Coconut Dream Smoothie

Los Angeles gave us this smoothie, and for once I'll give that city credit where it's due. The original costs twenty dollars at a certain grocery store where movie stars pretend to be regular people. Yours will cost a fraction of that and taste better because you made it yourself.

The secret is frozen banana. Not cold banana. Not room temperature banana thrown over ice. Frozen solid, sliced before freezing, ready to blend into something approaching soft-serve consistency. This is what gives the smoothie its body, that thickness that holds the straw upright and requires a spoon to finish.

Blue spirulina provides the color without the pond-water taste of its green cousin. It's an algae, yes, but a civilized one. The flavor is nearly imperceptible beneath the coconut and banana. What you get is a pastel blue that photographs beautifully and tastes like a tropical vacation you didn't have to book.

Walnut milk brings an earthiness that grounds all that sweetness. If you can't find it, cashew milk works admirably. What you want is richness without competing flavors. This is not the place for oat milk's assertive grain or almond milk's bitter undertone.