VITAMIN-C PACKED IMMUNITY SMOOTHIE BOWLS
Smoothie bowls are excellent and a household favorite because they are great for any meal of the day: hellooooo breakfast, lunch, or dinner! My go-to, acai bowls, get a little mundane after a while and I wanted to mashup some of my favorite flavors.
Nice to meet you, matcha acerola smoothie bowls! I was SO excited when I found out that my local Trader Joe’s began to carry frozen unsweetened organic acerola puree packets that come frozen and individually packaged in a set of 4! A single packet of these frozen Unsweetened Organic Acerola Purees delivers 1180% of the daily recommended value of vitamin C! Now that’s an immunity boost!
The zippy tang of the acerola makes for such a good pairing with earthiness and subtle sweetness from the matcha powder ~swirl~. I am here for nourishing bowls of C-O-L-O-R-F-U-L food that taste as good as they look. And this smoothie bowl checks off ALL of the boxes.
If you make this recipe and add your own spin to it, I’d love to know. Did you incorporate a different topping that I need to try? Use more of one fruit? Smoothie bowls are really fun to remix, so I’m excited to hear and try what worked well for you.
INGREDIENTS
For the smoothie bowl:
1/4 cup of unsweetened coconut milk or milk of choice, chilled
1/2 cup of frozen mango
1/2 cup of frozen pineapple
1 3.5 ounces (roughly 1/2 cup) frozen acerola puree packet, ran under hot water for 5-10 seconds (I used Trader Joe’s Unsweetened Organic Acerola Puree Packets)
1 small frozen banana, peeled and diced, ran under hot water for 5-10 seconds
For the toppings:
1/4 teaspoon of matcha powder (I used Trader Joe’s Matcha Green Tea Single-Serve Packages)
4-6 slices of fresh tropical fruit such as kiwi, sliced
Choice of granola (I used Trader Joe’s Organic Toasted Coconut Granola)
1 tablespoon of shredded unsweetened coconut, desiccated, optional but highly recommended
1 tablespoon chia seeds, optional but highly recommended
1 tablespoon of hemp seeds, optional
1 tablespoon of honey, optional
1 tablespoon of nut butter ( I used Trader Joe’s Mixed Nut Butter), optional
DIRECTIONS
In a blender, pour in your coconut milk followed by your frozen mango, pineapple, acerola packet, and banana.
Blend until you have a sorbet-like consistency! Give it time and don’t add more liquid unless absolutely necessary. Depending on your blender, this could take anywhere between 3-7 minutes. If adding liquid, add no more than one tablespoon of additional coconut milk at a time.
Add in your matcha powder into one half of the bowl. Using a spoon, swirl it in to ensure that it is mostly dissolved.
Finally, it's time to top your bowl! Add in your tropical fruit slices (I love kiwi in this), granola, shredded coconut, chia seeds, hemp seeds. For a final touch, drizzle on your honey and a nice dollop of your choice of nut butter.
~ Serves 1
Notes
Add in your liquid first to the blender to ensure a creamy base. Coconut milk is my go-to for tropical smoothie bowls and I promise you won’t be disappointed!
While I’ve chosen frozen mango and pineapple in this recipe, you CAN get creative and use other substitutions. Just be sure that you use 1 cup of frozen pre-sliced fruit in addition to the frozen banana and acerola. While we are on the topic, do not skip the addition of the FROZEN banana! It helps give your bowl a dreamy sorbet-like consistency. No matter what smoothie bowl you are making, this trick of adding frozen pre-sliced banana is a game-changer.
All of the ingredients for this recipe are from Trader Joe’s (my favorite grocer and also one the greatest places in the world), but you can get many of these ingredients at other grocers like Whole Foods and/or online via Thrive Market.
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