• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Healthy Midwestern Girl
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Lifestyle
  • Resources
  • Contact
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Recipes
  • About
  • Resources
  • Contact
  • Sign Up
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • Recipes
    • About
    • Resources
    • Contact
    • Sign Up
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
  • ×
    Home / Drinks & Smoothies

    Super Green Smoothie with Ginger

    Last updated: Oct 24, 2022 · Published: Jun 6, 2019 by Elizabeth Shah. This page may contain affiliate links.

    783 shares
    Jump to Recipe

    An easy, healthy green smoothie recipe with ginger for added kick and the fresh brightness of lemon.

    Green smoothie with ginger, in a tall class with cut lemons, mint garnish, and purple polka dot straw
    Jump to:
    • Some interesting facts about green smoothies
    • How to make a super green smoothie
    • Are green smoothies healthy?
    • Do green smoothies help you lose weight?
    • How to freeze spinach & kale
    • Super green smoothies—the final word
    • More healthy drinks & smoothies
    • 📖 Recipe
    • 💬 Reviews

    Some interesting facts about green smoothies

    By now, we all know how important it is to eat enough dark leafy green veggies. Even when we try our best to eat healthfully, it’s not hard to get caught short on the recommended daily servings.

    I mean, how many things can you do—like perfect clockwork—every single day. This green smoothie with ginger can be a great way to stay on track.

    How to make a super green smoothie

    To me, a great green smoothie should have just enough fruit to balance the bitterness of the greens.

    Add a little kick with fresh ginger and the brightness of a lemon, and you've got a delicious way to get some powerful nutrients into your body.

    Keep the ingredients simple

    To keep things simple, there shouldn’t be too many ingredients. But there also shouldn’t be too few, unless you’re one of those people who gets excited at the prospect of drinking liquefied kale, for example.

    This recipe has more than the 3 ingredients of my Hot Pink Smoothie, but you should still be able to make it in about 5 minutes.

    Plus, each ingredient here not only delivers health benefits, it adds to the flavor.

    Skip the measuring

    To make this recipe fast and easy, there really aren’t any precise measurements you need to follow. Okay, for those of you who are sticklers for precision, I’ve include the approximate volumes for a handful of spinach or a 1-inch knob of ginger.

    But really, feel free to be a little random here in the quest for speed and simplicity. The only thing I'd be a little careful with is the water. Too much, and it will be watery; too little and it won't blend.

    Green smoothie with ginger, in a tall class with a purple polka dot straw

    Do a little prep

    If you know you’re going to make a lot of these green smoothies, a little prep can make things go even… well, more smoothly.

    For example, you could chop up some apples in advance and keep them in the fridge. You could peel a whole bunch of ginger, process it in the food processor, and freeze it. (Or buy frozen minced ginger at many stores.)

    And I know some people who swear by tossing the entire lemon into their smoothies. I think this can get a little bitter, but you do get more fiber that way, so feel free to try it. Just make sure to quarter it first.

    Don't stress if it's foamy

    Any smoothie that contains insoluble fiber from ingredients like the apple in this recipe will develop some foam. So the more insoluble fiber in your smoothie, the foamier it will probably be.

    In fact, insoluble fiber is so important in out diets, as it provides much needed food for our microbiome. 

    So sure, you could scrape the foam off the top or use a lower fiber fruit like banana or melon, but I say just embrace the foam. Your gut flora will thank you.

    Q. Hey, why is this green smoothie foamy? A. It's from the healthy, insoluble fiber. Drink it! It's food for your microbiome.

    Green smoothie ingredients in a white bowl-apple, lemon, kale, spinach, ginger and ice cubes

    Are green smoothies healthy?

    Those of us who follow a whole food plant-based diet may wonder if green smoothies are healthy—or any smoothies for that matter. After all, blending is processing, so they’re technically no longer whole foods.

    Luckily, there’s some good research that tells us, yes, smoothies can be healthy.

    First, pretty much anything that gets us to eat enough fruits and vegetables—especially dark leafy greens—is a good deal if we wouldn’t manage to get that nutrition otherwise.

    Even more than chewing, when it comes to breaking down cell walls to release nutrients, blending up smoothies is a good thing. That’s because blending fruits and vegetables significantly improves the bioavailability of their nutrients.

    But the worry about smoothies is that they don’t allow as many unchewed, undigested food particles to make it to your colon.

    So there’s not as much food for your microbiome—which is the fundamental reason why whole foods are preferable to processed. 

    Green smoothie ingredients in a blender-apple, lemon, kale, spinach, ginger and ice cubes

    Do green smoothies help you lose weight?

    There’s a lot of hype around using smoothies for cleanses or diets. However, green smoothie studies show that if we’re not careful, smoothies can be detrimental to our weight loss efforts.

    Why? Because we’re able to consume them so quickly, we may end up feeling less satisfied and eating more calories overall.

    The solution is to drink your smoothie slowly—about as slowly as you would if it were a bowl of soup and had to eat it with a spoon. If you can manage that, smoothies can indeed help you lose weight—so long as they help you reduce your overall calorie intake.

    How to freeze spinach & kale

    To make my smoothies on a budget, I like to buy giant bags of spinach, kale or a power greens blend at Costco. When you research ‘how to freeze spinach’ or other greens online, everyone will pretty much say you need to blanch them first.

