The Best Smoothie Bowl
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Last updated on Jul 17, 2024
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The best smoothie bowl recipe made with just 5 ingredients plus all your favorite toppings! It’s thick, creamy, refreshing and great for breakfast or a snack.
I used to find it impossible to have a smoothie for breakfast because I need something to chew in order for my brain to register that I’m eating a meal. Plus, I drink smoothies with a straw so fast… they’re gone in like 10 seconds. But there’s any easy solution and it’s called a smoothie bowl!
You make a thick smoothie base, load it up with toppings like homemade granola, toasted coconut, fresh fruit, nut butter and chia seeds and eat it with a spoon. It’s cool, refreshing and packed with good-for-you ingredients. Grab your spoon and dive in!
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Smoothie Bowl
- Easy – It’s comes together in no time at all… just add everything to a blender, blend, pour into a bowl, add your toppings and enjoy.
- Healthy – This bowl is packed full of fiber and protein and makes a great, well-rounded breakfast or healthy snack.
- Less expensive – Smoothie bowls from a smoothie shop tend to be so pricey, but they’re pretty inexpensive to make at home.
Ingredients Needed
The ingredients used to make a smoothie bowl can vary, but the base is typically always frozen fruit! Here are the main ingredients I use to make my ultimate smoothie bowl:
- frozen banana – frozen banana helps thicken the smoothie and adds a little sweetness. Check out my how to freeze bananas guide for tips and tricks! If you don’t like banana, you can try swapping for frozen avocado chunks, frozen mango or even frozen zucchini for the thickener. If you use the avocado or zucchini you may need to add a little maple syrup, medjool dates or honey for extra sweetness.
- protein powder – You can use vanilla or chocolate protein powder! If you don’t want to use protein powder, you can skip it.
- frozen berries – any frozen berries will do. My favorite options are frozen strawberries, blueberries and/or cherries. You can also use a bag of mixed berries
- unsweetened almond milk – any dairy-free milk (or regular milk) will work here!
- almond butter or peanut butter – any nut butter you can sub for sunflower seed butter if you have a nut allergy.
Recipe Variations
I love this recipe as is, but there are so many ways you can switch up this recipe to make different smoothie bowl variations.
- Tropical: Swap the frozen berries with frozen pineapple or mango for a tropical twist.
- Green: I would start with my green smoothie bowl, but you can always add spinach or kale to this base recipe for some added greens.
- Acai: Want to make an acai bowl? I’d start with my acai bowl recipe!
- Superfood: Make my blue smoothie bowl, which is loaded with blue spirulina powder.
- No banana: I know some people don’t like banana or are allergic, so if that’s the case, you can swap the banana with frozen mango or frozen veggies like zucchini or cauliflower rice! Frozen avocado is another great option. The veggies and avocado won’t add any flavor, but they’ll help to thicken up the smoothie bow.
How to Make a Smoothie Bowl
Step 1: Gather all your ingredients and place them in a high-power blender.
Step 2: Blend until smooth and serve immediately with your favorite toppings!
Brittany’s Tips!
- Use a high-powdered blender with a tamper like a Vitamix blender. The tamper is critical for pushing the ingredients around and you definitely need a machine that has power when you’re working through this amount of frozen fruit.
- Start with only 2 Tablespoons of liquid at first to ensure your smoothie bowl is nice and thick and doesn’t end up too liquidy.
Topping Ideas
Okay, this is the fun part and the options are truly endless here! Get creative with your smoothie bowl toppings. Here are some of my go-to toppings:
- fresh banana – I love adding fresh banana slices to my smoothie bowls.
- fresh berries – I like using a combination of strawberries and blueberries but any fresh berry works! You can also do freeze dried berries
- granola – want to add some texture to your smoothie bowl? Add crunchy granola on top! Try my homemade granola or this hemp granola.
- almond butter or peanut butter – can’t go wrong with a little extra nut butter drizzled on top. Plus, it adds some protein and healthy fats!
- chia seeds – add in healthy fats, fiber and texture with chia seeds.
- coconut – add toasted coconut or shredded coconut for added sweetness and crunchy!
- chocolate – make this more of a dessert and add some chocolate chips or melted chocolate drizzled on top. You could even do a homemade magic shell!
