Mango Smoothie Bowl - Nourishing Superfood Bowls Cookbook Review

A Mango Smoothie Bowl is a fantastic way to start the day! This recipe also makes a wonderful post-workout treat or healthy dessert.

Today's recipe is from Lindsay Cotter's new cookbook Nourishing Superfood Bowls! You may know Lindsay's amazing recipes from her blog CotterCrunch.

I am super grateful that she sent me a review copy of her book - being able to flip through her stunning photography on printed pages is even better than seeing them on screen.

She also graciously allowed me to share this "Mango Tango Glow Bowl" recipe with all of you.

What is a Smoothie Bowl

A smoothie bowl is a very thick smoothie. Instead of drinking it from a glass with a straw, it is filled into a bowl and eaten with a spoon. The advantage over a smoothie in cup is that you can add toppings to your heart's desire.

During my pregnancy and also for a time after I had texture issue with smoothies from a straw. That's when I first discovered smoothie bowls.

Thanks to the extra thick consistency and the abundance of toppings there was lots of texture contrast that made it possible for me to enjoy smoothies again.

Smoothie Bowl Toppings

• Granola is a super popular topping choice for smoothie bowls. It give a satisfying crunchy texture contrast
• Nuts - like toasted almonds, pecans, peanuts; sliced or chopped
• Seeds - chia, pumpkin, sunflower, puffed quinoa
• Coconut, unsweetened - shredded or chips
• Fruit, like whole berries - larger fruit can be either sliced, diced, or arranged into a shape like the mango rose I made for this mango smoothie bowl recipe
• Edible flowers
• chocolate chips
• Nut butter or melted chocolate drizzles

How to make a smoothie bowl thick

The key to an extra thick smoothie bowl consistency is using lots of frozen ingredients.

1. Use purchased frozen fruit chunks or cut up your ingredients ahead of time and freeze them overnight
2. Use only minimal amounts of liquid - just enough to make things go around
3. In some cases, when the liquid you want to add is important for the flavor profile, you may even want to freeze that ahead of time. I do that with pumpkin puree and coconut milk sometimes. Just fill it into the cavities of an ice cube tray and let it freeze up overnight

Which small appliance to use for smoothie bowls

You can use a blender, but you have to make sure it is a high speed blender. A weak blender will have lots of trouble with all the frozen ingredients.

I used my Blendtec but would have preferred my Vitamix even more because it has a tamper. The tamper allows to push down the frozen ingredients continuously without needing to stop the blender.

A food processor actually works surprisingly well for smoothie bowls as well. I am not a big fan of using a food processor for drinkable smoothies - especially when it involves leafy greens, I find they never get processed fine enough.

But because of the icy consistency of the ingredients it's almost like making nice cream - for which I always use my food processor. You may need to stop the food processor a couple of times to scrape down the sides, but it's still a very easy process.

How To Make Pineapple Mango Smoothie Bowl

Making this pineapple mango smoothie bowl is as easy as adding all ingredients to a blender or food processor and turning it on.

For easiest blending don't follow my image above. Instead, add the liquid first and add the frozen fruit on top.

But before you get to this step you need to prepare the liquid component of this healthy mango smoothie bowl recipe. Which is a delicious soothing golden milk.

Coconut Golden Milk

The golden milk is made from coconut milk that is heated together with spices - turmeric, ginger and black pepper. The mixture needs to simmer for about 5 minutes.

Then let it cool at least to room temperature before using it in the banana mango smoothie bowl. I prepared my golden milk a day ahead and let it chill in the fridge overnight.

When you have blended up the mango smoothie fill it into 1-2 bowls and spread it out with a spoon to create a level surface. Now you can add any toppings you like.

I made a mango rose from a thinly sliced peeled mango half - the process is the same as with an avocado rose. To that I added a sprinkle of turmeric powder, chia seeds and shredded coconut.

Nourishing Superfood Bowls Review

Now let's talk about Lindsay's amazing new cookbook: Nourishing Superfood Bowls!

Nourishing Superfood Bowls is blowing me away in so many ways. It is divided into 5 awesome sections: breakfast bowls, lunch bowls, plant-based bowls, large family bowls, dessert bowls.

And EVERY single recipe is accompanied by a stunning picture. Being a food blogger I have become very visual when it comes to recipes.

So I am always disappointed when a printed cookbook includes images with only half of the recipes. But this cookbook doesn't disappoint in this or any other way.

Lindsay is a AASDN certified nutrition specialist so every recipe also comes with an intro about the nutritional benefits of the superfoods used in each recipe.

I looked through the pages together with my 3-year-old daughter Olivia and with every bowl that was somewhat pink in colour she yelled out: "I want to make that one!"

So we have made this Purple Power Smoothie Bowl which actually includes beets (!!) but you can't taste it because of all the yummy berries in it as well.

To satisfy my chocolate and nice cream loving heart I also made the Mexican Chocolate Almond Nice Cream Bowl from the dessert section for myself. It's an absolute DREAM!!

I am excited to delve into the savory bowl recipes next. The Thai Mango Noodle Salad Bowl is calling my name! So are the Curried Satay Veggie Bowl and the Shrimp Laksa Curry Bowl.

(I guess you'll never get Asia out of my heart and taste buds 😀 )

More Magnificent Tropical Fruit Recipes

• Mango Lassi
• Thai Mango Sticky Rice
• Homemade Pineapple Ice Cream
• Acai Smoothie Bowl
• Frozen Yogurt with Mango
• Tropical Fruit Salad

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