Smoothie bowls are a great way to get more nutrients into your diet and have a pretty, filling breakfast you can be proud of. Unfortunately, a lot of smoothie bowls are loaded with dairy and sugar, which you can’t have if you are on a low carb diet. These smoothie bowls allow you to have this fruit and vegetable bowl in the morning without adding too much to your carbs for the day.
Use Almond Milk
The first option you have for your low-carb smoothie bowl is to replace the regular milk with almond milk. One cup of low-fat milk has about 12 grams of carbohydrates, while a cup of unsweetened almond milk has 0 net carbs. Just make sure you choose the unsweetened variety, as there will be some carbs in the sweetened version. You can also try using a little bit of unsweetened coconut milk if you prefer the taste of that to almond milk.
Skip the Yogurt
Another ingredient that smoothie bowls typically have that will be a little too high in carbs is the yogurt. Yogurt is not always added to smoothie bowls, but it frequently is to make it nice and creamy, and also to thicken it up a little. If you see yogurt in a recipe and just want to replace it, you can try a low-sugar yogurt, like the Triple Zero yogurts from Oikos. These do have some carbs, but at 6-8 net carbs each, they are considerably lower than your traditional yogurt.
Add Low-Carb Protein Powder
One of the reasons you have ingredients in a smoothie bowl that are not low carb-friendly, like bananas and yogurt, is because you are trying to thicken it up. The smoothie bowl needs to be thicker so that you can pour it in a b owl and eat it with a spoon, as opposed to a thinner smoothie you eat with a straw. To accomplish the thickness without the banana, which is about 25 net carbs each, you can try some low-carb protein powder instead. There are unflavored and flavored varieties, giving you a lot of different options.
Go Heavy on the Veggies
While there are many delicious fruits that taste wonderful in smoothies and smoothie bowls, many of them are too high in carbs to make this a worthwhile breakfast for you. The best low-carb fruits to use are berries, like strawberries and raspberries. Most other fruits you should skip. However, you can turn it into a greens smoothie with veggies that are low in carb like avocado, kale, and spinach.