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The Smoothie Bowl I make for everything from family sleepovers to busy school mornings. Frozen berries, banana, and nut butter blend into a thick, spoonable base. It shines with Tahini Granola and just about any topping you throw at it.
Looking for more vegan smoothies? Check out my Watermelon Smoothie, Avocado Smoothie, Apple Smoothie, and Banana Mocha Smoothie recipes.
Quick Look: Smoothie Bowl
- 🔪 Prep Time: 5 minutes
- 🔥 Cook Time: 0 minutes
- 🍽 Total Time: 5 minutes
- 👨👩👧👧 Servings: 1
- 🌱 Calories: 400
- 🫘 Protein: 10g
- 🍠 Dietary breakdown: Vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, and easily made nut- and soy-free.
- 😋 Flavor Profile: Creamy, fruity, and sweet with lightly nutty undertones. The perfect base for all your favorite smoothie bowl toppings!
- ✅ Difficulty: Seriously simple — just measure, blend, and enjoy
Summarize & Save This Post With
Table of Contents
- Quick Look: Smoothie Bowl
- Why You’ll Love This Smoothie Bowl Recipe
- How to Get the Right Smoothie Bowl Consistency
- Key Ingredients
- Recipe Variations
- How to Make a Smoothie Bowl
- Jenné’s Recipe Tips
- Topping Ideas
- Serving Suggestions
- The Best Bowls for Smoothie Bowls
- Make Ahead Directions
- Smoothie Bowl FAQs
- More Healthy Breakfast Recipes
- Smoothie Bowl Recipe
Why You’ll Love This Smoothie Bowl Recipe
- Quick and Easy: Ready in 10 minutes, these bowls are made for busy mornings.
- One Blender, No Cooking: Nothing to preheat, nothing to time, and just one thing to wash when you’re done.
- Wholesome and Nutritious: The berries bring antioxidants and fiber, the banana brings potassium and magnesium, and the nut butter brings healthy fats and plant protein.
- Kid- and Toddler-Friendly: My daughter and niece always request this. It’s earned a permanent spot on our menu.
- Easy to Customize: Swap the berries for mango and pineapple, use sunflower seed butter to keep it nut-free, or pile on whatever toppings you have. The base recipe holds up to almost any variation.
- Naturally Vegan and Easily Made Gluten-Free: Made with just non-dairy milk, frozen berries, banana, and nut butter, this recipe works for a range of diets. Use a certified gluten-free granola if you’re avoiding gluten.
For Baby J and me, summer means a lot of things, but mostly it means having my niece over for sleepovers. In the evening we snuggle up on the couch with popcorn and a movie. In the morning, these smoothie bowls are always on the menu.
The girls love it because it’s sweet, frosty, and the perfect canvas for their favorite toppings. I’m a fan because it’s easy to make, and secretly nutritious — I know they’re starting the day with a solid meal. For a heartier breakfast I’ll often pair it with Tofu Scramble, Sourdough Discard Pancakes or Vegan Crepes. And it’s a great quick snack for after they’ve worked up an appetite at the pool or the park.
Use up the rest of your frozen berries with these recipes: Brilliant Berry Crumble, Vegan Blueberry Muffins, Vegan Blueberry Pancakes, and Strawberry Sorbet.
How to Get the Right Smoothie Bowl Consistency
The only real difference between a smoothie and a smoothie bowl is thickness. You want it thick enough to hold a spoon upright and thick enough that granola sits on top instead of sinking. Here’s how to achieve that:
- A high speed blender with a tamper is ideal. I recommend the KitchenAid Pro Line blender that I have, or the Vitamix. But less expensive blenders will work too. I recommend The Beast and Ninja Twisti.
- Start with less milk than you think you’ll need. This is the most important. It’s easier to thin a thick blend than to thicken a thin one, so hold back on the milk, blend, and add the rest only if the blades struggle. If you overshoot, add more frozen fruit until it thickens back up.
- Go heavy on the frozen fruit. It’s what makes the bowl spoonable. If you swap the fresh banana for a frozen one, you can add more liquid or use fresh strawberries or blueberries instead. Just don’t go all-fresh, or you’ll be drinking it through a straw.
- Add the ingredients in the order listed. Adding the liquid first makes for the smoothest blending — it gives the blades something to work with so they can pull the frozen fruit down. If your blender has a tamper, use it to push the fruit toward the blades when it gets stuck.
- Don’t Over-Blend. A blender running on high generates heat, which softens the blend and loosens it up. Stop as soon as it’s smooth.
Key Ingredients
Non-Dairy Milk: I use unsweetened plain soy milk. Use the variety of your choice — pea and soy milk provide the most protein, oat and coconut milk are the creamiest, and almond milk is classic.
Banana: Makes up the creamy, sweet base of this smoothie bowl. Always use a ripe one — the more spots, the easier it blends and the sweeter it tastes.
Frozen Fruit: This is what makes the smoothie thick, frosty, and spoonable. You’ll need ½ cup of strawberries or mango, plus ½ cup of blueberries. Or any combination of frozen fruit you want. Add it straight from the freezer — don’t thaw it first.
