Apple pie smoothie bowl at Cowbell Kitchen
This multi-layered, multi-textured vegan bowl features a frozen base of apples and bananas, topped with a warm, batter-like walnut-pecan-maple nut butter, plus slices of raw apple and crunchy granola that could work as easily as a morning pick-me-up or an afternoon sweet treat. // 116 E. Market St., Leesburg; cowbellkitchen.com
Acai bowl at Post Coffee Bar
Arriving icy and purple, acai is blended with agave and on-trend oat milk, topped with even more fruit (dragon fruit, mangoes, bananas, blueberries, strawberries) and crunchy granola all served in a giant plastic container normally reserved for egg drop soup. It’s sweet and cold and it feels really good going down. // 7902 Tysons One Place, Tysons; postcoffeebar.com
Ash ice cream in an ash cone at Munch
The benefits of ingesting activated charcoal have probably been exaggerated, but eating this inky ice cream lush with coconut feels slightly less naughty anyway. // The Block: 4221 John Marr Drive, Annandale; munchicecream.com
Cave Monkey smoothie at South Block
This is like drinking a thick, creamy milkshake, but because it’s filled with banana, peanut butter, raw cacao and almond milk, and sold at the same place also hawking green juice and ginger shots, it somehow seems healthier. // Multiple NoVA locations; southblockjuice.com
Poke bowl at Grove
The world doesn’t make any sense and neither does this poke bowl with steamed kale and housemade kimchi and seaweed salad, but there’s enough “cusabi” (cucumber-wasabi sauce) to make all of those chunks of sesame-soy dressed raw tuna still a fresh option. // 2673-C Avenir Place, Vienna; thegroveus.com
See the full Comfort Food feature from the January issue here.
