How to Make a Perfect Healthy Smoothie Every Single Time (2024)

Feel like you're constantly short on time and nutrients? Smoothies can be a great way to make a quick meal or snack that's packed with good-for-you ingredients...but only if you're choosing the right ingredients and ratios for a healthy drink that actually tastes good.

Poor smoothie planning could lead to something that tastes like watery kale, or, conversely, a milkshake. The former might have you tossing your personal blender in the back of the cabinet to collect dust, and the latter will easily wreck your diet if you continue to down these drinks thinking they're "healthy."

So, what's the right way to make a smoothie? Follow these five simple tips on how to make a healthy smoothie from Harley Pasternak, Shape Brain Trust advisory board member, nutrition specialist, and celebrity trainer. Pasternak's New York Times best-selling cookbook, The Body Reset Diet (Buy It, $14, amazon.com), features healthy smoothies loved by celebs such as Halle Berry, Kim Kardashian, and Jessica Simpson. (Psst: Pasternak even helped Simpson lose 100lbs after her last pregnancy.)

Below, the unofficial smoothie king (no, really, he used to have a healthy line at Jamba Juice — read how one editor faired after two weeks drinking the Harley-approved smoothies) shares how to make a healthy smoothie that's just as satisfying as it is nutritious.

1. Include the "Holy Trinity of Satiety" (protein, fiber, and healthy fats).

The first step when you're learning how to make a healthy smoothie: Focus on specific nutrients. You may know all about macros by now: protein, carbs, and fat — the macronutrients your body needs to survive, but Pasternak has a different set of nutrients he likes to focus on when building a healthy smoothie.

"Every smoothie should have what I call the 'holy trinity of satiety' — protein, fiber, and healthy fat," says Pasternak. Plus, you can extend this method to all your meals to make meal prep even easier. "The same applies to salads, sandwiches, scrambles, stir-fries, and every meal you eat."

Protein: When it comes to protein, you have some options: Experiment with protein powder, cottage cheese, or "strained yogurts" (aka Greek or Icelandic). "Strained yogurts are fermented longer and have significantly more protein and less sugar than traditional yogurts," says Pasternak. If you can't seem to get passed the powdery texture, silken tofu is a good option that will make your smoothie thick without adding an overpowering flavor.

Fiber: Next, for fiber, add plenty of fibrous fruits such as berries and fruits you can eat with the skin on (think: apples and grapes), which tend to have more fiber and less sugar than tropical fruits with a tougher outside layer that you peel away (think: pineapples, mango, bananas). Don't forget about veggies for fiber and micronutrients, too. "Vegetables like cucumber, zucchini, and spinach don't have powerful flavor profiles and can be blended into a smoothie without significantly changing the flavor profile," says Pasternak. (

And don't avoid the frozen aisle when you're learning how to make healthy smoothies. Pasternak actually recommends using frozen fruit versus fresh in your smoothie. Yep, since frozen fruit is picked and sealed at its nutritional peak, it contains more vitamins and antioxidants than its "fresh" counterparts, according to research from the University of Chester in England. "I like frozen fruit for smoothies for a few reasons — it's more economical because you can buy in bulk without worrying about it rotting; you can buy out-of-season ingredients; and it provides a delicious, refreshing icy texture to the smoothie," he says.

Fat: Lastly, add a sprinkle of seeds, nuts, or avocado for a healthy dose of unsaturated fats, which are preferred fats for good heart health. See, learning how to make a healthy smoothie isn't as difficult as you'd think. (

2. Choose your liquids wisely.

This tip on how to make a healthy smoothie may seem insignificant, but trust, it can make a huge difference in your drink's nutritional profile. Though non-dairy milk alternatives, such as pistachio, oat, and almond "milk," are taking up more and more real estate on grocery store shelves, Pasternak says he prefers good ol' cow's milk in his smoothies (and on its own, for the record). Why? "Real dairy milk has two incredibly high-quality proteins — casein and whey — and is a rich source of calcium and vitamin D," he says.

If you have a dairy allergy, just make sure your milk alternative has a good amount of protein, such as Planet Oat Milk (Buy It, $3, walmart.com), Silk Soymilk (Buy It, $3, walmart.com), or Lactaid (Buy It, $4, walmart.com), and contains calcium and vitamin D. Many non-dairy milks are fortified with these nutrients.

At the end of the day, all your efforts to craft a smoothie could be useless without the proper tool to blend it all together. So if you want to put these tips on how to make a healthy smoothie into practice, invest in a blender that can cut it — literally.