Do you love a good Acai Smoothie Bowl? Because oh my gosh, I sure do…okay perhaps I need to be more straightforward, I am OBSESSED!
Blended frozen acai puree along with frozen fruits piled with more fruits, crunchy granola, or toppings of your choice. It’s like having sorbet for breakfast, but not really. But kinda yes really.
The Acai Bowl Obsession
Acai Smoothie Bowls are one of those treats I allow myself to indulge every now and then.
After a bad day; after working long hours on the weekends; after going to the gym and working out extra hard; after I hard core clean the entire house; after hard conversations; after reaching a milestone.
They are bowls of goodness that also happen to be pretty healthy. I love that they are typically piled with loads of fresh fruits. They are perfect for whenever I want something frozen, cold and sweet, and just can’t afford to indulge in ice cream.
Lately, because we have been stuck at home a lot, I’ve made more and more Acai Smoothie Bowls. I can’t get myself to juice bars as often and the craving is real, people!
The best part is I am getting so good at this acai bowl thing (a little self-bragging, I know…) I may be doing this homemade acai bowl thing for a while!
What is Acai?
Full disclosure: I had to go to Wikipedia for this. 🙂
It’s a fruit originated from South America and it resembles a grape. It is small, round, and purple/black in color.
I have not seen the actual fruit sold in the grocery stores here in the U.S., but I typically buy them in frozen unsweetened puree packet form. And that’s what I use to make the smoothie bowl.
Acai has become increasingly popular in recent years in this country, and is mostly blended into smoothie drinks and bowls. I don’t think it tastes all that great if you eat the frozen puree by itself. And I can’t speak for the actual fruit because I have not had them fresh!
But they compliment other fruits really well in taste and texture in smoothie bowl form!
Let’s make Acai Smoothie Bowls!
To get started, we will need a blender for this. The more powerful the blender the easier this will be.
When you get Acai Smoothie Bowls from juice bars or smoothie places, you will find that the blended fruit/smoothie portion of the bowl is fairly solid and firm, and not overly watery.
That is due to the fact that they use a commercial blender to blend the frozen acai and the other frozen fruits, and commercial blenders are super powerful.
The truth is, in our homes, some blender can do this better than others.
If your blender is not super powerful, it’ll most likely get stuck in the middle of blending and you’ll need to add more liquid (in this case apple juice) to enable the blender to finish blending the rest of the ingredients.
So in short, getting a frozen, more solid smoothie texture is totally doable if you have a blender that can handle blending the frozen ingredients, but if you don’t, you’ll just need to add more apple juice. The product will still be delicious, just less of “frozen” texture.
This is the blender I use and it works great for my smoothie! I was gifted this product by Kitchen Aid and I LOVE it so much!
Acai Bowl Ingredients
Here are some of the ingredients I add to the blender to get this delicious smoothie:
- Frozen unsweetened acai puree packets – break into small pieces to make it easier to blend
- Frozen strawberries
- Frozen blueberries
- Banana
- Apple juice – add more if blender gets stuck! But the trick is the more apple juice you add the less thick your smoothie will be
- Dates – great but completely optional!
Blend the ingredients together and then add these toppings:
- Sliced bananas
- Sliced strawberries
- Dates
- Granola (or cereal, or anything with crunch)
Variation and Substitution
And yes, you can definitely mix and match other smoothie ingredients and toppings to your Acai Bowl.
Here are other ingredients you can add to blender for the smoothie portion:
- Spinach or kale (add just a little bit and you won’t even taste it, while getting great nutritional benefits!)
- Frozen mangoes
- Frozen peaches
- Frozen raspberries/blackberries, or other berries!
- Peanut or almond butter
Keep in mind that when you add more frozen ingredients, you will need more apple juice (or another form of liquid) to blend the ingredients.
Feel it out as you go! Use this as a guide, especially if this is your first time, and then improvise and go a little crazier if you want! 😉 This is a good base to start with.
If acai cravings is a thing in your life (as it is mine, obviously…), I hope this makes making it at home much more doable and enjoyable! 🙂
If you make this recipe, comment below and let me know what you think! Also, don’t forget to take a picture and tag me on Instagram, because I WANNA SEE!!
Other Smoothie Recipes
Yes I love my smoothies! Check out some of my other favorites!
- Blueberry Mango Smoothie with Peanut Butter
- Berry Banana Chia Smoothie
- Mango Strawberry Smoothie
- Refreshing Green Smoothie (by Life, Love and Good Food)
