Have you jumped on the acai bowl bandwagon yet? This trend is here to stay!
First off, let’s talk pronunciation so you can confidently brag to your friends about this awesome new recipe you’re about to make 🙂 It’s pronounced ah-sigh-ee, like you’re about to sneeze (ahh-choo!).
Acai bowls are made from acai berries, which are a purple tropical fruit from the Amazon. It looks like a blueberry that has the skin of a dark purple eggplant.
An acai bowl takes acai berries, usually in a frozen puree form (you can find in the freezer section of nearly any grocery store), and blends them up with other fruits and superfoods to transform into a soft-serve-like consistency.
Then the puree is put into a bowl, and topped with all kinds of fun things, like granola, coconut flakes, fruit, cacao nibs, bee pollen, nuts and seeds, almond butter.
One of my favorite things about them is that they keep you full for hours, and satisfy sweet cravings in a mega-healthy way!
They’re loaded with more protective antioxidants than their other berry counterparts which protect us against free radical damage benefitting our cardiovascular, neurological, digestive, and immune systems. Plus, they’re naturally extremely low in sugar, help improve memory and focus, promote skin health and anti-aging, and even contain essential fatty acids which help reduce inflammation and protect us against disease.
Here are some of my favorite toppings and their health benefits:
The most popular and trendy way people have been eating these berries lately has been in this type of bowl form, but you can also blend into smoothies too.
They make a great breakfast, snack, even dessert – if I’m craving ice cream this to me is absolutely just as satisfying and doesn’t leave me feeling crappy after.
If you don’t want to make one yourself, you can always swing by Clean Juice or a Rico’s Food Truck (if you’re local in Charlotte), but WATCH OUT for added sugar. Jamba Juice, for example, has an acai bowl with 96g of added sugars which is like drinking 2 ½ cans of coke!!
- 1 ripe banana, peeled, cut, frozen
- 2 unsweetened acai puree packets
- 2 tablespoons nutbutter (i.e. almondbutter, sunbutter)
- ¼ cup liquid (i.e. water, coconut water, almond milk)
- 1 scoop collagen peptides
- ¼ avocado or yogurt
- Optional: 1-2 chopped Medjool dates or tablespoons honey for sweetness
- First, run your frozen acai puree packets under warm water to release the packaging, and whack it on the counter to break it up into a couple pieces.
- Next, in a food processor or blender (I prefer food processor personally) blend the liquid, frozen banana, and date(s) or honey – if using.
- Then add your acai packs/pieces, and the remaining ingredients
- Puree until smooth. You might need to stop the blending process to scrape down the sides for a more even puree.
- Top with whatever fun toppings you'd like! Here are some fun topping ideas: fresh fruit (blueberries, pineapple, raspberries), dried fruit (goji berries, raisins), granola, coconut flakes, bee pollen, cacao nibs, chopped nuts, seeds (hemp, chia, pumpkin), yogurt covered raisins
- You can find the puree packets in unsweetened or sweetened, I prefer to use unsweetened so I can control the sweetness level myself. The sweet version contains 26g added cane sugar, or nearly 7 teaspoons of sugar, in 2 packets.