Nut Butter: Two tablespoons add richness and body without overpowering the fruit. Peanut and almond butter are my go-tos, but sunflower butter, tahini, cashew butter or a nut and seed blend, such as Nutzo, works well too.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Recipe Variations
This smoothie bowl recipe takes very well to swaps and substitutions, so use what you like and have on hand:
- Switch Up the Fruit: Try frozen mango and pineapple, peaches and raspberries, or cherries and blackberries in place of the strawberries and blueberries. My niece’s favorite is actually mango smoothie bowl with strawberries and mango, no frozen blueberries. Options are endless!
- Nut-Free Bowl: Substitute sunflower seed butter or tahini for the almond or peanut butter. You’ll get the same nutty richness and staying power without the nuts.
- Protein Boost: Use soy milk and add a scoop of vanilla plant-based protein powder.
- Add Seeds: A tablespoon of hemp or chia seeds adds heart-healthy fats and a little more plant protein.
- Soy-Free: Use almond, oat, pea, or macadamia nut milk.
How to Make a Smoothie Bowl
- Add the non-dairy milk, banana, and frozen strawberries or mango to a blender or food processor. Blend until incorporated, with no large chunks of fruit remaining.
- Add the blueberries and nut butter and continue blending until smooth. If it’s too thick, add more non-dairy milk a tablespoon at a time to thin.
- Serve. Pour into a bowl and top with granola and any extra toppings you like — sliced banana, seeds, dark chocolate chips, dried coconut shavings, and more.
Jenné’s Recipe Tips
- Start with less milk than you think you need. Thickness is what separates a smoothie bowl from a smoothie, and it’s easier to thin a thick blend than to thicken a runny one. Hold back some of the milk, blend, and add the rest a tablespoon at a time only if the blades are struggling. If it does come out too loose, blend in more frozen fruit until it’s thick enough to hold a spoon upright.
- Add the ingredients in the order listed. Liquids first gives the blades something to work with right away, so the frozen fruit gets pulled down instead of packing into a pocket above them. If your blender has a tamper, use it to push the fruit toward the blades when it gets stuck.
- Use a ripe banana. Spotty and soft is what you want. There’s no added sweetener in this recipe, so the banana does all the work and it serves as more liquid when blended — an underripe one blends stiffer and tastes flat next to the tart berries.
- Make it fresh. A smoothie bowl is at its best right out of the blender, while it’s still cold and thick. Left to sit, it softens and separates. Chilling your bowl in the freezer for a couple of minutes beforehand buys you a little more time before it melts. And if you do end up with leftovers, blend in 2 cups of frozen fruit to bring the texture back.
- Scaling up for a crowd. Multiply the ingredients as needed and follow the directions as written. Most home blenders can’t handle much more than a double batch at once, so make it in batches rather than overfilling the jar — an overpacked blender just spins around an air pocket and won’t blend anything.
- Swapping fresh fruit for frozen. If you keep frozen bananas on hand for smoothies, use one here instead of the fresh banana and go with fresh strawberries or blueberries instead. You want frozen fruit in there somewhere — that’s what makes this thick enough to eat with a spoon rather than drink through a straw.
Topping Ideas
Granola and fruit are my go-tos, but the toppings are a fun area to play with, making the bowl your own. Choose any of the following to add texture, nutrition, and staying power:
- Crunch: Granola (try tahini granola or sweet potato granola), toasted coconut flakes, cacao nibs, crushed pretzels, or your favorite cereal.
- Fruit: Sliced bananas, kiwi, cubed mango, pitted cherries, apple slices, pomegranate seeds, or fresh berries.
- Seeds: Hemp, chia, sunflower, or pumpkin seeds.
- Nuts: Sliced or slivered almonds, pistachios, chopped pecans, walnuts, or macadamia nuts.
- Sweet: Dark chocolate chips or shavings, a drizzle of maple syrup, a sprinkle of cinnamon, or chopped dried cranberries or cherries.
- Spoonable: A dollop of coconut yogurt, a swirl of all-fruit jam, or a drizzle of drippy natural peanut or almond butter.
Serving Suggestions
A smoothie bowl holds its own at breakfast, but it stretches further than that. Here’s how I serve it.
- Make it a bigger breakfast. A slice of toast with avocado or nut butter alongside turns this into a proper meal, especially if you’ve got a long morning ahead. Try it with this mushroom avocado toast. Or enjoy it alongside fluffy Spelt Pancakes or Oat Flour Pancakes.
- Serve it as a light lunch. Top with a hearty drizzle of nut butter and a sprinkle of seeds, and it holds up on its own until dinner.
- Put it out for a brunch crowd. Blend a big batch, pour it into bowls, and set the toppings out in small dishes so everyone builds their own. This is how it goes when my niece spends the night!
- Treat it like dessert. Skip the granola, top it with dark chocolate chips, a drizzle of maple syrup, and coconut flakes, and eat it out of a small bowl after dinner. Sort of like melty soft serve.
