Berry & Banana Smoothie Bowl With Greek Yoghurt Inspired By Tessa Cook

Tessa chose smoothies as one of her Desert Island Dishes. In fact she chose it as the dish she eats the most often. That makes a lot of sense and I think smoothies feature in a lot of people's weekly, if not daily lives. Tessa loves them because she can't abide food waste, and has two children so inevitably ends up with a few mushy bits of banana and some squashed strawberries lying around.

I love smoothies for the same reason Tessa does; you can just bung in a whole load of different things, whizz it all together and you have (probably) made something pretty delicious out of a few incongruous bits of fruit. I say probably because whilst I have actually never made a smoothie that didn't taste really good, nor indeed have I encountered one in any cafe, I can't guarantee you won't throw in something weird and make it taste bad. I know what you can be like.

But seriously, they are such an easy option when you need something for breakfast, or you want to give the kids some fruit to start the day but they're pushing the mushy piece of apple round their plate with a look of disdain and disinterest. I tend to stick to mainly fruit ones, but if I am feeling like I need to be extra healthy, you can throw in some spinach or a handful of kale. Some people avoid fruit in smoothies altogether but I have never been one of those people.

I also like Tessa, like to bung in some yoghurt, or milk, whether dairy, almond or coconut. I love keeping some bananas in the freezer as when you add them to the smoothie they go gorgeously creamy and delicious and just take your smoothie game to the next level. I also like making my smoothies particularly thick so that I can eat them with a spoon. I don't know why, but psychologically I just feel more fulfilled if I have eaten my meal rather than drunk it. That could just be me and my personal preference, but I would recommend starting your smoothie on the thicker end and you can always loosen it with some liquid or a few ice cubes if you want it less viscous.

I love Tessa's idea of freezing the smoothie into lolly moulds. I can't actually bear to think of anything frozen at the moment as its so cold outside and I'm hoovering all manner of comforting foods in a bid to keep warm. But as soon as the chilblains have gone, I'm going to make some lollies for sure.

Like with all the best recipes (in my opinion) you can really play around with this. Experiment with different fruit, and don't panic if you don't have the right ingredients. Just have fun using up what you have and seeing what flavours you like. If you want it sweeter, you can add a medjool date which is quite nice. I also like adding peanut butter and chocolate powder to just the frozen banana and making a delicious choco-peanut butter smoothie which is delicious!