smoothie:

Spinach: For smoothies, I prefer to use baby spinach rather than mature leaves, because they have a sweeter, milder flavor.
Kale: Curly kale or baby kale are best for smoothies. Note that curly kale has a tough, fibrous stalk. If you use a high powered blender (such as a Vitamix), it should have no problem breaking down this stalk. But if you are using a lower power blender, remove the tough stalks and just use the leaves.
Banana: Use ripe frozen banana, since ripe bananas are sweeter.
Frozen mango chunks: Adds additional sweetness and flavor to this smoothie.
Chia seeds: These little seeds pack a ton of nutrients into this smoothie, including fiber, omega-3 fatty acids, plant-based protein, and antioxidants.
Peanut butter: One tablespoon of peanut butter adds richness to this smoothie. Peanut butter is a good source of plant-based protein and heart healthy unsaturated fatty acids.
Milk: I used regular cow’s milk for this smoothie, but if you want to make it vegan, swap in your favorite plant-based milk. My recommendation is unsweetened soy milk – it has the same amount of protein per serving as cow’s milk (8 grams!).

Can I use frozen kale and spinach? Yes! You could use frozen instead of fresh kale and spinach.

However, frozen greens have been blanched (cooked) before being frozen. This means they’ve wilted down in size.

If you choose to use frozen greens, use half the amount as you would fresh.

Kitchen equipment needed

All you need is a blender, measuring cups, and measuring spoons!

Step-by-step instructions

spinach kale smoothie ingredients in a blender before being blended — 1. Add all of the ingredients to the blender, starting with the milk, then the greens, then frozen fruit, then peanut butter and chia seeds.

Blended green smoothie in a blender — 2. Blend until smooth and creamy, with no lumps.

Smoothie tip: The order you add ingredients matters!

Add liquids first, followed by soft ingredients, then hard frozen ingredients to your blender. This allows the blender to have enough easily-blended ingredients to work with before it gets to the hard stuff.

Kale and spinach smoothie benefits

Kale and spinach are two highly nutritious leafy greens, but they do differ in their nutrient content.

By adding both to this smoothie, you get the best of both worlds!

Kale nutrition benefits

One cup of raw kale provides:

2.8 grams of dietary fiber (10% of your daily needs)
2 grams of plant-based protein
170 mg calcium (13% of your daily needs)
1.1 mg iron (6% of your daily needs)
161.47 mcg Vitamin A (18% of your daily needs)
62.6 mg Vitamin C (134% of your daily needs)
261.3 mcg Vitamin K (218% of your daily needs)
0.616 mg manganese (27% of your daily needs)

Kale is a cruciferous vegetable (along with cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower), so it has beneficial plant compounds called glucosinolates.

These compounds help keep us healthy by fighting off inflammation, promoting heart health, and reducing the risk of certain diseases.

Kale is also rich in antioxidants!

Spinach nutrition benefits

One cup of raw spinach provides:

0.7 grams of dietary fiber
140.7 mcg vitamin A (16% of your daily needs)
58.2 mg folate (15% of your daily needs)
8.4 mg vitamin C (9% of your daily needs)
144.9 mcg vitamin K (121% of your daily needs)

Spinach is rich in antioxidants, thanks to chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the green pigment that gives spinach it’s vibrant color.

Let me know if you love this post by leaving a comment or star rating below, and check out Instagram and Pinterest for more healthy lifestyle inspiration. Thanks for stopping by!