Orange Sunshine Smoothie

anti-inflammatory antioxidants beverage breakfast citrus drink fruit gluten-free healthy kid-friendly plant-based post-workout protein recipe smoothie snack vitamin c whole food plant-based winter Feb 28, 2026

This Immune Boosting Orange Ginger Smoothie is a bright, delicious, plant-based recipe designed to support immune health during the winter months. Made with fresh orange, ginger, turmeric, and frozen banana, it’s naturally creamy, vitamin C–rich, and full of anti-inflammatory ingredients that help you feel nourished and energized.

It's a glass full of sunshine that comes together in just a few minutes and can easily be adapted to fit your needs. Enjoy it as an immune-supporting breakfast, a post-workout smoothie, or an afternoon pick-me-up. I also include options for adding almond powder or vanilla plant-based protein to make it more filling and supportive of your active lifestyle.

Have you arrived here from YouTube? If so, welcome!

If you missed it, you can watch me make an Immune Boosting Orange Ginger Smoothie in my YouTube video.

Click below to watch (the video will open in a new window), and then return here afterward to reference the instructions.

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💡 Scroll down for equipment and ingredient recommendations 👇

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Ingredients

This recipe yields 1 large or 2 small servings.

1 navel orange, peeled (leave as much of the white pith as you can)
½ cup to ¾ cup of water
1 frozen banana, sliced (or 1 fresh banana)
5 to 6 ice cubes (or up to 12 ice cubes if using a fresh banana)
1 to 2 tsp fresh, grated ginger (increase to 1 TBSP if you're a ginger fanatic)
½ tsp ground turmeric
Pinch of ground black pepper
1 scoop low-fat, high-protein almond powder
1 serving vanilla plant-based protein powder (optional)

Instructions

Peel your navel orange. Quick tip: Use a knife to slice a shallow X into the orange peel on opposite sides.

This makes it easy to work your fingers under the peel.

Peel the orange, leaving as much of the white pith on the fruit as you can, as the white part includes plenty of fiber and other beneficial nutrients that we want in the smoothie, too.

Pull the orange apart into sections and drop them into the bottom of your blender container. As a general practice, it's usually helpful to put the juiciest ingredients into the blender first, since that'll help the blades move the ingredients around and make the smoothie... well, smoother 🙂

In this vein, add ½ to ¾ cup of water now, too.

Slice a frozen banana into pieces. I usually peel and freeze my bananas whole, then slice them once they're frozen. That way, they're easy to pull apart from one another (unlike frozen banana chunks which can be difficult to separate because they stick together and are hard to grip), and a knife will still slice through a whole banana quite easily once it's frozen.

Quick tip: If you haven't planned ahead to freeze a banana, you can use a regular fresh banana instead. Just double the quantity of ice cubes and the end result will be very similar!

Place the banana into the blender, too, along with the ice.

Grate some fresh ginger. I use a microplane for this task (see equipment recommendations below).

Pro tip: Store your fresh ginger root in the freezer (just wash it first). It stays fresher longer that way, and it's counterintuitively easier to grate when it's frozen! I think it's because freezing the ginger breaks down the fiber a bit. In any case, it's a total win!

If you're lukewarm on ginger, grate 1 tsp. If you like ginger, grate 2 tsp. And if you're a ginger fanatic, you can go all the way to 1 Tbsp (3 tsp) of ginger. The ginger flavor will be *very* strong that way, but personally I really love it. Transfer that to the blender, too.

Proceed by adding all the remaining ingredients.

If you're perplexed by the addition of black pepper, watch my video to hear an explanation! But the short version is that the presence of black pepper makes the benefits of the turmeric much better absorbed by your body.

And finally, if you just finished a workout and really want to amp up the protein factor of your smoothie, in addition to the almond powder you can add a serving of vanilla plant-based protein (see below for my favorite brand recommendations). If you add both (based on the brands that I use), you end up with over 34 g of plant-based protein in one serving 😎

Blend until smooth.

You may need to pause the blender once to scrape down the sides of the container if it looks like any of the ingredients are sticking. I use a silicone blender spatula for this, if necessary.

Overhead view inside the blender once the smoothie is completely blended: