How To Make A Healthy Homemade Acai Bowl

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Acai Bowls are colorful, filling, packed with nutrients and are reminiscent of a smoothie but served in a bowl and eaten with a spoon. These smoothie bowls make for a delicious breakfast, brunch or refreshing snack.

two white bowls with acia bowl recipe with fresh fruit, nuts, and granola

Acai Bowl

I love making acai bowls because they are super versatile, meaning you can use whatever fruit you have on hand and they still taste delicious. You can make these bowls in just a few minutes too!

This particular recipe calls for frozen banana, berries, frozen acai puree and then that is blended together with milk or juice. The consistency should be really thick. Serve that in a bowl and top with your favorite fixings. I like to add additional fruit, nuts, seeds or granola to mine.

top view of two white bowls with acia bowl recipe with fresh fruit, nuts, and granola

What Is Acai?

Acai (pronounced ah-sigh-ee) berries are grown on acai palm trees found in Central and South America. They are small, about an inch round, and they have a dark purple skin. They are known to be higher in antioxidants than most berries including blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. Acai berries have a short shelf life and so in the United States we mostly use a frozen puree version.

Recipe Ingredients

Ripe banana: this adds great creaminess to the dish and helps to keep it nice and thick
Frozen mixed berries: these add to the color, sweetness, and thick texture of the dish. If you can't have mixed berries you can use any single frozen berry you like or have on hand or a mix of those
Frozen acai puree: look for these with other frozen fruit in the freezer section of your grocery store, they're pretty easy to find
Milk or juice of choice: this is the liquid that helps to get everything blended up, you can use any type of milk you like or have on hand, any kind of juice, and even coconut water
Assorted toppings such as granola, fresh fruit, coconut, nuts, seeds: the possibilities are endless here, we love the crunch of granola and almost always add some chia seeds and hemp hearts
Bonus: you can add protein powder or some yogurt (get my homemade instant pot yogurt recipe here) to your acai bowls for added protein.

How To Prepare An Acai Bowl

So easy! Dump everything in the blender and go!
To make these a little easier to make in a hurry- keep some frozen banana in the fridge! I always cut a medium banana into 6 slices and keep them in a freezer bag. So when I need a banana for a recipe, I know I need 6 slices!
Top with anything and everything that you love.
Eat right away and enjoy!

Other Healthy Toppings & Additions

SO many possibilities on the topping front. You can add fruit like
pineapple, mango, strawberries and you can add nuts, chia
seeds, almond butter. Acai bowls taste great topped with granola
too.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Are acai bowls actually healthy?

Acai bowls are loaded with fruit that contain vitamin and minerals. Vitamin C, antioxidants and fiber are all an important addition to a healthy diet.

What does acai taste like?

Acai berries taste similar to a blackberry but have a slight bitter taste that accompanies them as well. I’ve heard it compared to a cross between a blackberry and dark chocolate.

Expert Tips & Tricks

The thick texture us really important so that you can spoon it up like ice cream and aren't trying to eat it like a soup. Using a high powered blender or a food processor will help with this and adding the least amount of liquid that you can while still giving it enough to blend up properly. It's a bit a balancing game but you'll figure out what is best in your kitchen after a trial or two.

Storage Instructions

This recipe is best eaten right away. If you do have some leftover, I like to mix all my toppings in well and place the mixture into popsicle molds to make delicious acai popsicles.

More healthy recipes:

If you’ve tried this healthy yellow acai bowl recipe or any other recipe on Bless this Mess, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some pictures of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories.