I love berries in general, but my favorite type is raspberries. They’re so sweet with a little bit of tartness, and I just adore them. I found a sale on raspberries during my last shopping trip, and I spent the next few days in my kitchen trying new raspberry recipes. One of those was this bright and cheery Raspberry Orange Smoothie Bowl. I have been drinking smoothies for breakfast for ages, but I only just made my first smoothie bowl a few months ago. That sale on raspberries was a great excuse to try another smoothie bowl recipe!
This raspberry orange smoothie bowl is a healthy, fruity, refreshing breakfast to start your morning off right! It’s packed with bright, tangy flavors from nutritious ingredients like oranges, raspberries, bananas, and orange zest. It’s plant-based, vegan, dairy-free, immune-boosting, and loaded with vitamin C. Add toppings and enjoy it with a spoon!
The Ingredients
It’s funny, but I didn’t look up which recipes to use my raspberries on until after I got home from my shopping trip. Boy, did I get lucky—I had nearly all the ingredients I needed!
I had picked up some bananas and unsweetened vanilla almond milk while I was out. I also had maple syrup and shredded coconut on hand.
The final ingredient was a frozen orange, and I had that too. I used cara cara oranges left over from the Sake Sangria I recently made. They look like navel oranges but are pinkish-red inside and have a sweeter flavor.
The Process
Smoothie bowls are known for being quick and easy to make, and this one was exactly that. I did have to freeze the fruit first, though, since I had bought fresh. It’s not exactly difficult, but it does take some time to freeze solid.
Bananas: Always peel them first! They can’t be peeled after freezing. I always quarter my bananas before freezing them to make measuring easy. Most smoothie recipes need a whole banana, so I grab four pieces for them. If it’s half a banana, then I grab two pieces.
Orange: Use a knife to peel an orange (or any citrus) fast. Cut off each end, set the orange on a cutting board, and use a knife to remove the peel in strips. Cutting the peeled orange in half makes sectioning very easy.
Raspberries: All I had to do was measure and freeze since they are so small.
The last step was bagging my measured ingredients and placing them into my freezer overnight.
Tip: Keep the bags as flat as possible to keep the contents from clumping into one giant frozen blob that won’t fit into the blender.
The Next Day
Ideally, I would have added the frozen fruit and almond milk to my blender, pushed a button, and had a thick smoothie. the first part was quick, but the blending part didn’t go quite as smoothly.
I tried blending on high and pulsing, but it looked like only the bottom portion was being blended. The fruit on the top had been chopped into fine bits, but it wasn’t turning into a smoothie because it couldn’t reach the almond milk.
To fix my problem, I grabbed a silicone spatula, scraped down the sides, and basically mashed the ground-up fruit together. And it still didn’t mix! I repeated a few times before I realized I had packed the frozen fruit into a big, cold block.
The fix was to remove the pitcher from the base, hold a hand over the lid for safety, and give it a good shake to loosen up the contents. It did the trick, and I saw where I went wrong as I watched the blender work. I swear, my brain still thinks I have an old-fashioned blender with the blades on the bottom.
I upgraded my blender a few years ago, and this one has more effective blades configured in a column. They mixed similarly to my old blender by starting at the bottom since that’s where the liquid was. However, if I had waited longer I would have seen the blades pull the fruit on top down into the mixed portion at the bottom. Doh!
I sampled the smoothie and decided to blend in the optional maple syrup before serving. The mixture was thick, about as thick as soft-serve ice cream. I needed a spatula to scrape it out of the pitcher because it wouldn’t pour into the bowl.
Timing
This recipe listed 5 minutes total to make it. Mine wasn’t quite as quick because I didn’t let the blender do its thing. Here’s how my time was spent:
- 7 minutes to peel and chop fruit to be frozen overnight
- 7 minutes to blend*
- 3 minutes to top
- 17 minutes total
*I’m only including time to blend everything together for the time rating since that’s what is described in the instructions. It doesn’t mention freezing fresh fruit first, and I could have bought it. Also, toppings can vary widely and so can the time it takes to add them.