Summer is here at last! And you know what that means…lots of summer fruits! So to celebrate the onset of summer, how about a green smoothie bowl decorated with fresh strawberries, blueberries and festive vegetable cut out flowers? It looks a little bit like a garden in a bowl!

I have been including more veggies in my smoothies of late, balancing the sweetness of the fruit with some savoury notes (and getting more veggies in!). This smoothie contains greens (kale or spinach), courgette and is lightly sweetened with banana and sweet strawberries with the toppings adding additional sweetness and texture.

To bump up the nutritional profile, I have included chia seeds, and protein powder and I have provided options for wheatgrass and green tea powder too.

This smoothie bowl is super refreshing, tasty and fun to make with the kids! I love it as a healthy breakfast and as a pre or post-workout energy boost. The fun bit is deciding what toppings you want and making those pretty flowers!

Time: 5 mins

Makes: 500ml

Ingredients:

• 80g baby spinach or kale
• 2 frozen bananas*
• 80g chunk of courgette
• Handful of ripe strawberries
• 1 tbsp. Chia seeds or ground flaxseed
• 1 thumb sized piece of fresh root ginger
• 2 tbsp protein powder (I use pea or soya bean varieties).
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 60ml coconut water or plant milk
• Optional: 1 tsp. green tea powder or ½ tsp. wheatgrass powder or 2 tsp. baobab superfruit powder

*Frozen if possible. This will work too unfrozen, but the end result will be less creamy

Topping ideas: yoghurt drizzle, fresh fruit, granola, coconut, chips, goji berries, crushed pistachios, cut out radish flowers and carrot flowers, passion fruit, and pumpkin seeds

Method:

• Add all smoothie ingredients into a blender and whizz to combine. Pour into a bowl and decorate as desired. For the yoghurt drizzle, gently spoon some yoghurt on top of the smoothie and feather slightly with a toothpick.
• To make the vegetable flowers, slice the radish and carrot thinly and using a cutter, press down firmly. Eject out the flower and decorate with a pinch of chia seeds (to emulate stamens) using tweezers or top with half a blueberry. Enjoy!

Don’t forget you can find my favourite recipes in my FREE eBook here.