How Do You Make Smoothie Bowls

Banana Raspberry Smoothie Bowl

Im just in love with the amazing natural colors of fruit taking the spotlight in smoothie bowls! I feel like its much easier to eat well when you enjoy the look of whats in your plate as well, plus if your food is colorful, this means it is full of nutrients! If youre wondering how to make a berry smoothie, this pastel-pink banana and berries smoothie is just perfect. It only takes 5 minutes to prepare, each serving is low in saturated fats and high in protein, and the entire yummy bowl is absolutely delicious!

You May Like: Night Time Smoothies

Our Expert Advice On How To Make Smoothie Bowls At Home Comes From A Smoothie Bowl Sommelier Prepare To Admire Your Beautiful Creation Before Indulging In The Delicious And Healthy Benefits Of Every Bite

Most mornings for me start by blending a healthy smoothie. Packed with fruit and veggies, I find it one of the best ways to kickstart my day with a natural boost of energy. When I’m not sipping my frozen breakfast with a straw, I also really enjoy diving spoon first into a smoothie bowl. Trending for quite a few years now, those beautiful vibrant breakfast bowls are just thicker, prettier smoothies you eat with a spoon covered with tasty toppings. If you’ve tried to learn how to make a smoothie bowl that’s as Instagram-worthy as the posts on your feed to no success, you’re in the right place.

While spending more time in our kitchens than ever, the folks at Ninja hired Gillean Barkyoumb, RDN, as its first-ever smoothie bowl sommelier. What does a smoothie sommelier do, exactly? She says her job is all about creating “inventive, indulgent, and drool-worthy smoothie bowl recipes” and providing “fellow smoothie bowl enthusiasts the confidence they need to perfect their smoothie bowls.” Sounds like my kind of job! Read on for expert advice on making homemade smoothie bowls.

Faqs About Smoothie Bowls

Are smoothie bowls healthy?

They absolutely can be. Each bowl is packed with fresh ingredients that provide healthy fats, fiber and protein. You can also skip the added sugar and rely on the fruit to sweeten your smoothie bowl naturally. Remember that moderation is key, so try not to go overboard on the toppings and be mindful of portion sizes!

How can I make my smoothie bowl thicker?

To make your smoothie bowl thicker, make sure to use frozen fruit to start. Including nut butter or unsweetened yogurt can help make a denser smoothie, too.

What else can you put in a smoothie bowl?

There are endless combinations. Add some extra protein to your smoothie bowl by including a handful of spinach and a scoop of protein powder with your mix.

For more flavors and textures, try some of these toppings:

Also Check: Green Smoothies For Weight Loss And Energy

The Easiest Smoothie Bowls

Youve gotta try this easy smoothie bowl recipe! Its only two ingredients.

A couple of years ago, I got really addicted to smoothie bowls. Mostly because theyre so easyand well.Instagram worthy. Haha. And this recipe is both of those things literally the easiest breakfast idea and so pretty!

I asked my friend Alejandra from Hell Yeah Gluten Free to share her smoothie bowl secrets with you. She makes the prettiest / most delicious smoothie bowls Ive had. And today Im sharing her recipe base, along with TONS of additional flavor combos.

Ingredients For Your Smoothie Bowl

With just a few ingredients, you can have this whipped up in no time, which makes it perfect for when you are in a hurry.

• Frozen strawberries: Using frozen preserves their nutrition and makes for a sweet smooth consistency.
• Frozen bananas: Peel and freeze overripe bananas to use for times such as this.
• Honey: Sweet and golden, honey is the perfect partner for your fruit.
• Greek yogurt: You can use nonfat or full-fat Greek yogurt, both work beautifully.
• Milk or almond milk: Add more or less milk depending on the consistency you are trying to achieve.

