Lemon Poppyseed Smoothie Bowl

Lemon poppyseed is such an underrated flavor. I love anything citrus poppyseed: orange poppyseed muffins, lemon poppyseed cake, lemon blueberry poppyseed baked oats, and this smoothie bowl. It’s such a refreshing spring and summer flavor. Lemony desserts that balance out the tartness and zest of lemon with the warmth of vanilla are peak summer to me. Lemon and vanilla is the Amalfi Coast and Sicily.

For my birthday one year, my best friend made me a gorgeous lemon poppyseed birthday cake. She decorated it with the most delicious vanilla buttercream and candied lemons. So, for this smoothie bowl, I turned to that cake for inspiration. For the cake, of course I had to recreate that delicious sweet, sour, and zesty flavor in my smoothie bowl base. A peeled frozen lemon combined with some sweet frozen fruit, vanilla bean paste, and lemon zest did the trick. Next, I wanted a substitute for the buttercream: delicate, floral, sweet, and full of flavor. I knew I had to pair this bowl with a honey vanilla yogurt.

I quickly candied some lemon slices for this bowl. It wasn’t much effort, but it was still more effort than I’d normally want to go through for a smoothie bowl. The good news is that candied lemons last for about two weeks in the fridge if you keep them stored in an airtight container.

To make the candied lemons, I started by combining equal parts sugar and water in a saucepan and brought the mixture to a boil. I sliced half a lemon into thin slices, then added them into the syrup, along with the juice of the remaining half of the lemon. Then, I just simmered the lemon slices for about 15 minutes, turning them as needed. Once the lemons were done, I left them to cool on some parchment paper as I made the rest of the smoothie bowl.