Raw vegan chocolate brownie smoothie bowl

Rarely do I eat chocolate these days but I can’t help it… Valentine’s Day is one of those holidays that makes me want something chocolatey and decadent! Carob is a nice chocolate substitute and all but it just doesn’t compare to the real thing.

In honour of Valentine’s Day, I’m posting my favourite way to eat chocolate – which is in a giant smoothie bowl like this, a rich mess of flavours and textures all melding together. This one is chocolate ice cream topped with fudge brownie balls, drizzled chocolate sauce, raspberries and crushed brazil nuts. OMG – eating this was so luscious and divine… a bit too divine actually! I’m not used to rich stuff like this anymore and couldn’t finish it. But it started out amazing😂

I do feel that this is one of the healthiest ways to eat chocolate, as the whole dish uses cacao powder which is pretty low in fat (as opposed to a chocolate bar which contains cacao butter and is a high fat food).

Remember – it’s not that eating fat is bad… some fat in the diet is healthy and necessary! It’s just that it’s best to keep your fat intake low as it tends to make digestion sluggish otherwise. If you are dealing with bloating, constipation, skin issues, irregular bowel movements, or overall low energy, one of my first recommendations would be to lower your fat intake. A low-fat diet is one of those things that I feel would help improve most health conditions.

So you can rest assured that this smoothie bowl is decadent, delicious, low-fat AND healthy. Plus totally raw and vegan. Yay!

The real star in this dish is dates. You will need a good amount of dates to make this and it’s absolutely worth it!

Ingredients you will need:

Ripe frozen bananas (I used 4)

15 gooey medjool dates

Handful of raspberries, fresh or frozen

Raw cacao powder – about 3 tbsp

1/4 tsp vanilla powder (optional)

Coconut water (optional) or plain water

1-2 brazil nuts, crushed (optional)

*A food processor and high-speed blender are recommended to make this recipe. I’ve found that the brownie balls really require a food processor but the chocolate sauce comes out smoothest in a blender.

What to do:

1. Make your brownie balls first. I used my raw vegan truffle recipe which can be found here. What I did was pit my dates and put all of them in the food processor along with 2 tsp of cacao powder and the vanilla powder. Process that together, then split the dough and use a small portion of that to make 5-7 brownie balls. Transfer the remaining dough to a high-speed blender to make the chocolate sauce.

For the brownie balls: I left out the pumpkin pie spice, made the balls a bit smaller, and decided to roll just a couple of them in cacao powder. The rest I left plain. Place the brownie balls in the fridge or freezer while you get the rest of your smoothie bowl ready.

See recipe for the brownie balls/truffles here.

2. For the chocolate sauce: blend at least half of the brownie mixture or more with either coconut water or plain water in a high-speed blender. The amount of water used is up to you – I like to blend a few splashes in at a time to see how the consistency gets. Personally I like a thinner chocolate sauce that I can easily drizzle on so that will require a good amount of liquid. Blend until a desired consistency is reached. Set chocolate sauce aside in a bowl.

3. For the chocolate ice cream: see my recipe here. You are basically blending the frozen bananas with a couple spoonfuls of raw cacao powder. If you want a sweeter ice cream like I always do, add a few spoonfuls of chocolate sauce in before you blend. This is SO good! You can blend this in the food processor for a harder ice cream or in a high-speed blender with a bit of water for a softer consistency.

4) Add ice cream to a large bowl and top with raspberries and brownie balls. Pour chocolate sauce into a ziplock bag, cut the tip off one end and drizzle over everything. Finish with a sprinkle of crushed nuts – I used brazil nuts but any kind work.

Pretty easy to make and you are rewarded with THIS epicness-