Being healthy doesn’t have to be difficult and, in fact, it can be an awful lot of fun, with all sorts of interesting and delicious ingredients out there readily available these days. You can have a great time messing about in the kitchen, coming up with all sorts of fantastic recipes and trying out amazing products for the first time.
You may have already come across various different fruit and vegetable powders, and have already tried them all out, but just in case you haven’t discovered acai powder yet, this really is a wonderful ingredient that you should invest in as soon as you can.
Acai berries themselves are packed full of all sorts of vitamins and nutrients, and they’re an incredible purple colour so if you’re after a bright and colourful breakfast, this is a great way to go about it.
Much like other berries, they’re chock full of antioxidants that can help give your immune system a boost (perfect during the winter months), but they also help give you added fibre to your diet, as well as omega-3 fatty acids and even calcium… so they’re an excellent all-rounder.
In powder form, the flavour profile of acai berries is certainly an interesting and most delicious one, something akin to a mixture of chocolate and blueberries.
Other minerals to be found in the berries include manganese, potassium, magnesium, iron, copper, zinc and phosphorus, as well as anti-inflammatory nutrients like epicatechin, protocatechuic acid and anthocyanins.
How to use acai powder
If you’re new to acai powder and aren’t sure where to start with adding it to your diet, what about making a lovely breakfast bowl and taking it from there?
In the morning, mix a cup of oat milk with three tablespoons of your powder, along with some honey and frozen fruits like banana, strawberries and raspberries, and then blend them all up. Pour your mixture into a bowl, top with seeds and more fruit, and away you go!
Or if you have a sweet tooth and want to have a delicious but nutritious pudding after your evening meal each day, what about making yourself some acai chia pudding?
All you need to do for this is throw three tablespoons of chia seeds (themselves an excellent source of both protein and omega-3 fatty acids) with two tablespoons of acai powder, two cups of milk and a teaspoon of honey into a jar and then seal and leave overnight in the fridge.
The chia seeds will absorb lots of the liquid and create a somewhat jelly-esque consistency, and all you need to do is remove your jar from the fridge when you’re ready to enjoy. Then just top with some yoghurt or chopped fruit, give it a stir and enjoy.
Check out this BBC Good Food acai bowl recipe.