We’ve all had moments of going overboard on indulgent eats and treats during the holidays, on vacation, or for celebrations, and need something to get back on track, right? That’s where my Green Detox Smoothie comes in handy!
This gluten free, dairy free, and banana free smoothie recipe is packed with good for you, detoxifying ingredients including baby spinach, orange, carrot, ginger, chia seeds, and pineapple – which I used instead of a banana to thicken and sweeten the smoothie. Throughout the years of posting smoothie recipes with bananas here on IGE I’ve learned that many people are either allergic or can’t stand the taste of bananas. Who knew?
Well, banana haters, this smoothie’s for you!
Including ingredients with benefits ranging from boosting metabolism to removing toxins, reducing inflammation and aiding in digestion, this smoothie will make you feel fantastic after a little too much indulging. Most importantly, it tastes great!
My Green Detox Smoothie recipe is actually based on one of my all-time favorite juice recipes, which I tend to make at a feverish pace after the holidays. It includes spinach, carrot, orange, and ginger. Since a juicer isn’t a common find in most people’s homes though, I thought I’d adapt it for the blender. The result is a smoothie that’s so healthy I can hardly even stand it and, although it’s packed with vitamins and minerals, it tastes like a drink you’d get at a tropical resort on vacation!
How to Make This Recipe:
Start by adding almond milk to your blender followed by baby spinach, chopped pineapple, chopped carrot, and peeled orange, followed by chia seeds, and fresh ginger. Blend the smoothie until VERY smooth, adding more almond milk if needed. Finally, add a cup of ice cubes then blend again until smooth.
Tips for cutting a pineapple:
I wanted to show you real quick how easy it is to chop an entire pineapple at home vs buying it pre-cut from the grocery store which sells it at a PREMIUM. Look for a pineapple that’s more yellow than green, which indicates it’s ripe and sweet, then slice the top and bottom off.
Next, cut the rind off in strips, going deeper than you think you should to get all the tough eyes off. That said, you can go back around after you’re done to clean it up a bit.
Slice the pineapple into quarters then place each quarter cut-side down and slice the core out on an angle. Slice into strips then chop. That’s it!
Another note, I used chia seeds in this smoothie not only because they help thicken it up without having to use a banana but also because they are nutritional POWERHOUSES full of fiber, protein, calcium, and iron. I love adding them to Lincoln’s smoothies especially because he can’t eat dairy and I’m always looking for good calcium sources for him. Chia seeds are usually in the health market section of the grocery store.
Pour this vibrant Green Detox Smoothie into a glass then immediately reap the rewards!
Similar Recipes:
- Best Ever Green Smoothie >
- Blueberry Muffin Smoothie >
- Strawberry Shortcake Smoothie >
- Tropical Pineapple, Mango & Orange Smoothie >
free email bonus!
5 Day Clean Eating Guide
Fresh and craveable recipes + healthy eating tips!
Green Detox Smoothie (Gluten, Dairy & Banana Free!)
Description
Back on Track Green Detox Smoothie is gluten, dairy, and banana free. Perfect for resetting after over indulging!
Ingredients
- 1/4 - 1/2 cup plain almond milk
- 2 cups lightly packed fresh baby spinach leaves
- 1 cup chopped fresh or frozen pineapple
- 1 medium-sized carrot, peeled then chopped
- 1 clementine or 1/2 orange
- 1 teaspoon chia seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh microplaned or minced ginger (optional)
- 6 ice cubes
Directions
- Add 1/4 cup almond milk to the blender then add spinach, pineapple, carrot, clementine, chia seeds, and fresh ginger if using. Blend until very very smooth, adding up to 1/4 cup more almond milk to reach desired consistency (I used 5 Tablespoons total.) Add ice cubes then blend again until smooth.
This recipe is courtesy of Iowa Girl Eats, http://iowagirleats.com.
I need this too. Lots of food and drinks over the weekend. Feeling blah now that it’s Monday.
Green smoothies for everyone! Perfect timing. :)
Random question but where did you get Lincoln’s smoothie cup from and what brand? I’m on the hunt and the cups with straws we have right now aren’t quite right for toddler smoothies.
I second this question! My 18 month olds love smoothies but I am struggling with a good straw cup for them!
My Mom actually bought a bunch of them from the $1 store, believe it or not, for the grandkids, and gave me a couple!
I do love a good smoothie. My grocery list for today has lots of smoothie and juice ingredients to get me through these next few weeks of indulgence! I usually throw a banana in because I don’t know what else to do, but I will have to give this a try!
Your Thanksgiving looks like it was so fun!!! Love all of these great people in your life. :)
And cheers to detox smoothies, especially sans bananas!