Don’t Miss: Smoothie Recipe With Frozen Fruit And Almond Milk

How To Make A Smoothie Bowl

If youve made a smoothie, you can make a smoothie bowl. A smoothie bowl is just a smoothie.IN A BOWL! Nothing tricky here. Heres how to make the best smoothie bowl on earth:

The Absolute Best Smoothie Bowl Recipe

This vegan smoothie bowl recipe is inspired by Hollys favorite smoothie bowl from JuiceLand in Austin. It tastes like a strawberry milkshake and its pure, creamy, healthy, heaven in a bowl. We love that smoothie bowls are quick to make and even easier to smother in healthy toppings than regular old smoothies that youd drink through a straw. Not only do smoothie bowl toppings make things a little more fun, but they also take a slightly-filling smoothie into the actual-meal category.

Don’t Miss: Fat Burning Smoothies For Breakfast

Making Smoothie Bowls Ahead Of Time

Preparing your favorite smoothie bowl recipes can take some time. Can you prepare and freeze them in advance?

Its safe to store smoothies in the freezer, as long as you use airtight containers. To thaw the blend, put it in the fridge overnight, but dont add toppings to your smoothie until before you intend to eat it.

You can slice up fruits for the topping and store it separately in your fridge. Remember that sliced fruits shouldnt be left outside of the fridge for more than two hours.

Is Drinking A Smoothie The Same As Eating Fruit

Unlike juices, smoothies retain the whole fruit, including the fibre, but don’t forget they are a source of ‘free’ sugars, which should make up no more than 5% of our energy intake. Another thing to consider is that because we drink smoothies rather than eat them, we do tend to consume them rather quickly.

Read Also: Best Homemade Smoothies To Lose Weight

Can You Eat A Smoothie Bowl For Lunch

Eating blended foods shortchanges you on fiber and satiation. The convenience of a smoothie or bowl also comes with a downside. Yes, a smooth, drinkable meal makes it easier to get those great, nutritious whole foods on the go, but your body doesn’t register those the same way as meals that require really chowing down.

Making The Smoothie Bowl Base

The key to a good smoothie bowl base is to keep the texture thick, almost like ice cream. Use these tips to get it just right:

Use frozen fruit.

To keep the smoothie bowl from being too runny, use as much frozen fruit and as little liquid as possible.

• Frozen bananas are helpful to create a creamy, frozen base: Just cut leftover or overripe bananas into chunks and freeze in plastic bags to keep them smoothie-bowl ready.
• Other frozen fruits are easy to find at the grocery such as frozen pineapple, frozen mango, and frozen berries.

This smoothie bowl features a rainbow of mixed frozen berries and banana — and so much more: “So nutritious, so quick and easy, so delicious!” raves Kassandre. “Experiment with different frozen fruit varieties or juices.”

Pictured recipe: Super Antioxidant Smoothie Bowl

Invest in a high-speed blender.

The best tool for a smoothie bowl base is a high-speed blender, which quickly and easily blends frozen fruit. If you don’t have a high-speed blender, a regular blender works as well, but you may need to stop and scrape the jar of the blender more often while blending.

Make the color pop.

Pictured recipe:Power Pink Pitaya Smoothie Bowl

Making a beautiful smoothie bowl base is half the fun, so use brilliantly colored ingredients for your smoothie. These exotic ingredients can help to infuse color into your smoothie bowl:

Don’t Miss: Smoothies That Keep You Full

Include A Source Of Protein

Toss in a scoop of plant-based protein powder, like one from Amazing Grass®, to kick up the muscle-building benefits and keep you feeling fuller for longer.

You can also get your proteins from nut butter or even frozen white beans. Another awesome component to include is spirulina, which has a plethora of health benefits, including a high protein count, healthy fats, and B vitamins, just to name a few.

Serving The Smoothie Bowl

The key to serving a smoothie bowl is to serve it as soon as possible. Once the smoothie is blended, it immediately starts to melt. A few tips for smoothie bowl serving:

Freeze the bowl.

Freeze your serving bowl while making the smoothie. This will help to slow down the melting process once your smoothie hits the bowl.

Prep Ahead.

Prepare and arrange all your smoothie bowl toppings before you blend the smoothie, including washing and chopping fruit. This way, you can immediately top and serve the smoothie bowl once the smoothie is ready.

That’s it! You’re ready to make a smoothie bowl. Now get blending!

Check out our collection of Smoothie Bowl Recipes.

