How To Make An Acai Bowl Homemade Acai Bowl Recipe

First things first: what is an acai berry? Acai is a dark purple berry that tastes like a combination of wild berries, chocolate and soil, yep soil. Enter your email & we’ll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from us every week! By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from Hurry the Food Up. Açaí bowls are a popular snack in Brazil – eaten kind of like we eat ice cream. And like ice cream, they are not always healthy! The favorite toppings in Brazil are usually condensed milk, sweet powdered milk, maybe some chocolate and granola. There is often fresh fruit too, like banana or strawberries, but an açai bowl is definitely NOT always treated as a ‘health food’, the way we think about it! However, the acai berry has incredible health benefits and when served with banana, coconut flakes and chia seeds, like our very easy acai bowl recipe, it sure is healthy!!

Ingredients

Acai pureeYou can pick up acai packets in the grocery store these days! A frozen acai packet is the most common form, and the frozen fruit contains as many nutrients as the fresh berries! Alternatively, try acai powder and 3-4 ice cubes. BananaThe banana is added to the blender with the pureed acai berries, to add some healthy potassium and filling fibre. If you want your acai bowl to be super ice-creamy, a great way to achieve this is by freezing the banana! Frozen Berry MixAlso added to the high-speed blender, to bulk out the acai berries, add flavour and vary the nutritional profile. OatsOats add more fibre to your acai bowl, to make it more filling than fruit alone! Soy MilkThis makes your bowl creamier! You can also use almond milk, oat milk, coconut milk! Or just stick to dairy! Maple syrup / honeyThere is no added sugar in this homemade acai bowl recipe – we stuck to natural sweeteners. Coconut FlakesThese make a delicious topping, with a rich, nutty flavour! Chia SeedsA super healthy addition to the bowl, and one that will keep you full for hours! Tropical Fruits – ie. MangoWith their healthy profile, vibrant color and delicious flavour, mangos are great thing to top your acai bowl with. But don’t be afraid to experiment – the choice of toppings is endless!

How many calories in an Acai bowl?

This really depends on what toppings you choose, but if you follow our recipe you should end up with approximately 374 kcal. It also contains 10g protein per serving. A quick overview of the nutritional profile of this healthy breakfast:

Health benefits of Acai

What actually makes a healthy acai bowl so good for you? What is it about those funny little berries? Acai berries have a pretty unique nutritional profile. They are rich in heart healthy fats, but contain relatively few calories. They contain little protein, but still have 19 different amino acids! They also contain more antioxidants than most berries. So while you won’t be smashing through your protein intake (unless you add protein powder or maybe peanut butter to the mix), you will be getting a big helping of the fat, fibre, and nutrients you need to be healthy! They are actually the perfect weight loss breakfast – 374 kcal, 9g fat, 10g fibre is a great balance, which will keep you going until lunchtime. Check out our 7 Day Free Weight Loss Plan to see how you could work this acai bowl into a weight loss diet.

How to make an Acai bowl

Acai bowl variations

This recipe is already vegan! It uses plant milk and maple syrup, though you are welcome to use dairy milk and honey if you aren’t vegan.

For those of you who are gluten-free, just make sure you use gluten-free oats. The rest is good to go! The fat content is pretty reasonable, but if you want to lower it, replace the chia seeds, coconut flakes and nuts with lower fat alternatives, like more fruit. If you need higher fat, a dollop of peanut butter never goes amiss! You could also add ripe avocado to the smoothie base – their bland flavour should be masked by the berries, banana and syrup! There are endless variations of toppings. Try sprinkling some granola and sliced banana – this is the basic traditional acai bowl you can buy on any Brazilian beach! Let us know your favourite combinations in the comments!

More breakfast bowl recipes

If you’re after another healthy breakfast bowl, you should check out these overnight oats, or this yogurt and granola bowl. I am also very proud of our chia breakfast pudding.