Beautiful Smoothie Bowls: 80 Delicious and Colorful Superfood Recipes to Nourish and Satisfy, written by Carissa Bonham, features a variety of seasonal and unique smoothie bowls to mix-up your breakfast routine. Highlights include the Cherry Cobbler, Razzle Dazzle Nice Cream, Sweet Potato Pie, Tangy Tropical Treat, and Kind of a Fig Deal. I will also be sharing her recipe for Apple Pie Smoothie Bowl following the review.
Disclosure: This book was provided by Skyhorse Publishing in exchange for my honest review. All comments and opinions are my own. This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase something through the link, I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.

Carissa Bonham
Carissa Bonham is a food and craft blogger based near Portland, Oregon. She developed her website, Creative Green Living, in 2013 with a focus on healthy recipes, crafts, DIY projects, and gardening tips.
For Beautiful Smoothie Bowls, she has collaborated with a handful of other health-minded bloggers to bring together a wonderful collection of smoothie bowls.
Beautiful Smoothie Bowls
Carissa begins Beautiful Smoothie Bowls with a little background on the smoothie bowl, from its beginnings with Brazil’s Açai Bowls in the 1970s to the vast array of colorful smoothies and toppings today.
In its basic form, a smoothie bowl is a smoothie thick enough to be served with a spoon and topped, often in a beautifully styled manner, with a variety of ingredients such as fresh fruit, seeds, and granola.
Chapters are divided according to the following: Smoothie Bowl Magic (Why Smoothie Bowls?, Smoothie Bowl Basics), A Rainbow of Nourishing Superfoods, Blending Our Way Through the Rainbow, Join Me on a Smoothie Bowl Journey, and Recipe Contributor Credits. The recipes for the smoothie bowls are organized according to color: white and light to pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
She goes through the basics- including how to arrange the smoothie bowl from the bottom up, a troubleshooting guide, helpful equipment, and an overview of the most common ingredients.
I particularly appreciated the tips scattered throughout the book covering topics such as storage guides, cracking open a fresh coconut, freezing watermelon, chilling coconut milk to separate the cream, peeling ginger, and how to create fun shapes with the toppings.
The photography is provided by Carissa Bonham and Karissa Martindale. Every recipe is accompanied by a beautifully-styled full page photo.
There are also labels for each of the bowls noting whether they are vegan, paleo, gluten free, and/or dairy free. Fifty of the recipes are completely vegan, but the remaining thirty can be easily adapted with yogurt and milk substitutes.
Apple Pie Smoothie Bowl

This Apple Pie Smoothie Bowl features all of the flavors of an apple pie in a quick and delicious smoothie bowl.
Fresh apples are blended with yogurt, bananas, and apple pie spice until smooth, then topped with diced apples, granola, a yogurt drizzle, and cinnamon.
To make the yogurt topping thin enough to drizzle, I whisked a couple of tablespoons of the yogurt with a splash of milk.
I don’t generally keep Apple Pie Spice in my pantry, but found a simple recipe on My Baking Addiction with a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and cardamom.
The Apple Pie Smoothie Bowl is best immediately after preparing and covering with the desired toppings.
Other Dishes

I also made the Peachy Pom, Pineapple Paradise, Smashing Pumpkin, and Matcha Berry Energy.
Peachy Pom is a great way to enjoy peaches and other summer fruit during the offseason. Frozen peaches, pomegranate arils, and blueberries are blended with coconut milk and topped with banana slices, blueberries, and a sprinkle of granola.
The Pineapple Paradise was my personal favorite. Banana, pineapple, and peach chunks are blended with coconut milk and orange juice and topped with banana slices, strawberries, and granola.
The Smashing Pumpkin is perfect for using up extra pumpkin puree from your autumn baking. The pumpkin is blended with yogurt, almond milk, a little maple syrup, cinnamon, and nutmeg. It is topped with raisins, walnuts, rolled oats, plus an extra sprinkling of cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Matcha Berry Energy is a great morning pick-me-up. Frozen blueberries, strawberries, and bananas are blended with coconut milk and matcha powder. The bowl is topped with chia seeds, banana slices, and fresh blackberries.

Beautiful Smoothie Bowls is a great pick for those looking for new ways to enjoy fruit year-round prepared in a fun manner with minimal ingredients. It is quickly nearing winter here with less fresh fruit available, but many of the bowls can be made purely with frozen fruit (and frozen is actually often ideal to create a creamier and thicker smoothie).
Nearly all the recipes come together in 5-10 minutes and include ingredients readily available in the average American supermarket. Some items that may require a little more searching include kombucha, chia seeds, edible flowers, açai, hemp seeds, black sesame seeds, spirulina, dried goji berries, flaxseed, bee pollen, and dragon fruit. You will also need a blender and/or food processor and a sharp knife.
Apple Pie Smoothie Bowl Recipe
Excerpt from Beautiful Smoothie Bowls
Apple Pie Smoothie Bowl
Ingredients
Smoothie Bowl:
- 2 small apples peeled and cored
- 1/2 cup plain whole milk yogurt
- 1 tablespoon agave syrup
- 1 teaspoon apple pie spice
- 2 frozen bananas
Toppings:
- 1 large apple slice
- 1 tablespoon apples diced
- 1 tablespoon granola
- 1 tablespoon yogurt drizzle
- Dash of cinnamon
Instructions
- Combine all smoothie bowl ingredients in a blender jar and blend until smooth and no chunks remain.
- Pour into a bowl and add desired toppings.
- Serve immediately.
Tina
I love your smoothie bowls, they are unique and look delicious:)
Amy | The Cook Report
Wow! What a fab idea for a smoothie bowl! Cookbook sounds great 🙂
Lisa | Garlic + Zest
That’s a beautiful looking smoothie bowl! I never make these — but I’d love to eat one!
Vicky @ Avocado Pesto
Looove smoothie bowls so this is the book for me! Also did not know Acai bowls go all the way back to the 70s – what took them so long to get popular in the US?!
Soniya
I am a big smoothie bowl lover.. I can have them anytime of the day or nite;) love your apple smoothie bowl..on my to make list!
Lauren
Now these are smoothie bowls I’d be willing to try! I haven’t understood the desire to spoon a smoothie instead of drinking it. Can’t wait to borrow this book 😉
Karly
I adore this! Such a fun festive fall twist on the typical fruit smoothie bowl- love the apple pie flavors!
Jen Vinuya
I love everything in this smoothie bowl! It looks so good and delicious! Thanks!
Sisley
I adore this recipe so much. I can’t wait to make it.
Toni
This is really the best way to start the day! Thank you so much for the recipe!
Holley
I am all about this apple pie smoothie bowl! All of the flavors of fall in one delicious bowl!
Kathryn
Such a delicious, healthy and easy fall breakfast!