Açaí bowl

Name: Açaí bowl
Cook time: 14 min
Total time: 14 min
Yield: 2
Cuisine: Brasileña
Ingredients: 30 g Walnuts; 2 u Banana; 2 teaspoons Honey; 6 u strawberries; 60 g Blueberries; 80 ml Apple juice; 200 g Açaí pulp; 60 g Granola

Easy

Contains allergens

Frutos de cáscara

Incomplete allergen information: some ingredients have not been reviewed yet. Always check the labels before cooking.

Author: Equipo Cocinoa
Preparation time: 14 min
Servings: 2

Summary

Frozen açaí pulp blended with banana into a cream as thick as ice cream, topped with granola, fresh fruit and walnuts. The breakfast of Rio's beaches, born in the Amazon.

Ingredients

2 servings

Add to Bring!

30 g Walnuts (roughly chopped)
2 u Banana (ripe: one and a half frozen in slices for blending and half fresh for the topping)
2 teaspoons Honey (or agave syrup)
6 u strawberries
60 g Blueberries
80 ml Apple juice (or milk or a plant-based drink)
200 g Açaí pulp (frozen and unsweetened (2 packs))
60 g Granola

Instructions

The night before, peel one and a half bananas, slice them and freeze the slices spread out on a tray or in a container so they don't stick together.
Take the açaí packs out of the freezer and leave them at room temperature for 5 minutes, or hold them briefly under the tap, until you can break them into pieces with your hands.
5 min
Put the açaí, frozen banana slices and half the juice into a powerful blender. Blend in short bursts, stopping to push the mixture towards the blades with a spatula and adding more juice a spoonful at a time only if needed, until you have a smooth cream as thick as soft-serve ice cream.
4 min
Divide the cream between two well-chilled bowls and smooth the top with the back of a spoon.
1 min
Slice the strawberries and the remaining half banana. Arrange the granola, banana, strawberries, blueberries and walnuts on top in rows, drizzle with a thread of honey and serve straight away.
4 min

Notes

In Pará, at the mouth of the Amazon, açaí was everyday food long before it became fashionable: the pulp of these palm berries is eaten unsweetened, thickened with cassava flour or alongside fried fish. In the 1970s and 1980s it reached Rio de Janeiro, where surfers and jiu-jitsu fighters made it popular blended, ice-cold and sweet, with banana, guaraná and granola, and from Rio's beaches it spread round the world as a bowl. The pulp is sold frozen in 100 g packs in Brazilian shops, health food stores and some supermarkets; some are unsweetened and others sweetened with guaraná, so check the label. Freeze-dried powder will do, but the texture is less creamy. The key is very little liquid and well-frozen fruit: add the juice a spoonful at a time and stop the blender to push the mixture down with a spatula, because if you overdo it you'll have a smoothie rather than a cream you eat with a spoon. With agave syrup instead of honey it is suitable for vegans; for coeliacs, look for a granola made with certified gluten-free oats. Eat it at once, as it melts quickly.