Finally a smoothie that looks great and no bananas! Nothing against the little guys but sometimes banana free smoothies call my name!
I am incredibly allergic to bananas (it’s a latex-fruit allergy and fairly serious) so I sooooo appreciate this recipe!!!! Thank you so much! Can’t wait to give it a try!
Perfect – I hope you enjoy!
Perfect timing!! I just got a new blender yesterday and was on the hunt for some new smoothie recipes!
I think you left out the orange in the recipe at the bottom…but it sounds delicious. Looking forward to trying it!!
Ahh, you’re right – thank you for the heads up!!
Yum! I’ve never tried adding pineapple or carrots to a smoothie…must add this to the list. I also started the day with a green smoothie, with frozen peaches, banana and lots of spinach!
cannot wait to try this! happy to see no banana and the addition of pineapple. thanks!
Glad to see dairy and banana free smoothie. I like the idea of a smoothie, but the texture of banana in it freaks me out!
I don’t have a fancy blender. Will this work in just a regular blender? Or will the carrots be too hard?
Thanks!
Good question! If you have an extra carrot I would do a trial run with just a carrot and some water and see if your blender can get it smooth enough. If it passes the test you can make the smoothie as written – if not, just omit the carrot and it will still be delicious!
Banana-hater and carrot-disliker here! Thanks for the banana-free smoothie. For the carrots, I bet that using shredded carrots would work in the blender easier than just chopped carrots, and you would avoid any big chunks. :-)
I just made this and shredded my carrots using a cheese grater and they blended in perfectly!
Super excited to try this since i am allergic to bananas. Do you soak your chia seeds before or just throw them in as is? Also, if you were to make this in a juicer, do you do anything different? Thanks! xoxo
I just throw the chia seeds in without soaking. Also, if I were to juice this I would omit the chia seeds, almond milk, and ice!
Since it’s going in the blender, do you really need microplane the ginger? Or could you just add a slice? Maybe a 1/4″-1/2″ or so?
I would at least mince it because I always seem to find a long fiber or two if I throw it in whole. I think 1/4″ is plenty!
You’re so inspirational to get back on track! Looks delicious.
C.
I’m excited to try the breakfast casserole when I have guests over the holidays! Thanks for sharing! I would love it if you would share your award-winning gumbo recipe! :)
YAY.. no bananas! one of the allergic ones here :-) I would also love the gumbo recipe!
Just curious what kind of almond milk you use? Sweetened? Unsweetened? Flavored? My son drinks a blend of the So delicious protein plus unsweetened, with a splash of the “original” (sweetened) thrown in while we slowly work him all the way off the sweetened one. So I have both on hand and was wondering which would work best in this recipe?
I use original unsweetened almond milk (HyVee brand) but whatever you have on hand will work great!
Any suggestions for an almond milk substitute for someone with a nut allergy? Dumb question, but would you just use cow’s milk?
Totally – whatever you’ve got around in the fridge!
I made your crockpot breakfast casserole for Thanksgiving morning too!! So good! We all loved it! And I’m loving Kerry’s new cut! She finally decided to chop it, huh!?
Looks like a great holiday! Check out a creative “what to do with thanksgiving leftovers” post on my blog if you get a chance! :)
Is there oatmeal in this? The picture looks like a scoop is added in.
I tested (then photographed) a version including old fashioned oats, but liked the texture chia seeds gave the smoothie better!
It looks like you had a great Thanksgiving! I love the detox smoothie idea. I need to get back on track until the next holiday rolls around!
Gumbo recipe, YES PLEASE!!!!!
Yummo!! I love adding carrot juice to smoothies. It’s a nice cheat since I have a cheap blender lol. And I would love to have the gumbo recipe :) Glad you had a good holiday weekend!!
Heck yes… Please post the gumbo recipe! I’m salivating just thinking about a gumbo cook-off. And in the meantime, what can I bribe you with to send any leftovers our way???
I vote yes to the gumbo recipe too please!
seriously Lincoln is this cutest baby boy I’ve ever seen and you both are such wonderful parents.I love that you share family life with us as well as other things,I mean we all exercise,we all hit the gym,its refreshing not to read long drawn out scenerios of what others are doing in the gym.Looking forward to hearing about all your christmas preparations coming up.This is why your blog is such a success and others drone on and are quite dull,you pepper your blog with real life dailey things,job well done hun
Would you kind sharing what type of bag you have in the photo worh your friends? Ive been looking for something just likw it for work for the longest time ! Thanks!!
