Homemade Acai Bowls
Along with the handful of bases where we’ve been stationed, there’s also a corresponding food that will bring back fond memories of that assignment. Despite the glorious Southern food that we were surrounded with, our Valdosta food was Indian cuisine: soaked up with fresh naan and enjoyed with our close friends. Our Tucson food was tamales, homemade or from our family’s “tamale man,” steamed in between teaching fitness classes or for breakfast with an egg on top. Our San Diego food (or mine, at least) is undoubtedly the acai bowl. I already have some wonderful memories of our new home eating this everything-you-could-wish-for in a bowl: surrounded by boxes as we started unpacking, shared with Liv on the beach, while chatting with a friend, or as a sweet reward after a long run.
I finally started making acai bowls at home. Don’t get me wrong, Tiki Port is still a weekly stop, but after I got the hang of trying a few flavor combos and varieties, I knew they’d be simple to make here at the house when a craving strikes.
If the craving strikes during naptime, I’m out on the patio with my Vitamix, blending up my smoothie base so the motor chopping through a frozen acai smoothie pack doesn’t wake noodle up. You gotta do what you gotta do. And sometimes you gotta wonder if your neighbors think you’re crazy, but then again, our neighbors have 1400 cats so I think we’re even?
Anyway. Acai bowls.
Components of an Acai Bowl
Here’s how they work, if you have yet to experience the goodness:
-Acai or pitaya smoothie base (recipe below). I prefer acai because it’s sweeter, but pitaya is another superfood with less sugar and a beautiful pink hue. You decide which one you like the most!
-Add your toppings: granola, fruit chopped fruit, coconut and honey are the usuals, but you can add anything (like crumbled muffins). I like adding chocolate chips and hemp seeds, too.
The end.
My Acai Bowl Base Recipe
-1 pack of frozen acai puree (you can find at most health food stores, and some Costcos have them in bulk for an awesome price. A pack of four will be around $3-4
-1/2 banana
-About 1 cup liquid*
*You don’t need the base to be super sweet since you’re adding berries and granola. The base can be on the plain side since you’ll be dressing it up, but I find that acai already has a rich and lovely taste, so you don’t need to do much to it.
Homemade Acai Bowl Base Options
Customize your acai bowl base for the taste you’re seeking.
Blend up the base ingredients on high speed and pour into the bowl.
Top with your toppings of choice, and boom: instant beach food 🙂
Acai Bowl Toppings
The classic: granola, banana, blueberries, strawberries, coconut, honey
Tropical: granola, mango, pineapple, coconut
Decadent: granola, strawberries, dark chocolate chips
Elvis: granola, banana, honey and peanut butter
I’d like to say that the beast has been quelled now that I’ve been making these at home, but nope. Just as bad as ever.
Hope you have a wonderful morning <3 See ya later today on the Family page.
xoxo
Gina
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Yum!! I’ve been craving smoothies in this warm weather, but this looks like an awesome new combo to try!
Awesome post, Gina! I usually make my acai bowls with the powdered form, blended into fruit because I haven’t seen the frozen concentrate packs you’ve got there yet. I’m a regular Costco shopper and I hope we get those soon! All of your combos sound delicious. One of my favourites is acai powder mixed with raspberries, strawberries, banana, fresh ginger, and cinnamon, topped with more berries, oats, and hemp seeds. I kinda wish I’d made one for breakfast this morning!
I really need to try this! I haven’t tasted acai yet. The bowl looks delicious 🙂
thanks for sharing, sweetie! gorgeous nails, too 🙂
This looks like my go to meal in the summer! Fruity, easy and refreshing!
Oh yay! I just got into Acai bowls from my local juice shop and love them but they are pricey! I’m definitely going to be making these at home!
Wow, this looks fantastic. I’ve been on a smoothie kick this spring. I’m definitely going to be looking for this frozen acai. Is it weird that I want to try the Elvis version first? 🙂
I’ve never tried acai before, and this sounds delicious. I love that you have food memories associated with places you’ve lived. I moved to San Francisco from Orlando, and I definitely think of pizza and fro-yo when reminiscing about good ole’ Central Florida. 🙂
I”ve never had an acai bowl before – it looks gorgeous (and tasty)! Thanks for sharing!
Super yum! I love the chart you made for the bases, very helpful and tasty.
glad you liked it! 🙂
My & my little LOVE Kure’s acai bowls & now I’m excited to make them at home too!!
KURE IS SO GOOD 🙂
My & my little LOVE Kure’s acai bowls & now I’m excited to make them at home too!!
Thank you for this, Gina! I’ve been improvising my own homemade version but didn’t know what kind of acai product to get, so I’ve just been upping the amount of frozen fruit I use. I also toss in just a small amount of spinach. It’s tasteless and I feel good getting in some greenage for the day. 🙂
I can’t wait to try making this!
Yay!
I’m so happy you shared this! I have been seeing acai bowls EVERYWHERE and now I know how to make my own…cannot wait 🙂
Love this! I had an amazing acai bowl in La Jolla when I was there in March. It was amazing with granola and peanut butter chips! Holy cow, so good! Definitely cheaper to make them at home though 🙂
oh yummmmmm
Blending smoothies on the porch —-> much less crazy than 1400 cats!!! The vitamix on the porch is totally normal and necessary 😉
the cats were watching me blend bahaha
I was always wondering how these bowls were made! Thanks for the recipe!
