Acai Smoothie Bowl

Acai Smoothie Bowl - a healthy fruit-packed breakfast that tastes like dessert! Made with acai puree, banana, berries and dairy-free milk.

Acai Smoothie bowls are basically my excuse to eat dessert for breakfast. The luxuriously creamy acai base is like sweet sorbet. Topped with crunchy granola, fresh fruit, and nut butter it is a texture and flavor explosion!

With some tricks that we first shared in this post, you will be blending up thick juice shop-worthy acai bowls like a pro!

Reasons to love this recipe!

• A no-cook, 10 minute refreshing summer breakfast!
• Made with just 4 ingredients... and unlimited toppings!
• It's naturally vegan, gluten free, dairy free, and paleo.

Ingredients and Substitutions:

• Acai Puree - found in the frozen section of health food stores. I like to use unsweetened acai and add in honey if I need. You can also use acai powder. See notes on that below.
• Frozen banana - frozen creates a thick and luscious smoothie bowl.
• Frozen berries - a mixed berry blend or blueberries.
• Milk - almond, oat, soy, etc.

How to make an Acai Smoothie Bowl:

Blend on low: Add your fruit to the blender. Let it sit in the blender for 2-3 minutes to soften slightly. Turn the blender on low and let it slowly chop up the fruit into small pieces.

Add liquid: Add in the milk and blend, starting on low and working the speed up slowly, until smooth. Use a tamper or scrape down the sides as needed.

Top and serve: Spoon the smoothie into a bowl and add on your desired toppings.

• 

• 

• 

Storage?

Acai bowls are meant to be eaten fresh! Make them just before eating.

How to make extra thick smoothie bowls

There are 3 keys to easy thick smoothie bowls.

First, use frozen fruit. Reach for frozen banana over fresh and buy frozen berries for smoothies.

Second, add all your frozen fruit to a high speed blender. Let it sit for 2-3 minutes to let the fruit soften slightly. Star the blender on low and blend until the fruit is chopped up into small bits.

Third, add your liquid and continue blending, using a tamper, or scraping the sides, as needed until it is completely smooth. Add more liquid as needed, a little at a time.

Acai Puree vs. Acai Powder

There are two ways to make an acai bowl - with acai puree or acai powder. Most often, smoothie shops use acai puree which is blended up and frozen acai berries.

Acai puree is sold in the freezer section of grocery stores and comes in a bag filled with single serving packets. To use, you simply run the single serving packet under hot water for 30 seconds. This helps to loosen the puree from the sides of the plastic. Cut off the top of the packet and break the packet into a few pieces and place it in your blender.

Alternately, if you can't find acai puree in your grocery store, you can always find acai powder online. Add 1-2 scoops of acai powder to this recipe in place of the acai puree.

• 

• 

Optional add-ins:

I include a basic recipe below, but you can really jazz up your bowl with some add-ins. You can add any of the following in at the end, once the smoothie is smooth.

• 2 tablespoons nut or seed butter
• 1-2 scoops protein powder
• 2 teaspoons chia seeds
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Superfood powders - greens powder, mushroom powder, adaptogens, etc.
• ½ cup yogurt - regular, greek, or dairy free.

Acai Smoothie Bowl toppings!

Half of the fun of the smoothie bowl is layering on the toppings! Here are some ideas to up your topping game:

• Granola - any flavor is great! I especially love vanilla or peanut butter.
• Fresh fruit: sliced banana, berries, kiwi, mango, etc.
• Frozen fruit: frozen berries are great!
• Freeze dried fruit: a new find for me, freeze dried fruit adds amazing crunch to smoothie bowls! Freeze dried berries, banana, pineapple, and mango, are favorites. I usually purchase them at Trader Joe's or online.
• Nuts: almonds, walnuts, coconut, toasted coconut...
• Nut butters: peanut butter is almost always a must for me! Almond butter, cashew butter, sunflower butter, etc. are all great!
• Seeds: chia seeds or hemp seeds.
• Chocolate chips or cacao nibs.
• A drizzle of honey or agave.

More Smoothie recipes to make ASAP:

• Easy Acai Smoothie
• Chocolate Cherry Smoothie
• Strawberry Smoothie Bowl
• Freezer Smoothie Packs - aka smoothie meal prep!
• Banana Smoothie Bowl