    That may be true for the ‘best results.’ But I’m too lazy to blanch and drain a big bag of greens after my grocery trip, so I just take out what I’m going to use for the week, and freeze the rest in a tightly sealed Ziploc bag. (Squeeze out as much air as you can.)

    I go through greens pretty fast, so they’re never in the freezer more than a couple of weeks, and for smoothies or cooking, they’re just fine IMO.

    Green smoothie with ginger, in a tall class with a purple polka dot straw

    Super green smoothies—the final word

    To sum it all up, green smoothies can be a great way to get more fruits and veggies in our diets. They can be a healthy part of a whole food diet—even though they’re technically somewhat processed. (I'd call this recipe minimally processed--nothing bad added, nothing good taken out.)

    And they can help you lose weight if you drink them s-l-o-w-l-y. And if they help you cut your overall calories.

    Just swap the apple for another if you’re concerned about your blood sugar.

    More healthy drinks & smoothies

    • cacao smoothies with straws.
      Cacao Smoothie
    • Hibiscus Tea Recipe - Pink Smoothie

    📖 Recipe

    Super Green Smoothie with Ginger

    An easy, healthy green smoothie with added kick from fresh ginger and brightness from lemon.
    5 from 13 votes
    Print SaveSaved! Pin Rate
    Course: Drinks
    Cuisine: American
    Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes
    Total Time: 3 minutes minutes
    Servings: 2
    Calories: 77kcal
    Author: Elizabeth Shah
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Ingredients

    • 1 handful fresh spinach (about 1 cup)
    • 1 handful fresh kale (about 1 cup)
    • 1 apple cored and quartered (or sub 1 banana or mango, see notes)
    • 1 lemon juiced & zested (about ¼ cup)
    • 1 inch knob ginger minced (about 1 tablespoon)
    • ½ cup cold water (preferably filtered)
    • ½ cup ice
    • Optional: small handful fresh mint leaves (about ¼ cup + more for garnish if desired )
    US Customary - Metric

    Instructions

    • Place all of the ingredients in a blender, and process on high for 1-2 minutes or until smooth. Don't worry if it's foamy--that's from the healthy, insoluble fiber from the apple. It's good food for your microbiome!

    Notes

    Apples in smoothies can spike blood sugar. If that’s a concern for you, substitute another fruit like banana or mango. I personally have mild blood sugar issues and never have problems drinking this smoothie, but please do what’s right for you and adapt this recipe to your dietary needs.  
    This green smoothie will be foamy. The foam that forms at the top of the smoothie is  from the healthy, insoluble fiber. It's food for your microbiome, so I recommend leaving it and drinking it. But if you find it unappealing, you can just scoop it off the top.

    Nutrition (approximate)

    Calories: 77kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 21mg | Potassium: 337mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 3105IU | Vitamin C: 56.8mg | Calcium: 59mg | Iron: 1.1mg
    Tried this Recipe? Please share it!Mention @HealthyMidwesternGirl or tag #HealthyMidwesternGirl!

    More Drinks & Smoothies

    783 shares

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Melissa Papasodora

      December 05, 2020 at 2:24 pm

      5 stars
      Super yummy and refreshing!

      Reply
    5 from 13 votes (12 ratings without comment)

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    Primary Sidebar

    Hi, I'm Elizabeth Shah

    My husband calls me his "healthy Midwestern girl," because I LOVE TO EAT! Fortunately, I also love to cook. I'm so excited to share my 100% vegan, whole food, plant-based, no oil recipes with you! MORE...

    Certified by WFPB.org

    whole food plant based (WFPB) Certified logo

    Featured On

    Image of logos: T. colin campbell center for nutrition studies, She knows, buzz feed, bloglovin', food network revolution, best of vegan, one bite vegan, live kindly, food gawker, yummly

    Whole food plant-baed diet

    The WFPB Diet -- What the heck is it, anyway?

    Favorite Recipes

    Dish of sauce and spoon.

    Chickpea Cheese Sauce

    Jar of mayo and spoon.

    Vegan Oil Free Mayonnaise - 4 Ways

    Pesto jar and spoon.

    Easy Vegan Oil Free Pesto

    Vegan Mushroom Walnut Bolognese

    Lemony lentil turnip chowder bowl.

    Lemony Lentil Turnip Chowder [Vegan]

    vegan alfredo sauce in a bowl.

    Easy Vegan Chickpea Alfredo Sauce

    eggplant Parmesan slice.

    Easiest Vegan Eggplant Parmesan

    almond ricotta in ramekin with crusty bread on the side.

    Almond Ricotta Cheese

    chile relleno with cheese drizzle.

    Healthy Vegan Chile Relleno

    overhead image.

    Vegan Pizza Rolls with Spinach & Cheese

    As an Amazon associate, I may earn a small commission from your purchase, at no cost to you. Thanks for your support.

    Footer

    • Privacy Policy
      • Accessibility

      • Contact Us

      Copyright © 2023 Healthy Midwestern Girl

      783 shares

      Rate This Recipe

      Your vote:




      A rating is required
      A name is required
      An email is required

      Recipe Ratings without Comment

      Something went wrong. Please try again.