This looks fantastic!! Ive always just bought my acai bowls and never thought of making them myself! it looks so simple I will have to try now!!! I need to try and find the acai puree,…im hoping Whole Foods has it!
New reader and I am loving the blog so far!!!
whole foods should have it!
thank you so much for reading 🙂 nice to meet you!
xoxo
My Whole Foods has it, but I had to SEARCH for it. It wasn’t really obvious or placed well. If not, they can order it for you.
Wow this looks awesome! I just recently tried acai & have been drooling over your Tiki Port pics. Now I can make my own. Yay!!
this looks great! it has been forever since having acai…sounds so refreshing on these hot days.
Yum! I love acai bowls! If you and the Pilot ever visit Santa Barbara, you have to stop by Backyard Bowls. I’ve had a lot of acai bowls throughout the years, but BB will always have my heart!
I so love these and they are all over Phoenix now. I found the acai packs at Sprouts last weekend but I was disappointed in the ingredients. It’s has evaporated cane juice as one of the first ingredients and I am a firm believer in real sugar not fake. I’ve been trying to figure out how to make my own acai purée without the crazy ingredients. I’m thinking evolution orange juice and acai powder would work but haven’t tried it yet. Let me know if you have suggestions!
I avoid the brands with the additives that Whole Foods and Sprouts carry. I found some better options online that are Pure Unsweetened acai packs without the additives. It helps that I lived in Brazil and know that acai should be much darker in color than the brand used in this post. I personally found the flavor to be missing from their acai, it seemed watered down and overprocessed…not sure how else they lost the color and the correct texture of acai. Either way, there are better options out there if you google search acai purees.
Mmmm! Looks delish! A great summer breakfast.
I love these. I first tried these about 6 years at Planet Smoothie in Orlando when I lived there . (yes, a large smoothie chain with “healthy” ingredients) I absolutely love, love them. They use apple juice or water for the liquid. So refreshing and yummy!
I’m pretty sure I have a frozen smoothie pack in my fridge from ages ago. I think this is a sign I need to try your version. 🙂
Putting this on my list of things to make stat! Yum!!
You and the fam have to make your way to Santa Barbara, not just for the gorgeous place it is, but because we have Backyard Bowls which is my FAV!
Thanks for this fun post!
I still have yet to try an acai bowl! Thanks for sharing this recipe! I’ll give it a try!
I didn’t really know what you were talking about when you talked about acai bowls but these sound delish! I can’t wait to give it a try.
I think the intrigue of this is lost on me-isn’t it just a smoothie in a bowl?
Gina, Thanks for the recipes…I have not seen a place that offers Acai Bowls in Pittsburgh yet, and every time you mention them, I drool! Now I will try making my own! I make green smoothies all the time and these recipes sound amazing. Thanks girl!
Great acai bowl recipe:
Use 2 frozen packs, 1/2 banana and 1/4 cup liquid (water, juice or milk). Blend thick then top with anything from granola & seeds, to fresh or dried fruit.
Notes: Use 2 packs to get right flavor and texture. Limit the liquid added…use just enough to get blender going, otherwise your acai bowl will be soup-ey and more easily drank as a smoothie. You want the texture to be a little thicker than a soft serve ice cream/yogurt. This way the toppings stay on top and don’t sink.
In Brazil, they commonly consume a minimum of 250 grams (2 1/2 packs) of acai up to 500 grams (5 packs) per bowl. If in the Amazon regions, they’ll consume acai several times a day and up to 1 liter per day.
Thank you so much for posting! I’ve been wondering what exactly this whole acai bowl thing is. I haven’t seen them around Massachusetts at all (not that I’m actively looking). I can’t wait to try this thing you’ve been raving about for so long!
Great blog post! I’ve been looking for acai at different grocery stores around the area but haven’t found any yet. Definitely going to check out Costco though. Love this recipe 🙂
Just tried the creamy one. It was tasty but more like a soup!! Any idea what went wrong? Going to try the basic next time.
maybe reduce the amount of liquid? you can also double to acai to make it more like an ice cream base
I just made this using your recipe and it was wayyyy too soupy. One cup of liquid was far too much. I think 1/2 a cup would be more appropriate. It’s not even worth putting toppings on, they would just sink.
There is a new place in Tucson called Goodness that has acai bowls… I’ll have to go try one! Did you go there before you moved?
no, it had just opened! i heard it’s amazing though
Thanks for this Gina – mine was super liquid-y too so I think 1 cup liquid is definitely too much. I will try Brandon’s suggestions above – two Acai packets & 1/4 cup liquid. Thank you!
Hi Gina,
These look so yummy so I tried to make one at home. I was wondering if you used two packets of Acai in your bowl – it looks much thicker than my one pack. Do you do a frozen banana or fresh? Can’t wait to make another!!
i use fresh, but frozen would work well too!
Thanks Gina! Last question – I promise :). Did you use two packets or one of Acai mix??
i didn’t. i like to ration them 🙂
Hey Gina! I tried out the Acai Bowls because I found the acai packets at a new store near me in Indy (yay!!) I went with the creamy base (banana, almond milk and frozen acai), but didn’t have frozen bananas on hand so I just used a regular banana and my base was very tasty but a bit soupy. Do you normally use a frozen banana??
If you don’t have access to the Acai base what would you recommend for the smoothie part? I would LOVE to try something similar to this! <3
I just bought acai packets. This is perfect! My 1 year old son loves them and I sneak in spinach/greens. Do you have any good recipes for toddlers?