Always remember to serve it cold, and soon. It softens fast, so blend it right before you plan to eat and serve it in a chilled bowl.
The Best Bowls for Smoothie Bowls
Serving a smoothie bowl out of a cutesy bowl is half the fun! A chilled stainless steel bowl will keep it cool longest, but a coconut bowl makes it feel like you’re on a tropical vacation. Ceramic cereal bowls are my go-to, and a shallow thermos works for taking it on the go.
 |  |  |  |
| Stainless Steel Smoothie Bowls. Dishwasher Safe. | Coconut Smoothie Bowl Bowls. Hand Wash Only. | Ceramic Cereal Bowl. Dishwasher Safe. | Insulated 10oz Thermos. Dishwash Safe. |
And if you’re looking for even more, check out my roundup of Delicious Vegan Breakfast Recipes!
Make Ahead Directions
For easy last-minute meals and snacks, build freezer packs ahead of time so you can grab, blend, and go.
Portion the strawberries, blueberries, and banana — peeled and cut into chunks — into freezer-safe bags, one bowl’s worth per bag. Lay them flat and stack them in the freezer. Expect a thicker blend, since the banana is frozen now too, so you may want to add extra milk a tablespoon at a time.
Smoothie Bowl FAQs
No. A standard blender or food processor works — this recipe is mostly soft fruit, not ice. If your machine is on the smaller side, add a little more milk earlier than the recipe calls for and use a tamper to keep the fruit moving toward the blades. Blending in stages, as written, also helps.
The blended base here is naturally gluten-free — non-dairy milk, fruit, and nut butter. The toppings are where gluten sneaks in. Some granola contains oats processed alongside wheat, and cereal often contains wheat outright, so look for a certified gluten-free granola or cereal if you’re avoiding gluten. Or make your own homemade granola, it’s very easy and cheap.
Nut butter and granola are already doing most of that work — the fat and fiber are what carry you past mid-morning. To push it further, stir in a tablespoon of hemp or chia seeds, use soy or pea milk instead of a lower-protein option like almond, or add a scoop of plant-based protein powder. An extra tablespoon of nut butter works too.
The bowl itself is best blended right before you eat it, since it softens and separates as it sits. What you can prep ahead is the fruit: portion the banana, strawberries, and blueberries into freezer bags so all you do in the morning is dump, blend, and top. If you do have leftovers, blend in 2 cups of frozen fruit to bring the texture back.
Almost anything frozen. Mango and pineapple make it a tropical smoothie bowl, peaches and raspberries go softer and sweeter, and cherries and blackberries make a deeper, darker bowl. The only rule is keeping enough frozen fruit in the mix to stay thick enough to eat with a spoon.
This one lands around 12 grams, most of it from the nut butter and granola, though the exact number depends on your milk and granola. Soy and pea milk bring roughly 8 grams per cup, where almond milk brings about 1, so that swap alone makes a real difference. Add a scoop of protein powder on top of that, and you’re in the 25 to 30 gram range.
More Healthy Breakfast Recipes
Snacks & Dips
Almond Flour Banana Bread
Breakfast
Best Vegan Waffles
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Sweet Potato Oat Bran Muffins
Breakfast
Instant Pot Steel Cut Oats
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Smoothie Bowl
Equipment
Ingredients
Smoothie Bowl
- 3-4 tbsp unsweetened non-dairy milk, plus more as needed
- 1 whole fresh banana, about 1 cup
- ½ cup frozen strawberries or mango, or any other combination of frozen fruit
- ½ cup frozen blueberries
- 2 tablespoons almond butter or peanut butter
To Serve
- ½ cup granola or cereal of choice
- Optional toppings, sliced banana, seeds, dark chocolate chips, dried coconut shavings, and more
Instructions
- Add the non-dairy milk, banana, and frozen strawberries or mango to a blender or food processor. Blend until incorporated, with no large chunks of fruit remaining.
- Add the blueberries and nut butter and continue blending until smooth. If it's too thick, add more non-dairy milk a tablespoon at a time to thin. If it's too thin, add more frozen fruit to thicken.
- Pour into a bowl and top with granola and any extra toppings you like — sliced banana, seeds, dark chocolate chips, or dried coconut shavings.
Notes
- Non-Dairy Milk — Start with less milk than the recipe calls for and add the rest a tablespoon at a time. If the blend comes out too loose, add more frozen fruit.
- Ingredient order — Add the ingredients in the order listed, liquids first, for the smoothest blending. Use a tamper if your blender has one.
- Banana ripeness — Use a ripe, spotty banana — it’s the only sweetener in the recipe.
- Freshness — Smoothie bowls are best made fresh. To refresh leftovers, blend in 2 cups of frozen fruit.
- Multiplying — To make multiple servings, multiply the ingredients as needed and blend in batches if your blender can’t hold everything at once.
- Frozen banana swap— Use a frozen banana instead of a fresh banana, and use fresh strawberries or blueberries instead.
