Pineapple Matcha Smoothie

With sweet pineapple and banana, earthy matcha, and spinach, this Pineapple Matcha Smoothie is one healthy and simple Summer smoothie!

Do you like matcha?

I sort of like it. I like it in my Matcha White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies! 🙂 But I’ve been wanting to drink it more lately and drink less coffee instead.

More recently, I’ve realized that sometimes I get the jitters from drinking just one cup of coffee. My mom solely drinks de-caf coffee for that reason, so I guess the apple isn’t falling far from the tree here.

But drinking it plain as a hot matcha tea isn’t really my favorite. It has to be fixed up with some maple syrup and vanilla extract for me to get past the bold earthy flavor at least somewhat. It’s okay then, but I don’t want to drink it like that daily still.

So, how about a matcha smoothie? They’re easy, healthy, and can give me that extra pep in my step with no crash later.

I started seeing pineapple and matcha flavors together in a few different places recently and it peaked my curiosity. So I took my favorite basic banana spinach smoothie and turned it into this Pineapple Matcha Smoothie. And, it’s WAY better.

The sweet punch of pineapple goes really well with the earthy flavors of matcha. If you aren’t in love with earthy flavors, but like the idea of having more matcha and healthy smoothies in your life – THIS is the smoothie for you. And also, let’s be friends! 😉

Time to talk ingredients.

This easy Pineapple Matcha Smoothie is made with only 6 healthy ingredients: banana, pineapple, spinach, milk, vanilla and matcha.

First, you’ll need a ripe or overripe banana that’s frozen, and sliced prior to being frozen. It’ll blend up much easier that way. When my bananas are overripe I slice them up and put them in a large ziploc bag, squeeze as much air out as possible, and store them flat in my freezer. They last quite a while like this and work awesome for smoothies.

You could use a ripe/overripe banana that’s not frozen, but then you’ll need to use less milk or your smoothie will be too thin. For the best texture and consistency, I recommend a frozen banana.

Next, you’ll need to use frozen (or fresh) pineapple. Either one could work really, I just prefer to buy a large bag of frozen pineapple and keep it on hand for smoothies.

If you want a really strong flavor of pineapple then you’ll need to add more to the smoothie. This smoothie has a light, not overpowering, pineapple flavor. If I eat too much pineapple daily I get canker sores in my mouth really easily, so I stick to less! (Weird, but hey, it is what it is!) Same thing happens with salt and vinegar chips (ugh).

And, the star of the show: Matcha.

Matcha is green tea leaves that are blended up into a powder. It contains less caffeine than coffee, and also contains L-Theanine, which is supposed to give you “calming” energy (so, no coffee jitters, yay!).

Be sure to buy a high quality matcha powder if you can. It’s hard to know what “high quality” is, so I tend to check on Amazon and look at what has the highest ratings and what is from Japan. Typically they say what they’re best for (i.e. smoothies, baking, etc) so be on the lookout for that information as well.

If you aren’t a matcha pro, I recommend starting with only 1/2 teaspoon of matcha in this smoothie. If you know and love matcha, go ahead and go for the full teaspoon.

My last tip is to adjust the amount of milk in the smoothie recipe accordingly. If you like a thicker smoothie (almost like a smoothie bowl) then you’ll probably want about 1/2 cup of milk. If you want a thinner smoothie that you can drink through a straw, I’d say 3/4-1 cup. Whatever you like best, and your blender blends up best!

This healthy green smoothie makes a great breakfast, morning or early afternoon snack. It’s fruity, earthy, creamy, bold, and downright tasty!

You’ve gotta try this Pineapple Matcha Smoothie! And once you do, take pictures and tag me in them on Instagram. Or leave me a comment on this post. I love hearing feedback from you all!

If you want more healthy breakfast ideas, check out my Chocolate Granola, Spiced Pear Smoothie and Healthy Oat Waffles.

Print

Pineapple Matcha Smoothie

Prep Time

5 mins

Total Time

5 mins

 

Servings: 1 smoothie

Calories: 205 kcal

Ingredients

• 1 ripe/overripe banana, frozen*
• 1/4 cup frozen pineapple chunks
• 1 cup spinach
• 1/2-1 cup milk (like almond, skim, 2%, etc)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2-1 tsp matcha powder

Optional add-in's: maple syrup (1 tbsp), cinnamon (1/4 tsp), flax or chia seed (1 tbsp), nut butter (1 tbsp), protein powder.

Instructions

1. Add all ingredients to a high powered blender and blend till smooth. Add more milk, if needed.

2. Devour!

Recipe Notes

*For the best texture of smoothie, I would recommend using a frozen banana. However, this smoothie can be made with a ripe unfrozen banana, but I would recommend using less milk then.