Ever find yourself scrolling through your Instagram feed and seeing photos of artsy smoothie bowls? All it takes is a little bit of creativity and fresh ingredients to beautify any food.
Take your meal to the next level – your food will be both more photogenic and seem that much tastier. Here are some easy techniques so you can turn any food into art.
1. Kiwi Flower
Photo courtesy of @irungracepace on Instagram
Use a small knife to make cuts in the kiwi in the shape of a hatching egg. Make sure that the cuts reach at least the center of the kiwi so it’s possible to pull the two halves apart. Gently separate the slices and throw your kiwi on top of oatmeal, yogurt, or smoothies.
You can also adjust the width of each slice to change the look, and try this cutting method on other fruits.
Photo courtesy of @irungracepace on Instagram
2. DIY icing bag
Photo by Grace Ling
Simply fill a ziplock bag with peanut butter – or any type of nut butter/sauce with similar consistency as icing, cut a hole in a corner, and draw.
This looks surprisingly fancy compared to your usual dollop of peanut butter. You can also customize the thickness of the icing by cutting a bigger or smaller hole.
Try different designs – the possibilities are endless.
DNA Strand:
Photo by Grace Ling
Swirls:
Photo by Grace Ling
3. Animal faces
Photo courtesy of @irungracepace on Instagram
Here are some bears that you can make with peanut butter, bananas, soy yogurt, and blueberries on rice cake (I used a special food cutter from Daiso to get the bananas into the shape of bears and stars).
This idea is inspired by Cassey Ho (Blogilates), who posted a photo of a similar bear toast on her Instagram.
You can also make other animals out of food if you’re really feelin’ the theme.
Photo courtesy of @irungracepace on Instagram
4. Melon bowls
Photo by Grace Ling
Smoothie bowls don’t have to be in a typical bowl. Try filling a melon with your treat and enjoy some next-level freshness.
Simply filling a half empty or empty melon bowl makes your food look much more delicious. Smoothies, oatmeal, and soy yogurt are good combinations that go great with any melon, and the melon will also add extra flavor.
Other melon ideas:
Photo by Grace Ling
Cut a melon like a pizza and fill with toppings.
If you don’t want to be mainstream with a circle, try making other shapes such as an octagon:
Photo courtesy of @graceful.food on Instagram
You can also try this fruit bowl concept with other fruit such as pineapple:
Photo courtesy of @irungracepace on instagram
4. Mango Hedgehog
Photo courtesy of @graceful.food on Instagram
Make two cuts through the long side of the mango, each surrounding the seed. Score the mango in a grid shape, then flip it over and you have a hedgehog.
Photo courtesy of @graceful.food on Instagram
5. Strawberry Art
Photo courtesy of @graceful.food on Instagram
Strawberries are one of my favorite foods to use for food art because there are so many ways to cut them and look great with almost every type of breakfast food.
You can cut them into vertical slices, then cut the pieces in half, and arrange them into your own designs. Try them on some strawberry beet pancakes for a decadent breakfast.
Cutting the strawberry horizontally will also give you circles:
Photo by Grace Ling
6. Other great toppings
Photo courtesy of @graceful.food on Instagram
Toppings often add detail and texture to your food, giving it more character and some aesthetic balance. Some toppings that look and taste great include: chia seeds, flax seeds, pretzels, nuts, hemp hearts, cereal, coconut flakes, cacao nibs, and hot chocolate powder.
If you don’t have a powder, then you can always mash up cereal or a cracker with that color to make a topping in the color of your choice.
Photo courtesy of @graceful.food on Instagram
7. Accessories
Photo courtesy of @graceful.food on Instagram
You can find cool accessories at the dollar store or birthday section in the grocery store, like these musical notes from Daiso.
Cookie/mini food cutters are also great to use to make everything you eat more adorable.
Photo by Grace Ling
Just a simple cookie or food cutter that you can get at the grocery store enables you to customize fruit into unique shapes. The texture works best with hard fruits such as apples, pears, and peaches.
Try using green apples to make little flower cutouts. Looks like confetti but tastes way more delicious.
Photo by Grace Ling
In addition to the cookie cutter, there are also food cutters that are specifically meant to cut seaweed for bento art. These little tools might also be perfect for making your own super cute sushi rolls.
Photo by Grace Ling
I started my food art adventures a little under a year ago, and since then, I’ve been making time to try to make one every day. These are just some techniques that I have discovered since then, but the key is to have fun and spend just a little extra time for a seriously gorgeous meal.