Creamy golden milk meets smoothie bowl with a twist – roses. This vegan smoothie bowl is equal parts beautiful, healthy, and delicious.
What is golden milk?
Golden milk aka haldi doodh, is a traditional ayurvedic drink derived from India. It’s a medley of milk, turmeric, and spices simmered together. The drink is as healthy as it is delicious, mainly due to the anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric. The active compounds in turmeric are thought to help reduce anxiety and treat depression.
Because golden milk is traditionally enjoyed hot, you miss out on the benefits of consuming its ingredients in their raw form. This smoothie bowl allows you to enjoy the beautiful flavor medley of golden milk, while also giving you the health benefits of turmeric, ginger, and maple syrup in their most nutrient preserved form.
This is the smoothie bowl form of golden milk. Its got an added twist of rose water, dried rose petals, and fresh rose petals on top. The combination creates an oh so healthy smoothie bowl you won’t know if you want to eat or put on display.
This vegan smoothie bowl is creamy, delicious, complex in flavor, and filled to the brim with health benefits too!
Recipe Creation
For me, this was just as much of an art project as a recipe to create. I love the color rose gold. It’s just so pretty. I love eating pretty food. So, I started thinking about where I could find the color rose gold in nature and how I could make a recipe out of it.
In my thought process, I started thinking about golden milk, which is any type of milk simmered with turmeric, ginger, and cinnamon. It’s so cozy. Then I looked over at my spice shelf and saw a pouch of dried rose petals and the idea of this interesting concoction was born.
Ingredients in Rose Golden Milk Vegan Smoothie Bowl
Bananas: Bananas are quintessential in a vegan smoothie bowl. They create a luscious creaminess that is essential in any golden milk. They also add nutrients such as potassium, fiber, and antioxidants. It’s amazing how frozen bananas create an amazing texture that’s so close to soft-serve ice cream!
Coconut milk: Coconut milk creates essential creaminess in this smoothie bowl and provides necessary liquid to break down the bananas. Also, because curcumin, the health hero in turmeric is fat-soluble (meaning it requires fat in order for our bodies to properly absorb it) healthy fat-containing coconut milk is necessary. So don’t be afraid of this healthy fat!
Turmeric: This root puts the golden in golden milk and is the main health warrior in this smoothie bowl. The most active compound in turmeric – curcumin – has powerful anti-inflammatory properties that are thought to fight heart disease,
Ginger: Another root with powerful anti-inflammatory properties and high in antioxidants. Ginger pairs deliciously with the turmeric- like PB & J. It’s also great for gut-related issues such as nausea and indigestion.
Cinnamon: A third anti-inflammatory spice in this healthy smoothie bowl is cinnamon. Like turmeric and ginger it’s also got tons of antioxidants. One of its many other benefits
Nutmeg: Delicious, nutty, and complex. A little goes a long way with this spice.
Maple Syrup: Gives a little extra natural sweetness and adds some extra antioxidants + nutrients too!
Rose Water: Rose water has such a delicate yet unique flavor. It’s slightly sweet and adds a flavor of earthiness to this smoothie bowl. It also has anti-depressant and anti-anxiety effects and is thought to be able to reduce headaches.
Roses: Dried and fresh rose petals are not only beautiful but actually have surprising health benefits. They are rich in vitamins A, C, and E and also have anti-inflammatory properties. **Please be sure to use organic and or non-chemically treated roses. Store-bought roses are typically grown with harsh gardening chemicals that could harm your body rather than help it.
Optional add-ins:
Black Pepper: Black pepper has a strong flavor. However, if you can handle it, it comes with some pretty amazing health benefits! Black pepper contains a bioactive compound called piperine which has been shown to increase the body’s absorption of curcumin (the active compound in turmeric) by 2000%!
Cardamum: Quite possibly my favorite spice of all time. It adds an otherworldly flavor dimension that’s pretty indescribable. You’ll feel like all of your tastebuds are tingling – in the best way.
Coconut Oil: The fat from the coconut milk should be sufficient to allow fat-soluble nutrient absorption of turmeric’s active compounds, but adding a little coconut oil would help with that as well! Since you won’t be heating it, the benefits of raw coconut oil would shine here; in its raw form this healthy fat has antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties.
Protein powder: A vanilla or cinnamon flavored protein powder would pair well with the flavors in this smoothie bowl. It would also be a great way to get in extra protein if that’s what you’re going for.
Tips for a Delicious Vegan Smoothie Bowl
- Use frozen bananas to get the best consistency here. For best results, freeze bananas overnight. You could use fresh bananas, but it would create a much thinner consistency and the banana flavor would be more pronounced. It would also be harder to eat in bowl form with a spoon.
