My Pretentious Obsession with Smoothie Bowls

Anyone that follows me on any of my (many) instagram accounts, knows my perpetual obsession with yogurt. Whether it's because of my Bulgarian roots, and having grown up with Bulgarian Yogurt (or kiselo mliako), I've always claimed that I could literally have it for every meal of the day... and there has been times where I have. There's even photo proof of little baby Nona with a mouthful of yogurt; some things genuinely just never change.

About a year ago, I went skiing in Tignes, France, with two of my housemates and as part of our package we had buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner in our hostel. Guess what I had for breakfast, lunch and dinner for that entire week? Yogurt, muesli, and lots and lots of bread and cheese, of course.

Over the years I've found ways to mix it up and make a yogurt bowl in so many different ways, that sometimes, in the mornings, I actually get overwhelmed trying to decide what to have for breakfast. First World Problems, I know, I'm a twat.

I think part of my obsession with this 'meal' is the fact that it is so malleable... I can literally change it up based on what I feel like, or my body needs on the given day. Also, with my insane sweet tooth, it helps that it literally feels like I'm eating a dessert for breakfast; a super healthy and nutritional dessert, what a concept.

So this post is basically a few of my favourite takes on the yogurt bowl (or smoothie bowl), and a little explanation behind each one.

---

Mango and Coconut Yogurt Smoothie Bowl

Base ingredients

• A handful frozen mango

• 150g Alpro coconut yogurt

optional current favourite: a couple mint leaves

Chuck that all in a blender or food processor.

My toppings of choice

• Raspberries

• Blueberries

• Kellog's no added sugar "simply granola"

• Meridian foods smooth almond butter

With the incoming warmer weather, this has definitely become one of my favourite breakfast bowls. The texture thanks to the frozen mango, combined with with natural sweetness of the coconut yogurt and the subtle aftertaste of the mint leaves make it seem like you're literally scooping at a bowl of sorbet. For toppings, the choice to add blueberries and raspberries complements the mango very well, and I decided to keep the granola plain in order to allow for the other flavours to be the main focus while the granola adds some crunch. Finally, the almond butter is just fuelled by my newly found obsession for nut butters; they've become a common recurrence in any meal I can incorporate them (literally drafting a peanut butter blog post as we speak). As someone who has an overwhelming sweet tooth, I opt for this bowl on mornings when all I want is a chocolate bar for breakfast, and hope the natural sugars satiate that.

---

Raspberry, Blueberry, and Mint Bowl

Base Ingredients

• 60g frozen raspberries

• 40g frozen blueberries

• 3-4 fresh strawberries

• 100-150g greek yogurt

(recently been using the Yeo Valley 0% Fat Naturally Greek Yogurt, but Fage is always a favourite)

• mint leaves

Toppings

I usually just top it off with granola and chia seeds (sometimes almond butter)

This is a tip I've mentioned on my instagram account, which I didn't mention in the description of the previous bowl, because I feel like the mint leaves are essential to this bowl, vs. optional to the previous one. Anyways, that's more of me being weirdly picky and pretentious about yogurt, laugh about it. If you have the mint leaves in the palm of your hand, and slap them (as if you're clapping your hands together), the leaves break a little, releasing more of their scent, making your bowl more aromatic!

This bowl is basically a repeat of the mango and coconut bowl, simply switching out the bases. The reason I choose to top this with just granola and chia seeds is because the berries, in combination with the mint and the creaminess of the yogurt have such a strong, overpowering flavour, that you don't really need to add anything else. The base is literally like scooping at a bowl of berry sorbet, and in a similar way, the granola adds a nice crunch, reminding you that this is breakfast and not just a dessert, I opt for this variations on days where I do want something sweet, however nutritious. The natural greek yogurt has a lot of healthy proteins, while the fruits have their natural sugars and carbs. So while I do feel like I am eating a bowl of ice cream, it's also full of protein! Topping it off with almond butter also adds some healthy, natural fats; but personally I like to keep this one simple.

