Smoothie bowls are a great way to nourish and hydrate your body quickly. I love smoothies, yet sometimes I like to eat my snack/breakfast with a spoon and a little crunch… and that’s where smoothie bowls come in. As long as you get the consistency right, there’s no wrong ingredient to toss in, just like with green smoothies! I’m sharing my fave smoothie bowl recipes, along with some pretty epic smoothie bowl ideas that will have you running for the kitchen today.
Tips for the perfect smoothie bowl
We’ve all seen the beautiful açai bowl creations at smoothie bars, with their vibrant colors, fascinating swirls, and fresh toppings. You can achieve this at home, I’m serious! Here are my tips to the smoothie bowl ideas of your dreams.
The perfect ingredients
The first key to making an amazing smoothie bowl is getting it thick. The consistency should be like sorbet. To do that, use frozen fruit, as well as a strong enough blender that allows you to push down the ingredients (aka: a tamper).
For this smoothie bowl recipe, I’m using:
- frozen pineapple chunks: provides natural sweetness
- frozen mango chunks: helps make it thick and creamy
- coconut water: hydrating plus just enough liquid to blend
How to get the perfect blend
The second key is the blend. Unlike regular green smoothies that blend into a liquid fairly easily, smoothie bowls will remain thick in the blender, and might take a little muscle. This is my method for blending:
- Add all the ingredients to the blender, then turn on high speed to start the blending process.
- Once the ingredients stop moving on their own, use the tamper through the top to push down the fruit to engage the blade again. If you don’t have a tamper, then stop the machine and use a spoon/spatula to push the fruit back towards the blade and blend again. Be patient— this can take a few minutes to get everything blended. Thick= good, so avoid adding extra liquid.
- Once blended smoothly, scrape into bowls. Now, the fun part: adding the toppings.
Best toppings for a smoothie bowl
While your smoothie bowl ideas can take you in any direction topping-wise, my favorite toppings are a combination of protein, healthy fats and juicy fruit. While you feel like you are spooning out ice cream, you can still add healthy ingredients to maximize the benefits of the natural fruits you just blended:
- Protein: granola, sliced almonds, hemp hearts, chia seeds
- Healthy fats: almond butter (or other nut butter), shredded coconut
- Juicy fruits: kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, pineapple
- Extras: cacao, bananas, cinnamon, goji berries, freeze dried fruit, shaved chocolate
Now that you’ve learned all my best tips and tricks, let’s get blending!
4 Smoothie Bowl Recipes
Cacao dessert bowl– This pudding-like bowl contains a few unique ingredients, yet trust me, this is a decadent dessert. Perfect for topping with berries and more chocolate, as well as coconut whipped cream.
Apple maple bowl– This fun creation uses tart green apples and maple syrup for a delicious treat. I love adding diced apples to the top. My granola recipe from Fresh Start Autumn is also a winner topping for this recipe.
Dragon fruit smoothie bowl– If you’re looking for a tropically vibrant bowl, then this dragon fruit recipe is for you! Don’t let the cauliflower keep you from blending this… you don’t taste it, and it takes creamy to another level.
Simple tropical bowl- The recipe below is my original creation. It’s only 3 ingredients, because I want the freedom to play with all kinds of toppings. It’s sweet and smooth, as well as the perfect blank canvas for a variety of fun toppings. If you want to give your body some help processing the natural sugar in this bowl, then add in a serving of Protein Smoothie Boost. The extra protein + healthy fat from this plant based protein powder will help cut down on any sugar rush.
Don’t forget to leave a rating + review to let me know which smoothie bowl you made, as well as how it turned out. I love hearing your feedback!
How to make a smoothie bowl
Equipment
Ingredients
Smoothie Bowl Base
- 2 cups pineapple, frozen
- 2 cups mango, frozen
- 1 cup coconut water
- 1 Protein Smoothie Boost, optional
Suggested Toppings:
- strawberries
- mango
- banana
- coconut flakes
- granola
- dried fruit
Instructions
- Place frozen fruit and coconut water into a blender. Blend until it becomes a thick puree. Use more liquid to help blend, and a tamper as well.
- Divide the smoothie between two bowls.
- Add desired toppings.
- Serve immediately. It'll melt fast!
Notes
- Allow fruit to thaw slightly for easier blending; reduce the amount of coconut water for a thicker smoothie.
- Swap the pineapple and/or coconut for other frozen fruit. A banana will help make the smoothie extra creamy.
Love the tip about letting frozen fruits thaw slightly before blending. It really helps!
I love switching to smoothie bowls once in a while. It’s always fun to make them pretty. 🙂
I love changing up my daily smoothie with a bowl!
Thanks for the tips! I was nervous when making this smoothie bowl because it was so thick, even in my Vitamix, but it turned out to be the perfect texture. Now my toddler is HOOKED on smoothie bowls.