Recommended Reading: How Much Does A Smoothie King Franchise Make

The Best Blenders For Smoothie Bowls

As noted above, a high-speed, powerful blender is going to do the best job in making a thick smoothie bowl that has a super smooth, creamy texture. If you’re always making smoothie bowls at home, Ninja actually has a special smoothie bowl maker and nutrient extractor that’s perfect for your smoothie bowl creations. It also comes with blender cups to make on-the-go morning smoothie drinks with ease.

Still looking for smoothie bowl ideas? After you’ve tried all your favorite fruit-and-veggie combos, we’ve got more smoothie bowl recipes for you to try for your next quick and healthy breakfast.

Add Your Smoothie Bowl Toppings

Once your smoothie bowl is blended to perfection, use a spatula to get every bit of the fruity goodness into your favorite bowl. if you want to upgrade your presentation.) Add your favorite fresh or dried fruits, nuts, and seeds to the top of each bowl. We like chia seeds on ours for a healthy boost of fiber, protein, and omega-3s. To make your smoothie bowl really shine, Barkyoumb says to “sprinkle each topping in vertical lines, create fun zig-zags with fresh fruit, or drizzle with your favorite nut butter or sweetener.”

Also Check: Peanut Butter Smoothie For Weight Loss

Ingredients For This Berry Smoothie Bowl

To make this delicious and thick berry smoothie bowl you need only a handful of healthy whole-food ingredients, then you can garnish with whatever you like or use my simple garnishes below.

Heres what youll need:

• frozen mixed berries
• avocado or nut butter of your choice
• pure maple syrup
• unsweetened almond milk

Using The Foundational Five To Create Smoothie Bowls

In case youre new to the NS Community and the Mindful Nutrition Method, the Foundational Five system is part of how we teach you to build balanced meals. It makes it easy for you to give your body the nourishment you need while having the flexibility to enjoy the foods you love without stressing about food.

The Foundational Five is made up of five elements of nutrition including Protein, Fat, Non-starchy Carbohydrates, Starchy & Sugary Carbohydrates, and the Flavor Factor .

You can that walks you through our Foundational Five system for creating balanced meals that you can use to meal prep or cook fresh this week!

You May Like: Smoothies To Reduce Belly Fat

Helpful Tips And Tricks

• While I have not tried every blender out there, it is incredibly difficult to get a super thick smoothie bowl unless you have a blender that comes with a tamper . This is the blender that I own. It has lasted years of daily use but isnt cheap. Here is a well-reviewed much more affordable option. If you dont care about thickness, then the type of blender wont matter as much- youll just need to adjust the amount of liquid.
• Dont rush it. In other words, dont try to rush your blender from 0 to 60 without giving it the proper time to get there .

Strawberries ‘n’ Cream Smoothie Bowl

To make the smoothie, blend strawberries, yogurt, maple syrup and vanilla. The toppings are cornflakes, strawberries, blueberries, almonds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and a drizzle of yogurt. Scale the toppings up or down on this one depending on what you have on hand. Get the recipe at the bottom of the post.

Read Also: Mcdonalds Strawberry Banana Smoothie Price

Best Smoothie Bowl Toppings

OK, so the list of toppings for a smoothie bowl is practically endless, but here are some popular choices.

• Coconut flakes or shredded coconut
• Nuts chopped or sliced almonds, walnuts, pecans, or cashews
• Seeds chia, flax, or pumpkin seeds
• Nut butter peanut, almond, or cashew
• Fresh fruit sliced bananas, berries, pomegranate, pineapple, or mango

How To Make An Easy Smoothie Bowl

Ready to eat in less than 5 minutes, I call this a winning meal. Fast, refreshing and super good for you. Oh, and did I mention its luscious!?

Don’t Miss: What Goes In A Banana Smoothie

How Do You Make Thick Smoothie Bowls

A thick smoothie bowl is key to making your meal “spoonable.” The thickness of your smoothie bowl depends on each and every ingredient that you put into your smoothie bowl. To get that nice thick, creamy texture that melts in your mouth, you need to keep a balance of every element of your smoothie bowl recipe.

