How to Make a Smoothie Bowl Worth Photographing

Simple, creamy and beautiful, learning how to make a smoothie bowl requires colour theory, a thick creamy smoothie base and delicious and delicate toppings. Packed with nutrients from milk, oats, ginger and fruit, these smoothies will surely keep you full long after breakfast.

Every morning before work, Philip grabs fruit from the freezer, slices a few knobs off a piece of ginger and tosses them into our blender with hemp seeds, chia, oats and  a cup of milk. He turns the blender on and a symphony of colours shoot around the blender until they merge into a consistent flow of liquid that's then transferred into a tall glass for an easy, drinkable smoothie consumed by Philip in the matter of minutes.

On the weekends, Philip repeats the same tossing of fresh fruit into the blender, but instead of conveniently adding in all the ingredients, he blends the fruit to an iced fruit consistency and then adds in the ginger, seeds and half the milk of his weekday smoothies. The result is a creamy, thick and almost soft-serve-like consistency, the perfect base for a smoothie bowl.

The obvious difference between a smoothie and a smoothie bowl is  how you consume it. A traditional smoothie requires a straw and a cup and is an easily gulp-able drink, while a smoothie bowl requires a spoon and a bowl, and is meant to fill you up like a traditional meal. Other than it's thick texture, smoothie bowls are the ultimate breakfast vehicle for toppings that keep you fuller longer and add a little beauty to your morning routine.

Learning how to make a smoothie bowl has become an Instagram phenomenon and is an art that is easily achievable at home with a few steps including colour theory, flavours and toppings like nuts and seeds, fresh fruit, and nutrient-dense additions like bee pollen that allow you to express your individuality and smoothie bowl style. The perfect finish to your bowl is a blooming food trend we love adding to our smoothie bowls: edible flowers. Think of it as placing the bouquet in the centre of a well-deigned tablescape. Read on to learn how to make your own smoothie bowl using our tips:

How to Make a Smoothie Bowl Worth Photographing

Decide Your Base Colour:

When it comes to curating the colour of your smoothie bowl, it really does bring us back to art class. The mixing of colours and how they complement one another to make different hues and tints is essential to nailing your smoothie bowl colour. Also, the last thing you want is one of those greeny-brown smoothie colours, you know the effect of mixing the rainbow into one. Here's a few combinations to get you started:

Purple: Fruit mixes heavy on blueberries, blackberries, and black currents will leave you with a purple smoothie. Our favourite purple combo uses 1 cup of mixed wild berries and 1 cup of blueberries.

Pink: You will want to stick to light coloured and red fruits for a pink smoothie. Think mango, pineapple, melon and grapes for the light colours, and strawberries, cherries, pomegranate, and raspberries for red fruit. For a light pink colour use 1 cup of light fruits and 1 cup of red fruits, and for a deep pink colour use all red fruits as your base.

Green: Spinach is the key to creating a nice green coloured smoothie. Start with a base of light coloured fruits and blend in a big handful of spinach to turn it a beautiful shade of green.

Pick Your Smoothie Bowl Fruit:

Whether fresh off the vine or right from frozen, the first step in making your smoothie bowl is deciding on your fruit. We prefer frozen for two reasons: the first being access to fresh fruits that aren't in season during specific times in Canada, and the second because the frozen fruit creates the soft-serve, cold and pliable effect we love about smoothie bowls.

Combine the frozen fruit in a blender and blend on low until the fruit pulses into tiny fruit bits.

Fill Your Smoothie Bowl with Goodness:

Once your fruit is blended, add the oats, hemp seeds, chia seeds,  and ginger and pulse a few more times. Slowly add milk. It will seem like the smoothie needs more liquid, but resist the adding more than an extra splash or you’ll end up with a thin smoothie. The friction from you blender will heat up the container slightly helping the smoothie come together.

Make Your Smoothie Bowl into Art:

Once you've reached the smoothie bowl base consistency you desire, divide your base into bowls and prepare your toppings. Of course, adding complimenting flavours that balance your base is essential. We start by spreading our smoothie in a bowl, and building the layers up around a little puddle area for us to add our toppings. While most smoothie bowls are flat and smooth, we prefer to showoff the texture of the base. Opting for a small section of toppings allows you to see the thickness of the smoothie bowl and keep everything concentrated and not all over the bowl.

Start with your larger chunks of fruit. This will allow you to place them and set the foundation. Then start adding in your medium-sized toppings like granola, nuts and coconut chunks, and then smaller bits like seeds, and bee pollen. And top it off with an edible flower, a food trend sure to add beautiful to your day. Not sure how to choose edible flowers, follow this guide by Canadian Living to be safe.