This Smoothie Bowl Will Change Your Life. Here’s How to Make It.

Inspiration: Derek Simnett is one of the best sources of healthy, beautiful, and delicious vegan recipes on YouTube. He also brings tireless positive energy to all of his content, and goes above and beyond to make each of his videos fun, engaging, and informative. Over the last 5+ years, I've been consistently checking in with him to get ideas for how to improve my cooking and calisthenics skills. While I continue to learn a lot from him, the recipe that's given me the most return has been his smoothie bowl. If you watch one of his "What I Eat in a Day" videos like the one below, you are all but guaranteed to see him make one after a morning workout. The whole video is worth the watch, but if you want to skip right to the smoothie bowl, start the video at 6:08. At its core, a great smoothie bowl is a mix of leafy greens, fruit, a protein-dense ingredient, a source of healthy fats (think ground flax/chia, walnuts, peanut butter), combined with just enough plant-based milk or water to mix everything smoothly without it turning into a smoothie. You should be able to savor it with a spoon, like ice cream or sorbet. The beauty of smoothie bowls is the infinite combinations of ingredients you can use to make your own perfect recipe. As long as you have the key types of ingredients, you can't go wrong. We all have to start somewhere, though, so I invite you to try the recipe below and tweak it to your taste from there! Smoothie:
  • 1 cup frozen mixed berries
  • 1 cup frozen spinach
  • 1 cup plant-based milk or water (I go with unsweetened soy milk. My favorites are from Eden Foods and Silk.)
  • 1/2 medium banana
  • 2 tablespoons peanut butter
  • 1 scoop of your favorite plant-based protein powder (I love Bob's Red Mill Hemp Protein and the Blueberry Acai flavor from Vivo Life)
  • Optional: about 5 grams of creatine monohydrate and a tablespoon of flaxseeds
Toppings:
  • The remaining 1/2 banana
  • 1/4 cup mixed raw nuts, trail mix, or granola
Instructions:
  • Add all ingredients to the blender. The order you add the ingredients doesn't make a big difference, but I find it easiest to add the peanut butter and protein powder in the middle, and the milk or water at the end. This makes it easier for the ingredients to blend smoothly.
  • You might find that some ingredients stick to the walls of the blender. If this happens, simply stop the blender after a few seconds, remove the lid, and scrape those bits off the wall and back into the mixture. Close the lid, and re-blend.
  • Adjust the ratio of solid to liquid ingredients to reach desired consistency if you don't nail it the first time. For a thicker, more dense smoothie bowl, use less liquid or add a few more berries. For a smoother/runnier texture, add liquid a little bit at a time.