---

Açai Bowl

Oh boy. Oh baby. This may just be the bowl. This is the cheat day, treat of all treats, fuels my obsession bowl. This is the bowl where I will not hold back or keep it simple. Add all the toppings. I ordered coconut shell bowls of amazon for this one. That's how invested I am. Anyways, back to my formal, food-blogger tone of voice. Jesus I'm sorry for whoever's reading this.

If anyone's new to this whole bowl thing, açai bowls' bases are made from the berry which grows açai palms (I'm clearly very knowledgable and qualified in this topic), they look a lot like blueberries. Açai is one of the golden tropes of Instagram superfoods, right up there with spirulina, matcha, et cetera, you catch my drift. Just to give you a little unnecessary background, the berry is incredibly rich in nutrients like antioxidants, fiber, heart-healthy fats and calcium. I also find it pretty interesting that açai palm tree escalated immensely in the 21st century, as demand grew, most definitely because of the Instagram Fad phase which it has undergone.

As your typical 21st-century girl, I quickly hopped on that trend after my friend Sammy took me to Portobello Juice hub in Camden. Let me tell you, I've tried and made a lot of these bowls in the past 6 months, but non have topped the ones made by the guys at PJ hub (pictured above).

The homemade version of this is something which I'm still trying to perfect, and I've tried quite a few different methods, all different in small ways, all pretty delicious though. So it's really up to you how you want to go about this, these are just my methods.

Initially, before I got a blender, I used açai powder (made from crushed dried berries), and simply mixed that with different yogurts. I've done this with Alpro Simply Plain yogurt, coconut yogurt, and 0% Fat greek yogurt. If I had to pick a favourite, it'd probably be the Simply Plain yogurt. It has the perfect texture, and its 'plain' flavour allows for the taste of the açai to come through.

More recently, I've gotten the Planit Organic frozen açai puree sachets, as I can put those through my blender, but to be honest, I haven't been able to perfect the consistency yet.

As I mentioned before, I will add whatever toppings I have to this; granola, seeds, fruits, chia, nut butter. This is my go to on a day where I'm really treating myself: I want a big, fulfilling breakfast.

---

Plain Yogurt Bowl

And finally, last but not least, my favourite bowl. Okay, that's a bit confusing because I just spoke about açai like it's godsend, but bear with me. This plain yogurt bowl has many forms, and I change it up a little bit every single time, but sometimes (and I am fully aware, once again this is pretentious), I just want a break from all the fancy shmancy stuff and want something simple. It takes me back to being home, where if I made a smoothie bowl I think my dad would laugh and tip it over my head, and it takes me back to France where a couple scoops of natural yogurt, with muesli and honey was the yummiest thing in the world.

This bowl doesn't concern itself with how much fat the base yogurt has, or what flavour it is. Grab whatever is in your fridge and go from there.

Here's my take on some of these variations:

1. The apple cinnamon bowl

In the spirit of keeping these simple, I won't structure this like a recipe, but rather just go through what I do. I love this one because I have perpetual obsession with cinnamon, as well as the apple cinnamon combo. All I do is grate an apple; this might sound weird but when I

was little, my friend's grandma used go grate apples for us to have as snacks and honestly in my humble opinion, it's the best way to eat an apple. When you grate it, you taste a lot more of the apple's juice, which both on its own and in a bowl is really great. Once grated, I mix the apple with a spoonful of cinnamon, and add a layer of yogurt on top. On top of the yogurt I just add some granola and voila! It's super simple but really fruity and light.

2. Straight up yogurt, muesli and honey

To be honest, I mostly just do this when I'm home because I find that Bulgarian yogurt tastes best with little additions. It's literally what it sounds like: you just simply spread some honey on top. Sometimes I'll add cinnamon, but just because I'll add that to anything I can. Look at me pretending I'm a food guru and dumb-splaining how to mix yogurt and granola.

3. Every Bulgarian's favourite dessert

This is it. The closest thing to a comfort food, in yogurt bowl form.

Any yogurt, although thicker consistency ones work better (in Bulgaria we use strained natural yogurt, which is pretty similar to Greek yogurt). You mix it up with a whole lot of honey, walnuts, and lots of love. Sometimes I'll add some muesli with dried fruits, to make it feel more breakfast-y, but the simpler you keep it, the better.