The Ultimate Guide to Making Smoothie Bowls

Should we make smoothie bowls? Okay!

Smoothie bowls are one of the most wonderful things you can make with a blender. They’re:

• Delicious!
• Nutritious!
• An opportunity for some creativity for you and your loved ones!

You can make ’em green or acai or tropical or protein powder style; however you like.

Essentially, blend an extra thick smoothie. Then, pour it into a bowl, and let it become your canvas for toppings.

With all the go-go-go in our lives, slowing down a bit to make a smoothie bowl feels glorious. They may not be an everyday thing for you.

But smoothie bowls, or smoothie cereal as I like to call them, should become a part of your life. And with a little patience and the right technique, you’ll be creating your own in no time at all.

With that, let’s get you ready to make your first smoothie bowl. Or, if this is not your first, let’s get you ready to make your first good one. 🙂

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8 mistakes to avoid when making smoothie bowls

The Watery Smoothie Bowl Mistake: Use plenty of frozen ingredients

Are you smoothie bowl toppings sinking to the bottom?

Well, your smoothie bowl base needs to be thick. Thick enough to support your toppings.

In fact, you want the base of your smoothie bowl to be a bit thicker than a smoothie you’d drink from a straw.

How do you do this?

Two important steps:

1. Use a lot of frozen ingredients. (Frozen fruit or ice).
2. Push ingredients into the blade.
   • If you have a Vitamix, use your tamper. Use it to gently push frozen ingredients down into the blade. And keep in mind: It’s built for this task! The tamper will never come into contact with the blade. And, the Vitamix machine itself is designed to process ingredients like this (with the help of the tamper).
   • If you do not have a Vitamix, you may need to stop blending, mix by hand, and blend again.

How much frozen ingredients should you use? The general rule is three parts frozen, two parts liquid. (Two-thirds frozen ingredients is usually too much. But half and half is not enough.)

But keep in mind the following: You can always add more liquid mid-blend.

You cannot, however, add frozen ingredients mid-blend. The uneven start times will result in chunks of ice or frozen fruit.

So start with lots of frozen ingredients. Because a chunky, lumpy, stalled smoothie bowl base is easy to fix.

The Chunky, Stalled, Too-Thick Smoothie Bowl Mistake: Use plenty of liquid ingredients (and your tamper)

If you have a high-performance blender, it’s designed to handle frozen ingredients with ease.

But here’s the deal: Even with a Vitamix, smoothie bowl bases need some liquid ingredients to get everything blended evenly.

And if you’re not sure, liquid ingredients include:

• Nut milk
• Water
• Juice
• Fresh fruit (berries, banana, cherries, orange, etc.)

So if your smoothie bowl base is too thick, add some liquid ingredients.

But as we talked about above, you don’t add ice or frozen fruit mid blend to make a smoothie bowl thicker. Adding frozen ingredients mid-blend may result in unwanted chunks.

So add your liquid ingredients as needed.

Also, if you have a Vitamix, use the tamper. It helps. (And that’s why it exists.)

Also, if you’re finding full leaves of spinach or kale, revisit loading order. Add liquids first followed by leafy greens. Frozen ingredients should be added last.

And finally, don’t stop the blender too soon. The friction created by the blade will turn an icy snowball into buoyant smoothie bowl glory.

Okay, so now you have the consistency right. What about color?

The (inadvertent) Brown Smoothie Bowl Mistake: Avoid mixing complementary colors when making smoothie bowls

It’s a lesson from grade school art class. Complementary colors mixed together make brown. ?

So feel free to mix two primary colors when making your smoothie bowl bases.

• Red and blue
• Blue and yellow
• Yellow and red

But don’t mix red and green! They’re complementary colors. (Essentially all three primary colors mixed together.)

A good example: Greens in a strawberry smoothie bowl will be brown.

This is the same reason why you do not add greens to bloody mary mix. It turns brown.

Fortunately, a handful of greens in a berry smoothie won’t turn it brown.

As a rule of thumb, remember this: Keep berries away from citrus fruits.

Now, what if you blended the right color and right consistency, but it still tastes funky?

The More is More Mistake: Stick to a flavor profile to avoid funky-tasting smoothie bowls

It may happen when you go to a big wonderful salad bar: You grab all the things you like.

Well, here’s the problem: The things you like don’t necessarily belong together.

You may like peanut butter. And you may like pesto sauce.

But should they be paired together? No way.

Same goes for smoothie bowls. Remember that less is more.

And, if you’re not following a recipe, try to build a smoothie bowl by flavor profile. The recipes below are good because they have just a few ingredients.

Now even if you stick to a flavor profile, your smoothie bowl base may not be as creamy as you hope. Here’s how to fix that.

The Snowball Smoothie Bowl Issue: Use the following two tips to get a creamier smoothie bowl

So you want a creamy smoothie bowl. There are two things you can do.

1. Use “creamy” ingredients. There are a few ingredients that add creaminess to smoothies.
   • Frozen mango and frozen banana are great. The former is good with citrus or tropical flavored bowls. The latter is good with nearly any bowl flavor.
   • Avocado, squash, or cashews are great, especially if you don’t like banana. Those all add creaminess nicely.
2. Be ready with your toppings. When your smoothie bowl base is ready, you should be ready with toppings immediately. Any delay in getting toppings can cause your smoothie bowl to melt and get unnecessarily watery and melty.

