You’ve seen these vibrant smoothie bowls all over Instagram. Vegan or not, you scroll through the infinite feed of rainbow bowls and wish your breakfast was as visually stimulating. “How do people have time in the morning to make their meal so pretty?” Today, I will take you behind the camera lens and share 4 secrets to making the best Green Smoothie Bowl. #vegan #hclf #Icanspeakhashtag

Before I unleash my tips ‘n tricks, I want to make one thing clear: on an average weekday, I do not have the time to make my breakfast look this #blogworthy. Some people we know #IRL think that every meal we eat must be super glam and as presentable as what our blog depicts. To put things into perspective, executing this photo shoot took a whole hour #eatingmeltedsmoothiessince2014. Over 60 photos later, I’m certain this isn’t an I’ve-got-to-get-to-work-at-7am type of breakfast (the sun isn’t even up at that time). The reality is we are too lazy to make anything but a sloppy bowl of oatmeal or plain boiled broccoli. So please, don’t feel unaccomplished if you can’t make every breakfast this beautiful. We’re all human and got things to do and places to be. But when you do get that morning to treat yourself to a bountiful breakfast bowl, here’s how to do it.

Secret #1: Thick consistency

Breakfast isn’t breakfast unless I’ve had my green smoothie. Every morning I’ll whiz a single serving in my Magic Bullet and have that before eating my cereal. While Chew prefers to drink her smoothies, I like mine thick enough to spoon. Thus, this recipe is leaning on the ‘nice cream’ side of the smoothie spectrum. The thickness also helps prevent the mass of toppings from sinking. After making this smoothie over 300 times, I’m pretty darn sure I’ve got the consistency down pact.

To ensure your smoothie is as smooth as can be, load your blender with the coconut water and spinach closest to the blade so that all the spinach is liquefied before the frozen fruit gets incorporated. It’ll also save you the hassle of stopping the blender and poking it around to get everything to blend properly.

Secret #2: Choose your colours wisely

My mom took me on a grocery trip to an Asian mall and we legit dodged around swarms of grannies at 10am for cheap produce. I came back with dragon fruit, kumquats, and scored some discounted blackberries, so that’s what went on top today. As you can see, the fruits I used drastically contrast the green. Make your bowl a feast for the eyes by picking colours that pop against your smoothie. Or you can choose the other extreme and go monochromatic like I did here.

Secret #3: Add some texture

You also want to have a pretty and tasty smoothie bowl. Since everything so far has been fruity and juicy, I like to add some crunch. Try some cereal like this Brown Rice Cacao Crisp, homemade granola, toasted nuts, coconut, or chia seeds. I’ve seen other Instagrammers also add a creamy element with a scoop of nut butter.

I feel the need to insert a cereal interlude here because I’m a cereal fanatic like Chew (can you tell why we’re best friends?) and we all know how great it is to have chocolate milk waiting for you after the last spoonful of cereal (what Chew called ‘soy milk on steroids’ in this post). Well friends, not only does One Degree’s Brown Rice Cacao Crisp make a great smoothie topping, it’s also the healthier grown-up version of Nesquik and Cocoa Puffs cereal. But even better because it tastes like dark chocolate. YAAAAS! Reliving my childhood with #noragrats. You should definitely track down a box of this vegan cereal goodness and join our chocolate soy (or almond) milk drinking shenanigans.

Okie dokie, moving on to the final secret to make sure your smoothie doesn’t taste like a sad overpriced salad from the supermarket.

Secret #4: But I can still taste the spinach!

I know every time I mention ‘green smoothie’ my best friend scrunches up her nose in disgust. Yes it is greener than Shrek but no it does not taste like spinach dip. (Even though spinach dip is delicious) After testing every combination for green smoothies, here are my non-scientific-completely-observer-biased findings:

• Spinach blends smoother than kale, especially if you are not using a Vitamix-like blender. So if you don’t want stringy pieces of kale fibre to ruin your morning, use baby spinach.
• Coconut water is sweeter than almond milk, which helps mask the spinach-y taste.
• Papaya tastes best in this recipe, but my next favourites are mango, peach, and pineapple. In that order. Use yellow/orange coloured fruit to retain the greenness of the smoothie. If you use berries, you’ll end up with an unappetizing shade of brown. Blech.
• Use very ripe bananas for maximum sweetness. The spottier the better.
• If you insist you still taste the spinach, add some vanilla protein powder. It’ll taste like dessert after that.

Now that you are armed with all the information needed to make the perfect Instagrammable green smoothie bowl, don’t forget to tag us @radiantrachels so we can see your one-of-a-kind masterpiece!