Here’s the link: http://www.neimanmarcus.com/MICHAEL-Michael-Kors-Large-Bedford-Tassle-Pebbled-Shoulder-Bag/prod157770276/p.prod I got it last year and it looks like he’s not selling it anymore, at least not on his site, but the description can give you an idea as to the dimensions/size!
This looks yummy. I was wondering about the smoothie cup too- young toddlers + removable straws in cups= mess! One pineapple tip- if you have a vitamix or blendtec, you can use the core of the pineapple in smoothies. This stretches the pineapple a bit in our house so there is more fruit for the kids to snack on.
All of your photos are beautiful! – especially the one of your little boy. Congrats on the win, though I’m not surprised. Your recipes look wonderful!
Hi! Looks good! As someone who is not a dietitian, what is the best way to know if a recipe will truly help to detox the body? There’s a bunch of recipes out there now (and after the holidays) that say so. How can we know which ones will really do the job?
I usually take a look at the ingredients and research them separately. All the ingredients in this smoothie (with the exception of the almond milk) provide great health benefits to the body. Let me know if I can provide some sources for you!
Yes, I would love to know of some credible sources for looking up different nutrition information. There’s a lot out there on the internet and it’s hard to know sometimes what the facts are. Thank you!
You got it! Here are the sources I used:
Carrots & spinach: http://www.chicagonow.com/get-fit-chicago/2013/12/10-foods-that-detox-your-body-and-cleanse-your-liver/
Citrus: http://www.organicauthority.com/health/skip-the-juice-diet-10-natural-food-detox.html
Ginger: http://www.thealternativedaily.com/cleansing-and-detoxing-benefits-of-ginger-3-ways-to-start-ginger-boosting/
Pineapple:
Chia seeds: http://www.naturalhealth365.com/food_news/512_chia_seeds.html
Go to Facebook and look up pages for Drew Canole and Dr. Josh Axe. They have AMAZING nutritional information. Also, there’s a fantastic book, filled with a ton of information about healthy eating, by Dee McCaffrey. You can find it on Amazon. It’s called “The Science of Skinny,” and it doesn’t mean getting skinny. It’s about eating processed-free foods and how there are thousands of additives that get put into our food that causes all kinds of disease and poisons our body. She also has two cookbooks out.
Congrats on your totally awesome victory!! And THANK YOU for making a banana free smoothie, I love bananas in certain things/smoothies, but not in others!
This was so tasty and refreshing. My 3 year old loved it too! Thanks for a much needed hit of healthy food after a weekend of indulging.
Your recipes are always very inspirational! Would you please please share the gumbo recipe with us? I’ve eaten it onece when I was in Savannah, GA and literally keep dreaming about it!,
Have a fantastic season (it’s my favourite season, too)!Regards fron Germany!
Lincoln is absolutely adorable! This recipe looks delicious and I am anxious to try it. Thanks!!
I didn’t realize so many people had problems with bananas!? I love them, especially with peanut butter. I need to get my juicer back out, it’s been collecting dust for too long.
[…] green smoothie recipe to combat all the Christmas […]
If you have a Vitamix, you don’t need to take the core out of the pineapple. Simply cut a slice off the pineapple, core and all, then chop it in half and throw both parts in your Vitamix. Done deal!
How much and how often am I to drink this smoothie. I made it and love it. Just need to know how much. 8oz or?
You can drink it whenever you need a pick up!
Just curious if there are oats in it? It looks like there are oats in the picture?
What is a good substitute for spinach? Too much for me wreaks havoc on gout. Love your recipes!
I would just use less or leave it out!
Just wanted to say – tried this and loved it!! The only thing I did different is used cinnamon instead of ginger (only because I’m one of those ginger skeptics!) delicious!!
[…] Back on Track Green Detox Smoothie. I was hooked on green smoothies for a bit, but then life got crazy and I fell off the bandwagon. I think we all could use one of these detox smoothies with all the holiday cooking and eating that we’ve been indulging in! […]
[…] Back on Track Green Detox Smoothie. I was hooked on green smoothies for a bit, but then life got crazy and I fell off the bandwagon. I think we all could use one of these detox smoothies with all the holiday cooking and eating that we’ve been indulging in! […]
[…] Back on Track Green Detox Smoothie (Gluten, Dairy & Banana Free!) […]
[…] Spicy Mango Tango Green Smoothie ~ Healthy Slowcooking Green Tea Smoothie ~ Hola Jalapeno Back on Track Green Detox Smoothie ~ Iowa Girl Eats Tropical Green Smoothie ~ Joyful Healthy Eats No Brainer Fruits and Greens […]
This recipe is great! I wanted to share something I found out recently. Pineapple cores are great in smoothies and actually have the highest concentration of their digestive enzyme bromelain. I’ve been tossing the core for years!