Autumn breakfast bento and whole feijoa smoothie

Tamara West

Bento boxes are the opposite of smoothies, with everything presented separately so you can enjoy all the different tastes and textures. With feijoas and tamarillos available I’ve compiled a selection of my favourite autumn breakfast goodies. It’s easy to just arrange these around a wide bowl if you want to save dishes. Imagine how good you’ll feel with all this fresh fruit to start your day — and it boosts your vitamin C with winter coming. Speaking of which, have you tried feijoa skin in a smoothie? Huge flavour hit! You can tweak the number of peeled ones vs unpeeled to suit your taste — every day is different after all. For a bit of substance, I’ve also made almond meal moistened with orange juice — like raw porridge. And the tamarillo and coconut cream is visually stunning. It’s fun to combine different versions of the same fruit, as I have done with fresh and dried pear. Feel free to just make a few of these options at any given time, I’m always experimenting to see what tastes good and goes well together.

Bento

3 Tbsp	Freshly squeezed orange juice
⅓ cup	Ground almonds
2 Tbsp	Sliced almonds
2	Dates, firm, thinly sliced (optional)
2	Tamarillos, peeled and sliced (Main)
3 Tbsp	Coconut cream
2 large	Feijoas, peeled and sliced
1 small	Pear, grated
1	Dried pear, thinly sliced

Smoothie

4 medium	Feijoas, with skins on, from fridge, or 2 large (Main)
¾ cup	Rice milk
¼ cup	Coconut cream
1	Banana, frozen in pieces (Main)

Directions

1. Make the almond porridge by mixing orange juice with ground almonds, then topping with sliced almond and dates.
2. Serve the tamarillo slices arranged on a bed of coconut cream, and the feijoas sliced thinly on their own.
3. Grate the pear and top with very thinly sliced dried pear for a different taste and texture of the same fruit.
4. Make the smoothie last so it doesn't go brown. Blend all smoothie ingredients until the feijoa skins are very well broken down and serve in a small glass.