- Use both dried and fresh turmeric for the best flavor and color. Both dried and fresh herbs have benefits. Eating turmeric in its raw form keeps nutrients most preserved and amplifies health benefits, but dried turmeric has health benefits as well. The dried turmeric adds
a beautiful golden color to this smoothie bowl whereas the fresh turmeric adds only a dull orange color. I don’t know about you but I care about what my food looks like, so I use both fresh and dried herbs.
Substitutions / Modifications
- Feel free to use all dried or all fresh herbs/roots. Dried herbs have a stronger flavor that can become bitter when used in excess, so use less of them if you’re using all dried. If you’re using all fresh herbs, they have a more subdued flavor so you’ll want to use more of them to make their flavor pop!
- Feel free to omit the coconut milk to make this completely fat free! The frozen bananas provide a surprising amount of creaminess on their own.
- This would make an awesome smoothie! Just sub fresh instead of frozen bananas.
- If you don’t like bananas or are sick of them feel free to substitute frozen cubes of coconut cream or almond milk for a lower fat option instead.
How to make a Rose-Gold Vegan Smoothie Bowl
Base:
In a large powerful blender, blend together bananas on low (this is important!) until crumbly and then add slowly add in coconut milk, rose water and spices.
Continue blending, stopping to scrape down sides until it all comes together and you have what looks like (and pretty much is) soft serve!
Toppings:
Next comes the fun part: TOPPINGS
Get creative!
I got pretty extra with this and bought some fresh organic roses to top this bowl with. It looks so beautiful and there are many health benefits to rose petals (**organic** non-chemically treated).
However, you can also just stick with dried rose petals which are more readily available (they still retain many health benefits, and also look beautiful!). I delicately sprinkled on some dried rose petals in classic Instagram smoothie bowl form and then dusted the top with a little turmeric powder and made some fun swirls. Like I said, this became more of an art project for me.
As much as it killed me to dip my spoon into my masterpiece, the sadness of destroying my art project disapaited with the indulgently creamy, delicately spicy, and sweet deliciousness.
Other topping ideas:
Chia seeds
Hemp seeds
Dried coconut flakes/ Shredded coconut
Cinnamon Stick
Slivered almonds
Bananas
Goji berries
Feel free to make this as intricate or simple as you’d like in terms of toppings and the base. No matter what you decide to do with it, it comes together pretty quickly, is packed with health benefits, and is super delicious and satisfying!
Looking for another healthy, sweet and refreshing upgrade to your morning smoothie routine? Check out my sweet and spicy mangonada recipe! Or for something a little bit more indulgent, try this vegan milkshake recipe.
If you make this, I’d love to hear what you think of it! Leave a comment below or take a picture of your creation and tag @wholesomehedonista on
Vegan Rose Golden Milk Smoothie Bowl
Equipment
- High speed blender or food processor
Ingredients
- 4 Bananas Frozen
- 1/4 cup Coconut milk or coconut cream (full fat)
- 1 tablespoon Turmeric Fresh
- 1/2 teaspoon Turmeric (Dried / add more for additional color)
- 1 teaspoon Ginger Fresh
- 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon Nutmeg (optional)
- 1 teaspoon Rose water
- 2 tablespoon Pure maple syrup
Instructions
- Place bananas, canned coconut milk or cream, rose water, maple syrup, ginger (fresh), turmeric (dried and fresh), cinnamon, nutmeg and other spices as desired. in a high powered blender (I use this Vitamix!)
- Start on low speed and gradually increase speed until a crumbly mixture forms. At this point you can either scrape down the sides of the blender or use a tamper if you have it.
- Blend until smooth and creamy – similar in texture to soft serve. Add more dried turmeric for color if desired.
- Top with anything you'd like! I topped mine with some organic, non-chemically treated rose petals, dried rose petals, and dried turmeric.
Notes
- I made this subtle in spice so that you could adjust it to your preference – so feel free to add more of each spice (proportionally) if you like it more spicy!
- Make sure bananas are frozen (overnight is best) for the best texture.
- Ice is not needed. Ice does not always blend properly and would create an off texture. The frozen fruit will do the trick.
- Use both dried and fresh turmeric for the best flavor and color. Both dried and fresh herbs have benefits. Eating turmeric in its raw form keeps nutrients most preserved and health benefits more pronounced, but dried turmeric has health benefits as well. The dried turmeric adds a beautiful golden color to this smoothie bowl whereas the fresh turmeric adds only a dull orange color. I don’t know about you but I care about what my food looks like! Enough to use both fresh and dried herbs.
Nutrition
Nutrition Info: Serving Size: 1 Smoothie Bowl. Number of servings: 2. Calories per serving: 331. Fat: 8g. Carbs: 54g. Fiber: 6.8g. Sugars: 34g. Protein: 3.3g.
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