Seeds

Seeds are excellent as a topping, but you can also blend them in to make your smoothie bowl thick. Many people do not like the texture of seeds as toppings anyway, so it is better to blend in some. You can add one or a couple teaspoons full of any seeds of your choice, and you will end up with a comparatively thicker texture for sure. Chia seeds, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds all word well for a thick smoothie bowl.

Nut Butters

The best thickeners used by many people and experts are nut butters . By adding just a tablespoon full of any nut butter of your choice, you can end up getting a thicker smoothie bowl texture. They also contain healthy fats, which make you feel fuller for much longer time periods. Smoothie bowls are typically rich in sugars and lack fats, so make sure to add in nut butter for a portion of good fat. Good thickening nut butter options include peanut butter and almond butter.

Avocado

Liquids

Ice

Protein Powder

Frozen Fruit

Smoothie Bowl Recipe: Ingredients & Substitutions

Lets chat about the ingredients in this smoothie bowl recipe, and then well talk more specifically about the fruit used to make each variety!

• Frozen Fruit. The most important thing to note about these smoothie bowl recipes is that you must use frozen fruit to achieve the perfect consistency.
• Banana. If you dont prefer bananas, you could try substituting another starchy food like avocado for creaminess, but you will need to add more honey/maple syrup to get the proper sweetness.
• Almond milk. Any non-dairy milk works excellently in this recipe. I love using coconut milk for a tropical flavor. You can also use regular dairy milk!
• Vanilla extract. I think the vanilla extract takes these smoothie bowls from good to great. That little extra flavor is just perfect!

Also Check: Best Smoothie Additives For Weight Loss

Whats The Difference Between Smoothie Bowls And Smoothies

The big difference is that you eat them versus drink them. Regardless of how you put it together, smoothie bowls are a great alternative to regular smoothies because you can bulk them without worrying about being able to drink them through a straw.

And the fun part is adding toppings with different textures and tastes.

How To Make The Best Acai Bowl

• It all starts with Acai Berry Well be using freeze-dried acai powder which can be found in most health-conscious stores or ordered online . Frozen acai berry packets can also be used. You can find the packets at Target or your local grocery store in the freezer aisle with the frozen fruits.
• Add in mixed berries and banana I like using a mix of frozen berries and one fresh or frozen banana. You can use any mixture of frozen berries you prefer. Even cherries would be great.
• Protein Optionally, add a tablespoon of nut butter, hemp hearts, or chia seeds. Or use 1/2 scoop of your favorite protein powder.
• The Liquids Blend it all together with unsweetened plant milk or water.
• Toppings Customize your acai bowl with various toppings. Some of my favorites include sliced bananas, kiwi, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, goji berries, cocoa nibs, vanilla granola, coconut, chia seeds, etc

Enjoy often!

Don’t Miss: Clovis Farms Organic Smoothie Blend

Blueberry Spinach And Pineapple Smoothie Bowl

To make the smoothie, blend baby spinach, blueberries, apple juice, and ice. The toppings are blueberries, puffed kamut cereal, flax seeds, pineapple, pumpkin seeds, and a drizzle of honey.

If you cant find puffed kamut in your cereal aisle, substitute something like Rice Krispies. Get the recipe at the bottom of the post.

Tip #: Use Your Tamper Or Stop The Blender

Before I learned this trick, I would get SO frustrated trying to make smoothie bowls that weren’t like water. Then I discovered that getting a thick consistency actually takes work. It won’t magically happen, no matter how easy it looked when you saw it on Tiktok or Instagram.

Use the tamper to push the ingredients toward the blades. It is best to start using the tamper before the blades actually stop to keep the momentum going. I start using the tamper about 5 seconds into blending.

If your blender does not come with a tamper, stop the blender regularly and use a spatula or spoon to push the ingredients towards the blade.

It is also worth noting here, that starting your blender on low speed and gradually increasing is the correct way to use the blender.

There will not be a blender in the world that you won’t have to use the tamper to stop and move the ingredients around for, even fancy Vitamix.

Also Check: Smoothies After Wisdom Teeth Removal