Week 2: Açaí bowl
An açaí bowl is a traditional Brazilian breakfast made primarily from açaí berries. Basically, it’s like a big purple smoothie in a bowl, topped with fruit and other good stuff. The açaí (pronounced ah-sah-ee) bowl has apparently taken off in health fanatic circles around the world in recent years as it’s jam-packed with antioxidants. More importantly for us though, it just looked yum. And looks were not deceiving – it was purple lips and double thumbs up (and double helpings) all round at our place this morning!
The following recipe is something we cobbled together from various sources around the web. You could make your own variation depending on your personal preferences (or those of your mini chefs). To be truly authentic, this dish would be made with fresh açaí berries, which no doubt grow in abundance in Brazil. As we’re nowhere near Brazil, we had to resort to freeze dried açaí powder. You can buy this from health food stores but be aware that it’s heinously expensive. We forked out for it because it would have felt wrong to write a blog on açaí bowls without actually using açaí. Despite this, I think you could quite easily omit this ingredient – technically it wouldn’t be an ‘açaí bowl’ but I’m pretty sure it would still taste just as awesome.
What you will need:
For the ‘smoothie’ part
- 3 frozen bananas
- 3/4 cup frozen blueberries
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tbsp açaí powder (optional, see note above)
For the topping
- 1/4 cup macadamia nuts
- 1 tbsp shredded coconut
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 cup of mixed berries – we used raspberries and strawberries (quartered) and a few frozen blueberries as they were not in season (you could also use some chopped up banana here)
Method
1. Using a blender, chop up the macadamias into small pieces.
2. Blend all of the ‘smoothie’ ingredients to a sorbet-like consistency.
3. Add toppings.
Join us on our journey!
This is the second of our ‘Around the World’ breakfasts. Each week we’ll be making something from a different country as part of our ‘Around the World in 18 Breakfasts’ series. Subscribe to our blog or follow us on Facebook or Pinterest to be part of the journey. Next stop: USA!