So now you’re ready for your toppings. Keep the following in mind.

Topping fails: Here are a few tips for success with smoothie bowl toppings

Adding toppings to your smoothie bowl is half the fun. Avoid these common mistakes.

Soggy granola: Add granola last. Also, work to get a thicker smoothie bowl base. That will keep the granola from becoming submerged.

Crunchy chia seeds: Add these first. Let the seeds absorb a bit of the smoothie bowl base.

Sandy flaxseeds: Add them to the smoothie bowl base; the blend. Do not sprinkle them on top like you would with chia seeds.

Dry oats: Add them to the blend like you would with flaxseeds. If you want to sprinkle oats on top, add them first like you would with the chia seeds so they absorb a bit of the smoothie bowl base.

Giant pieces of fruit: Slice them! Whole strawberries, for example, make for unpleasant smoothie bowl bites. Slice them!

So these were tips for adding toppings to your smoothie bowl for optimal flavor and consistency. Now, let’s discuss how to make your smoothie bowls look as delicious as they should taste.

Ugly bowls: A few tips to make your smoothie bowls aesthetically pleasing

What you see has a big impact on what you taste. Here are a few tips for making delicious-looking smoothie bowls.

Use geometric shapes when you top your smoothie bowls. Lines and quadrants work well.

Avoid the “tossed salad” approach to adding smoothie bowl ingredients. This generally looks less appealing. And, by extension, tastes less appealing.

This smoothie bowl had a promising start with three rows of chia seeds, coconut, and granola. But then we ruined it by sprinkling dried goji berries all over the place.

Be careful with a drizzle. A little drizzle of nut butter can actually enhance the look of your bowl. Too much drizzle makes an ugly mess. Too much or just right? You be the judge of the drizzled peanut butter below. 🙂

Less is more when it comes to ingredients. So avoid adding too many toppings. Let it breathe! Try to leave at least a quarter of your smoothie bowl base visible. (The bowl below as delicious, but may have been better with the granola sectioned in a corner leaving some of the green smoothie to shine uncovered.)

Eat bottom-up. It’s easy to push toppings down as you eat. Dive in gracefully and take spoonfuls from the bottom-up. That will keep ingredients at the top for longer.

So you’re ready to share the smoothie bowl fun. Just keep in mind that’s they’re not for rookie eaters.

Clueless Uncle Mistake: Remember that smoothie bowls are not for toddlers

To enjoy smoothie bowls, you need to be able to operate a spoon.

I learned this the hard way this weekend when I tried to serve my two-year-old niece a smoothie bowl. She had fun adding toppings to her bowl.

But once she sat down, she was more interested in painting the walls.

Smoothie bowls can be fun for children. Just wait until they’re a bit older!

The Most Classic Smoothie Bowl Mistake is Quitting: Instead, give it a try and don’t give up; smoothie bowls are truly wonderful

You’re going to see lots of beautiful smoothie bowls on Instagram.

Your first few bowls, alas, will look nothing like them.

• Strangely colored
• Disorganized toppings
• Too thick or too thin or tastes strange

Don’t be discouraged! Making smoothie bowls is an advanced blending technique.

Soon, you’ll get the hang of it.

To get started, pick one of the smoothie bowl recipe templates below!

7 smoothie bowl recipes (templates) to use

Smoothie bowl recipes are more of an art than a science. The general rule is three parts frozen to two parts liquid or fresh fruit. Here are some of the best smoothie bowl recipes to use as inspiration.

The Green Smoothie Bowl Recipe Template

Green smoothie bowls are great for getting started. They’re easy to get the right consistency and are flexible for adding or subtracting the things you do not like. If you don’t like banana, no problem!

To make a green smoothie bowl, use the ingredients in Carolyne’s Green Smoothie as a base.

INGREDIENTS

1. Nut milk
2. (Frozen) Mango
3. (Frozen) Banana
4. Greens

TOPPINGS:

• Granola
• Chia seeds
• Coconut shreds
• Strawberries
• Raspberries
• Blueberries
• Blackberries

Topping to avoid: nuts and nut butters. For whatever reason, nuts and nut butters do not taste good with mango.

Want to make a green smoothie bowl without banana? Add more frozen mango! Or, add some frozen pineapple.

The Mixed Berry Smoothie Bowl Recipe Template

Mixed berries are a really easy way to make delicious smoothie bowls. Just take a bag of mixed berries and mix with a little nut milk.

Or, mix your own berries! Strawberries and blueberries are a great combo.

These smoothie bowls are great with nut butters. But to get more “bang for your buck”, add the nut butter as a topping, not in the smoothie bowl base; same calories, more flavor!

To make a green smoothie bowl, use the ingredients in our PB&J smoothie as a base.

