How Do You Make an Acai Bowl Like the Pros? With These 7 Secrets!
Did you know that acai berries have around 10 times as many antioxidants as blueberries? When you consume acai berries, you can reduce your stress chemicals and increase your blood’s antioxidant levels.
Acai berries come from Brazilian rainforests and are the primary ingredient in a favorite breakfast dish — acai bowls. If you’re a fan of the popular breakfast food, you must have wondered, “how do you make an acai bowl at home?”
Don’t worry. We’ve gathered together the top seven secrets on creating an acai bowl from the comfort of your own home. Get on your way to acai bliss as you follow our tips and tricks.
1. Purchase the Right Acai
There are various places and online suppliers where you can buy acai berries. Buying them from a reputable retailer is important since not acai is created equal. It’s important to review the product information to ensure you’re getting all the wonderous acai benefits from the product.
We recommend you follow some of the below guidelines when purchasing acai:
- Organic acai
- Acai pure
- Unsweetened acai
- Acai blocks that have a large number of acai solids
2. Master the Texture
The texture is a vital component of a smoothie and acai bowl. You can change the texture by how much water you put into your acai bowl mixture.
Adding more water will make your bowl more like a smoothie, which isn’t what we’re going for here. You want to eat your bowl with a spoon, not need a straw.
The perfect texture for an acai bowl is not too loose or too thick on your spoon. Add in your water in small increments. Be sure to check the texture before you put more water in.
3. Balance Your Toppings
There are so many different toppings you can choose from to add to your acai bowl. Some of our favorites are:
- Nut butter
- Fresh fruit
- Seeds/nuts
- Cacao nibs/chocolate chips
- Granola
- Toasted coconut flakes
While we love all of those toppings, we recommend not going overboard. Keep your bowls simple with only a few added toppings. Too many toppings will take away from the acai flavor and increase the number of calories in the bowl.
4. Keep Your Ingredients Frozen
Keeping the ingredients (not the toppings) for your homemade acai bowl frozen is key. Frozen ingredients will help you with the consistency of your bowl. Any additional ingredients you add, like bananas or berries, should be frozen as well.
Additionally, if your bowl isn’t thick enough, you can add in more frozen fruit to change the consistency. Make sure you serve your bowl right away since most of the ingredients are frozen. You don’t want them to melt.
5. Sweeten Your Bowl Carefully
Acai isn’t a naturally sweet superfood. You’ll have to find different ways to sweeten your acai bowl without overpowering it.
Frozen fruits like strawberries, bananas, or mangos will naturally sweeten your bowl. You can also add in a little bit of liquid stevia or honey to sweeten it as well. You want to be sure you don’t overdo the flavoring.
6. Don’t Be Shy of Your Greens
Want an extra boost of nutrition? Add in a handful of spinach or kale to quickly get that added nutritional value. It may alter the color of the bowl but will still taste amazing.
If you want to add in additional superfoods and aren’t a fan of greens, you can explore superfood powders. Cacao and pomegranate powders are great options for that.
7. Use a High-Quality Blender
A high-speed blender is essential to achieving a smooth consistency. It also makes it easier for you to blend all of your frozen ingredients.
If you don’t have a blender, you can also use a food processor. All you need to do is stop the machine every so often and scrape down the sides.
So, How Do You Make an Acai Bowl?
Now that we’ve talked about our top seven tips on how to make the perfect breakfast food, let’s go into how to make an acai bowl. Follow our recipe below to get started on making acai bowls at home.
Ingredients:
- One ripe banana
- One 100 gram pouch of frozen unsweetened acai
- One cup frozen berries (your preference)
- 1/4 cup water
- One tablespoon sweetener (optional)
- Toppings of your choice
Instructions:
- Put the acai, banana, sweetener, and berries into your high-powered blender
- Add in a little bit of the water before starting to blend
- Note: Feel free to slowly add in more water so you achieve your desired texture
- Once fully blended, pour the mixture into a bowl
- Top with your desired toppings and enjoy!
The Benefits of Acai Berries
Acai bowls include a lot of benefits thanks to all the superfoods you add. However, as we mentioned before, keep your toppings to a minimum so you don’t increase the calorie content.
Acai berries contain a large amount of the antioxidant anthocyanin, which can reduce inflammation and promote brain health. Additionally, anthocyanins might also improve and enhance a person’s memory. They can inhibit a person’s neuroinflammation and improve the blood flow to their brain.
The heart-healthy fats and fiber in acai berries also support healthy hearts. Fats that are healthy for your heart also increase a person’s HDL, or “good” cholesterol. Those types of fats also decrease a person’s LDL or “bad” cholesterol.
Increased fiber intake also helps slow the progression of heart disease in some patients. Consuming large amounts of acai berries can also reduce blood sugar levels and high cholesterol.
Whatever way you like to consume acai berries, you’re sure to experience the variety of positive benefits the fruit has to offer.
Follow Our Tips for Making an Acai Bowl
Hopefully, we’ve answered the burning questions of, “how do you make an acai bowl?” Don’t worry about spending countless dollars on acai bowls at your local smoothie shop. Make acai bowls right in your very own kitchen.
Check out our blog for more delectable articles on acai berries.