Frequently Asked Questions
Smoothie bowls are definitely healthy in my book as they can be a good source of protein, fiber, healthy fats and carbohydrates. That said, you can easily overdue it on the toppings and end up with a smoothie bowl that has way too many calories, so just be mindful of your toppings!
Using frozen fruit and a small amount of liquid will help ensure your smoothie bowl ends up nice and thick.
More Smoothie Recipes to Try
- Acai Bowl
- Dragon Fruit Smoothie Bowl
- Maqui Berry Smoothie Bowl
- Ultimate Green Smoothie Bowl
- Blue Smoothie Bowl
- Raspberry Smoothie
Be sure to check out all of the smoothie recipes on EBF!
If you enjoyed this recipe, please consider leaving a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below.
The Best Smoothie Bowl
Ingredients
- ½ frozen banana, chopped into chunks
- 1 cup frozen mixed berries
- 1 scoop (25 grams) vanilla protein powder, optional
- 2 Tablespoons- ¼ cup unsweetened non-dairy milk, I use almond milk
- 1 teaspoon almond butter or peanut butter
Toppings
- ¼ of banana, sliced
- ¼ cup fresh berries, I used strawberries and blueberries
- 1 Tablespoon granola
- 1 teaspoon almond butter or peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon chia seeds
Instructions
- Blend all of the smoothie ingredients together in a high powdered blender until smooth. Start with 2 Tablespoons of milk and add more if needed to get your desired consistency.
- Pour into a bowl and top with toppings.
- Enjoy immediately.
Notes
- Protein powder – if you don’t want to use protein powder, feel free to skip it. The smoothie might not be as thick without the protein powder so you may want to add some additional frozen fruit.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi! I was surprised that it was only 13g/protein in your nutritional info if you’re using protein powder. Does that mean this recipe is more than 1 serving?
Hi Jess! Thanks so much for catching that. There is actually 21g of protein in this smoothie bowl. Hope you enjoy!
I loved it!!! I put frozen banana,peanut butter,frozen blueberries, and chocolate protein powder, and milk. For toppings I put granola, strawberries, peanut butter, and Nutella. Thank for making this recipe! 😊
Yum! Thanks for sharing your review, Luna! 🙂
I LOVED this recipt
I am happy to hear that you enjoyed this recipe, Dorathy! Thank you for your review + star rating, I so appreciate it!
Do you put a teaspoon or tablespoon of almond butter inside the smoothie bowl?
Hi, Riley. I use a teaspoon!
Teaspoon
Simple but enjoyable! I used a food processor instead of the blender, which worked quite well. I used MyProtein marshmallow cereal flavor whey protein as that’s what I had. Topped with a small amount of cashews, walnuts, granola, and sliced strawberries!
So glad you loved this recipe, Pearl! Thanks for the review and for letting me know what changes you made!
This was a great dinner to have after going to the dentist (I couldn’t chew so I skipped the granola). I made it with Trader Joes Very Cherry Berry blend, Tera’s vanilla whey and almond butter. I highly recommend adding 1/4 tsp almond extract and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract – it really takes the flavor us a notch!
So glad you enjoyed this smoothie bowl, Molly. Thanks for tying it and for the review. I so appreciate it!
Delicious morning treat! Used frozen mangoes instead of banana in the smoothie and it worked great!
Yay! So glad you enjoyed this smoothie, Annick!! Thanks for trying it and for the review. I so appreciate it!
So yummy and refreshing on a super hot day! I didn’t have any granola but the butter and fruit was so good. Definitely will be making this again!!
So glad you enjoyed this smoothie bowl, Regina! Thanks for trying it and for the review. I so appreciate it!
This smoothie bowl was so fun, I loved eating it with the crunchy granola on top. This recipe kept me going until lunch. I used soy milk and peanut butter and it turned out so well!! Thank you:)
Ahh yay!! So glad you enjoyed this smoothie bowl, Lara. Thanks for the review, I appreciate it!
How long does these smoothies last? For eg. Is it ok to make 6 bowls on sunday for the coming week?
Hi Pooja. I would suggest enjoying this immediately. If you want to plan it out, you can portion out ingredients for each day and then simply through them in the blender the day of.