INGREDIENTS

1. Nut milk
2. (Frozen) Blueberries
3. (Frozen) Strawberries or Raspberries

TOPPINGS:

• Granola
• Chia seeds
• Walnuts
• Almonds
• Nut butters
• Coconut shreds
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Raspberries

Topping to avoid: anything citrus. Lemon and orange do not mix well with mixed berry smoothie bowls.

The Acai Smoothie Bowl Recipe Template

Acai bowls, fully explained here, are easy to make. The only challenge is that you need acai berry puree.

Where do you get acai berries?

Well, since acai berries are mostly harvested in “Brazil, Trinidad and other nations of northern South America,” and don’t travel well, you need to get acai berry puree packets.

That’s right. Unless you’re living in those swampy, remote floodplains, you need to get frozen acai puree packets. Fortunately, acai berry puree packets are easy to find in your grocer’s freezer.

Overall, acai smoothie bowls are quite similar to mixed berry smoothie bowls. Here’s how you do it:

INGREDIENTS

1. Nut milk
2. (Frozen) Acai puree packet
3. (Frozen) Berries
4. (Frozen) Banana

TOPPINGS:

• Granola
• Chia seeds
• Nut butters
• Dried goji berries
• Coconut shreds
• Strawberries
• Blueberries

Acai smoothie bowls are best with a little bit of frozen banana. Without it, it’s a bit more like an Icee than a creamy smoothie bowl.

The Tropical Smoothie Bowl Recipe Template

Sometimes you don’t feel like berries. And sometimes you don’t feel like eating anything green. (Or perhaps your beloved picky eater isn’t ready to eat anything green despite not being able to actually taste the greens.)

In these cases, tropical smoothie bowls are a great pick. (Pictured above was one of our fist tropical smoothie bowls, one we made during our time in Hawaii.)

Mango and pineapple highlight the tropical smoothie bowl flavor profile.

And the toppings here what gives you that beach-side feel.

INGREDIENTS

1. Nut milk (or coconut milk!)
2. (Frozen) Mango
3. (Frozen) Pineapple
4. (Frozen) Banana

TOPPINGS:

• Granola
• Chia seeds
• Coconut shreds
• Banana

Tropical smoothie bowls are missing some superaffoods. But greens, berries, and nuts are not invited to the beach — and that’s okay. 🙂

Chocolate Peanut Butter (Protein-Style) Smoothie Bowl

Sometimes you want sweet but not fruit. Or, sometimes you simply don’t have the supplies to make anything but a chocolate peanut butter smoothie bowl.

Here’s how to do it:

INGREDIENTS

1. Nut milk (or coconut milk!)
2. (Frozen) Banana
3. Peanut butter
4. (Optional) protein powder

TOPPINGS

• Granola
• Chia seeds
• Coconut shreds
• Banana

A chocolate peanut butter (or almond butter!) smoothie bowl is also great for dinner in a pinch. Go for it!

Strawberry (no-banana) Smoothie Bowl Recipe Template

Try using frozen, baked squash to add some creaminess to a strawberry smoothie bowl without banana. That’s exactly what we did with our sa-squash smoothie bowl.

Here’s how to do it:

INGREDIENTS

1. Nut milk (or coconut milk!)
2. (Frozen) Strawberries
3. (Frozen) Baked squash

TOPPINGS

• Granola
• Chia seeds
• Banana
• Strawberries
• Goji berries

If you add a little bit of sweetness (dates or maple syrup), you cannot taste the squash in this strawberry smoothie without banana.

Side-by-side, Two-Flavor Smoothie Bowl Recipe Template

Want to get real fancy with your smoothie bowls? Try two flavors and put them side-by-side.

Pictured above is a chocolate peanut butter banana with a mixed berry.

Recommended for advanced smoothie bowl makers only!

7 more tips for making smoothie bowls

1. Keep toppings in one spot. Designate a section of your pantry for smoothie bowl toppings. That way you can see what you have. Plus, it’s easier to put everything away afterward, too.
2. Use varied textures. Try to create a symphonic tasting experience. Big, small, soft, crunchy, sweet, savory. The more elements you can put together harmoniously, the better.
3. Get creative. Making smoothie bowls is an art, not a science. Enjoy the creative process of making your bowl a work of art. It will taste better that way, too.
4. Rinse your bowl right away. Especially if you’re making a berry smoothie bowl, the vibrant colors can be tough to clean if they soak into your bowl. A quick rinse can go a long way.
5. Clean your blender right away. As we recommend with after any blend, make the cleaning cycle part of your routine. It helps prolong the life of your Vitamix. Plus, like anything else, the sooner you clean up, the easier it will be.
6. Enjoy with friends and family. Smoothie bowls for one are fine. But they’re better enjoyed with people you love.
7. Show off your bowls. Tag #lifeisnoyoke and we’ll be there to cheer you on!

And finally, don’t forget. If your smoothie bowl is a fail, it doesn’t mean you’re a failure. Tomorrow is a new day; a fine one to blend again. ?

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And if you liked learning about smoothie bowls, you’ll like the following articles:

The Ultimate Guide to Making Nut butters in Your Vitamix

Green smoothies vs juicing

New parents: Lend out your Vitamix

Is a Vitamix worth it? 29 Reasons it’s not