As an Amazon Associate, KitchenWithMommy.com may earn from qualifying purchases.
A smoothie bowl is a smoothie made deliberately too thick to drink, then eaten with a spoon and toppings. The toppings are not decoration — they are the reason it works with children, because choosing them is the fun part.
The ratio: as little liquid as the blender will tolerate
This is the only technical thing here. A drinkable smoothie is roughly two parts fruit to one part liquid. A smoothie bowl is closer to four parts frozen fruit to one part liquid — thick enough to hold its shape and take toppings without them sinking.
Start with less liquid than you think and add a tablespoon at a time. Too much cannot be undone without more frozen fruit.
Frozen fruit only
Ice makes it cold and watery. Frozen fruit makes it cold and thick. Frozen banana is the most useful thing in the freezer for this: it gives a soft-serve texture nothing else matches.
Peel and chunk bananas when they go too ripe, freeze on a tray, then bag them.
Use the tamper, not more liquid
The blender will stall. That is normal at this thickness. Stop, push the mixture down with a spatula or the tamper, and start again. The instinct is to add liquid, and that is how a smoothie bowl becomes a smoothie.
Toppings, and letting them choose
Set out four or five small bowls and let them build it. Same mechanism as pizza night — a child who assembled it is far more likely to eat it.
- Sliced banana, berries, kiwi
- Homemade granola — added at the last moment so it stays crisp
- Seeds, desiccated coconut
- A drizzle of nut butter, if your school and household allow it
For children under about four, chop or halve anything round, and skip whole nuts and seeds.
Eat it straight away
Unlike most things here, this does not keep. It separates and melts within about ten minutes. Make it when you want it.
Where to go next
- Strawberry banana smoothie — the drinkable version
- Berry yoghurt breakfast pots
- Homemade granola