I can’t believe people are complaining about the amount of sugar in this recipe when it comes naturally from fruit!
Well Char, as you know, naturally occurring sugars are much different than refined sugars. 😉
Yet if folks are looking to decrease the amount of natural sugars, we advise using less fruits and more leafy greens + veggies.
I tried making one and I still can’t get it SUPER creamy… It’s like it takes me so long to blend it that my frozen fruit starts melting or something… Any tips? I love the flavors and recipes though!
I’d start out by using less liquid and see if that helps. 🙂
Like the others have said, this is pretty high in sugars for me. Yet I could totally see enjoying it after a long run when my body is depleted. I did try this recipe today and just made a smaller portion for myself to decrease the sugars- and it was perfectly filling with my toppings. Oh, and I also added Protein Smoothie Boost for some protein and it was still really tasty! Would love to see some low sugar smoothie bowl recipes.
Hey Dani. Like I mentioned to a few other folks, there are many ways you can tweak this recipe to decrease the amount of fructose. Looks like you already did tweak it a bit for that reason. Also, the Cauliflower Smoothie Bowl (link on this page) has 29g sugar and the Cacao Dessert Smoothie Bowl (link also on this page) has a mere 13g sugar. And don’t forget, you can always take *any* smoothie recipe and turn it into a smoothie bowl. 🙂
39 grams of sugar in that smoothie bowl? No thank you!
Hi Jennifer. Pineapple and mango both have higher amounts of fructose than other fruits. (Fructose is much different than sucrose, which is found in refined sugar.) If you are looking to decrease the amount of fructose in your smoothie bowl, decrease the amount of higher-glycemic fruits you use and/or use only nuts + seeds for your toppings. Additionally, there are three other smoothie bowl recipes in this post that may appeal to you so def check those out.
Seriously? 39 g of sugar in your smoothie bowl for breakfast, when the RDA for women is 25 g.
Could you please give some recipes that are not so heavy on sweet fruit? Healthy is not high sugar no matter
how good it may taste.
Hi Bev. Pineapple and mango both have higher amounts of fructose than other fruits. (Fructose is much different than sucrose, which is found in refined sugar.) If you are looking to decrease the amount of fructose in your smoothie bowl, decrease the amount of higher-glycemic fruits you use and/or use only nuts + seeds for your toppings. You can also add veggies like spinach and cauliflower if you like. 🙂
I have just found out my diabetes -> fatty liver -> cirrhosis = need high protein + 64 years old
Do you have a smoothie for that? This is the last thing I thought I would be worrying about at my age…my 2 boys are so mad at me. Their dad died of a glioblastoma multiform4 in his left temporal lobe and they don’t want to be orphans. Guilt!
Also I was thinking a better blender would be a good idea but I couldn’t find the “Vitamix” you were talking about. Sorry to pester you about that. I clicked the link but couldn’t find one under $300.
I have list these foods as protein “hotties” but would like to add a suitable milk product…cannot have too much fat. * 1 cup peanuts: 41 grams of protein.
* 1 cup pumpkin seeds: 39 grams.
* 1 cup cheese (Swiss, mozzarella, Colby Jack): 36 grams
* 1 cup tempeh: 34 grams
* 1 cup low-fat cottage cheese: 28 grams
* 1 cup oats: 26 grams
* ½ cup tofu: 22 grams
* 1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt: 22 grams
* 1 cup kidney beans: 21 grams
* 1 cup white beans: 19 grams
* 1 cup pinto beans: 19 grams
* 1 cup lentils: 18 grams
* 1 cup edamame: 17 grams
* 1 cup lima beans: 15 grams
* 1 veggie burger: 11 grams
* 2 tablespoons peanut butter: 9 grams
* 1 cup tofu yogurt: 9 grams
* 1 cup cooked quinoa: 8 grams
* 1 cup skim milk: 8 grams
* 1/2 cup edamame: 8 grams
* 1 cup soymilk: 7 grams
* 1 egg: 6 grams
* 1 tablespoon miso: 2 grams
Sincerely, Shirley
Hi Shirley. We have some awesome smoothie recipes with plant-based proteins as well as an article about the best low-sugar fruits to use in smoothies. If you click on the “Recipes” link at the top of the page, you can enter certain key words into the Search bar and find some things that I think can really help you. I’d start by searching “protein” and also search “low sugar.” We have a delicious berry protein smoothie that combines the two and that could be a great one for you to start with. 🙂
As far as the Vitamix sale… unfortunately, that has expired. But Vitamix often lists refurbished blenders on their site (so you could look into that) and we love to team up with them on sales and giveaways. Subscribe to our newsletter and you’ll be the first to know when we have another one!
Love how simple this recipe is. I’m gonna have to get some freeze dried fruit for topping!
Making designs with the toppings is one of my favorite things about smoothie bowls!