A tried and true fav! I swapped in coconut milk and yogurt and it’s so creamy, dreamy and delish! My fav breakfast and hot weather snack. Thanks EBF!
Yay!! So glad you enjoyed this smoothie bowl, Amanda. Thanks for the review, I appreciate it!
Yummy flavor, refreshing and easy to make. Paired so well with your coconut granola!
So glad you enjoyed this smoothie bowl, Sarah. Thanks for the review, I appreciate it!
I saw this recipe when I needed a little healthy breakfast inspiration and haven’t stopped making it!! Thank you for the ideas of how to make it so healthy and filling with protein powder!
So glad you enjoyed this smoothie bowl, Shanah. Thanks for the review, I appreciate it!
I loved making this smoothie bowl! super quick and easy. I also added a handful of spinach leaves and ice cubes because I added too much milk (more than what you said because at first it was too thick) Thanks!
So glad you enjoyed this smoothie bowl, Rachel! Thanks for making it and for the review. I so appreciate it!
I love this🥰 A few weeks ago i fell in love with making your smoothie recipes🤍 But i just have a cheap smoothie maker which is just for things without things like ice cupes and all this stuff:((
I’m so glad you enjoyed this smoothie, Lina! Thanks for the review 🙂
Absolutely delicious, simple and will make again!
So glad you loved this smoothie bowl, Rachel. Thanks for making it and for the review!
very good! I used coconut milk, blue berries, bananas, nuts, chia seeds, peanut butter. This was my first smoothie bowl and i will try another one with a mixed mange fruit or something else. Can’t wait.
Yay!! I’m so glad you enjoyed this smoothie bowl, Jean! Thanks for the review. I so appreciate it!
D E L I C I O U S ! 🤍
Such a simple recipe for breakfast that I will definitely make again.
I made mine with a frozen banana, a mix of blueberries and strawberries, a spoon of peanut butter, but instead of milk, I used 1/4 cup of yogurt, which made my smoothie thicker.
So glad you enjoyed this recipe, Daphna! Thanks for making it and for the review. I so appreciate it!
This was my first smoothie bowl ever! I had seen never made them but had wanted to try one. I used Vanilla Custard protein powder (Isagenix Tri-Protein) and added strawberries and raspberries on top with the banana and used KIND Vanilla Blueberry Granola and then chia. WOW it was AMAZING! I will be making this more often and experimenting with different protein powder flavors and mix-ins! I am so happy I tried this recipe! I would give it 10 stars if I could!
Ahh yay, this makes me so happy to hear, Michelle!! I’m so glad you loved this recipe. Thanks for giving it a try and for coming back to leave a comment + star rating. I so appreciate it!
this is absolutely fantastic! I had it for breakfast for the first time last Sunday, and ended up making it again for dinner a couple of nights ago when I was super hot from commuting and didn’t feel like eating a hot meal. It was so refreshing and filling! Can’t wait to have this again and again!
There are two kinds of Sunwarrior chocolate protein powder: classic and warrior blend. Which one do I buy???
Love the way you decorated this smoothie bowl, looks so delicious and irresistible.
Yumm! Looks so delish!
Perfection. 🙂
I sometimes have a hard time starting my day with a smoothie because I am the same! Sip, sip, sip and it’s gone. Growing up I was a cereal addict so this is the perfect alternative! Yum!
omg this looks insane! can’t wait to try it at home 🙂
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Looks yummy, nice share : )
I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to try the smoothie bowl. I’m like you, smoothies last me about 2 seconds.
Wow this looks amazing with all of those toppings! yum
Haven’t actually made a smoothie bowl before – very pretty! 🙂
Definitely going to try this soon!
Will be in my belly soon!
This looks so good! I love your choice of toppings!
I’m not a smoothie person, but If I were to have one, with a spoon is the way to go!
Yum!!!! I love adding granola or peanut butter on top of my smoothie (rather than in my smoothie) because I like feeling like I’m “eating” rather than drinking it! This bowl looks amazing!
Yum! This looks so refreshing! I’ve never tried a smoothie bowl before, but after seeing this recipe, I definitely will soon!