The sweet side of the avocado

For a while I've been meaning to experiment with avocados used in sweet things, but every time I buy avocados and they are sitting, perfectly ripe on my counter, all I can think about is a squeeze of lime, Maldon salt and a drizzle of the basil infused oil I brought back from France. Needless to say, until today, I hadn't gotten around to all my sweet avocado ideas!

My first idea came to me a while ago when I began making matcha lattes with almond milk, which I keep a stash of in my pantry. I love the slightly sweet, slightly almondy, creamy smoothness of almond milk to tone down the grassiness of matcha. I love starting the day with matcha, but sometimes the intensity and the greenness is a little much for me first thing in the morning. Matcha is super healthy and contains lots of antioxidants, the reason why it's better for you than regular green tea is due to the fact that you consume the whole leaf when you drink it rather than just the infusion of the leaves. Anyways, it occurred to me to combine avocado with matcha in a morning smoothie, to play on the green colour, but I wanted something with a little more flavour. Banana came to mind, as it has the power to make any smoothie sweet enough and gives great body and texture when pureed.

So this morning was test time. I decided to try frozen banana, avocado, almond milk and matcha. It worked! It was so creamy, cool and sweet, without being cloying and it felt just right for a morning pick me up. Plus, isn't everything green cool right now?

Green Sunrise Smoothie

1/2 an avocado (rub the other half with lemon, wrap tightly and save to throw in a salad later)

1 frozen banana (I freeze mine, peeled, in ziplock bags when they start to get brown and spotty)

about 1/2 cup of almond milk

1 tsp honey

1/2-1 tsp matcha powder (if you've never tried matcha, use a small amount to start, it has a pretty intensely green and slightly bitter taste)

Whizz everything in the blender and pour into a glass. Drink immediately, before it has the chance to turn a not so appealing khaki colour. Feel great about starting your day in such a healthy way. Serves 1.