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This green apple smoothie is sweet tart, featuring dates to enhance the natural sweetness, balanced by the tartness of green apple and lemon.

Green Apple Smoothie

Writing a whole foods blog seems to make people think all sorts of things about you: that you have it all together, you have some kind of super-human desire to eat massive amounts of vegetables, that you’re a “smoothie person”. Ahh, to be a smoothie person. Truth is, in 4 years of food blogging, we’ve never come up with a smoothie recipe that didn’t taste bitter or turn out brown. And we certainly do not have it all together. Life is messy. We make random meals made of bits and pieces in the fridge. We love popcorn with lots of butter and salt (to a fault). We don’t really drink smoothies. Until this green apple smoothie.

Related: 10 Delicious Ways to Eat Leafy Greens

Green Apple Smoothie

Making this green apple smoothie

Healthy eating is a process. It’s hard to know when you’re “there”, and each person’s journey is completely unique. For Alex and me, all we know is that where we used to eat frozen packaged food and fast food, we now love to cook from scratch from our kitchen. And we consider that a win!

Wherever you are in your healthy eating journey, this green apple smoothie recipe is easy and quite tasty. We haven’t loved many of the green smoothie recipes we’ve tried, but this one hit the spot for both of us. It uses Medjool dates to enhance the natural sweetness, balanced by the tartness of the green apple and lemon. One tip: it’s best when freshly made, since refrigerating dulls the flavor. So if you can, whip up a batch and drink it immediately.

We hope you enjoy it, even if you’re not a self-described “smoothie person”. And remember, every small step towards whole food eating is a good one, even if you take a few steps backward in the process.

Looking for healthy breakfast recipes?

This green apple smoothie is a great way to start the day: here are a few other healthy breakfast recipes we love:

This recipe is…

This green apple smoothie recipe is vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, and plant-based.

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Green Apple Smoothie

Glowing Green Apple Smoothie | A Couple Cooks
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This green apple smoothie is sweet tart, featuring dates to enhance the natural sweetness, balanced by the tartness of green apple and lemon.

  • Author: a Couple Cooks
  • Prep Time: 5 minutes
  • Cook Time: 0 minutes
  • Total Time: 5 minutes
  • Yield: 1 large smoothie (or two small) 1x
  • Category: Drink
  • Method: Blended
  • Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 large green apple
  • 4 medjool dates
  • 3 cups spinach
  • 8 ice cubes
  • ½ cup water
  • 1 teaspoon fresh squeezed lemon juice

Instructions

  1. Core the apple and cut it into chunks (do not peel). Remove the pits from the dates.
  2. Place all ingredients a blender and blend. Add lemon juice and blend for a few seconds again. Serve immediately.

Notes

Adapted from YumUniverse

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About the authors

Sonja & Alex

Hi! We’re Sonja and Alex Overhiser, authors of the acclaimed cookbooks A Couple Cooks and Pretty Simple Cooking—and a real life couple who cooks together. We founded the A Couple Cooks website in 2010 to share seasonal recipes and the joy of home cooking. Now, we’ve got over 3,000 well-tested recipes, including Mediterranean diet, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, smoothies, cocktails, and more!

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11 Comments

  1. J Abi Bravo says:

    I’ve recently stopped consuming meat and dairy, so I’ve been looking into juicing and blending as a means to clean and reboot my system. I wasn’t sure I would like this since I had never used dates in a recipe. It was surprisingly delicious! I will definitely include this smoothie as my top 10. Thank you!

    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      So glad you enjoyed!

  2. Michelle says:

    Just made this smoothie today! It is delicious! Thanks for the great recipe!

    1. Sonja says:

      So glad you enjoyed it, Michelle! Thanks for trying it out :)

  3. Amy @ Thoroughly Nourished Life says:

    Oh yes, the ‘you must be so prepared and just so calm and do everything perfectly because you write a blog about healthy foods’. Um, no. And yes, sometimes healthy food bloggers do stand in their kitchen eating peanut butter and chocolate chips because that is life.
    Back to the smoothie – this looks perfect for a summer breakfast! Light and fresh and bright! I have just gotten on the smoothie train, and to be honest I am getting a little sick of bananas. This green apple and spinach smoothie sounds like just the change my breakfast needs :)

  4. Ksenia @ At the Immigrant's Table says:

    I’ve gotten into a smoothie habit in the winter, and it honestly has transformed my life. I no longer feel weighed down by breakfast, nor do I get intense hunger pangs by mid-afternoon. I just make a two-serving smoothie and sip on it until about 2pm! That being said, most of my smoothies aren’t that inspiring, so I’m always on the look-out for new recipes. This looks great, and I’m always a fan of dates as sweetener. Thanks!

  5. taylor @ greens & chocolate says:

    As much as I’d love to be a smoothie person, I’m just not. I need some chew in my breakfast! But this smoothie looks super refreshing…we just went to the apple orchard yesterday so I’m thinking it’s time to give smoothies another shot!

  6. Katie @ Whole Nourishment says:

    I like that you say healthy eating is a process and each person’s journey is unique. I guess the downside of social media is that it makes everyone and everything appear perfect. Thanks for being real and honest – it’s one of the reasons I like your blog. :) And this is the most gorgeously green smoothie I have seen! Love its simplicity and brightness.

  7. Chrystin says:

    Yum! Trying this smoothie this week! I’ve been wanting to try a smoothie with dates in it for some time now. Now I just have to search for them at the supermarket!

    Kisses from Buenos Aires xx
    http://amateandarottweiler.blogspot.com.ar/

  8. Liz @ Floating Kitchen says:

    This smoothie is such a beautiful color! I love to put dates in my smoothies. They are so good and give them just the right amount of sweetness!

  9. Karishma says:

    I am very intrigued by this recipe! it’s funny what you said about people thinking healthy cooks are smoothie people, haha. I think it’s definitely true.

    I am really interested by the use of dates here! But I have a lot of spinach around, so I think I’m going to try this!