The Anatomy of a Yogurt Bowl, According to Stephanie Izard

Chicago and Los Angeles chef and restaurateur Stephanie Izard has embraced the challenge of the brunch rush — at her restaurants Girl & The Goat, Cabra, Duck Duck Goat, and Little Goat Diner — by making dishes she’s excited about. Even a go-to yogurt and granola bowl is anything but boring.

“You’ll see there are so many components,” she said while beginning to demonstrate an avocado yogurt bowl at the 2024 Food & Wine Classic in Charleston. “As chefs do, we have so many things going on, even if it seems like it’s so simple.”

Base

In today’s rendition, Izard is blending yogurt with another brunch favorite: avocado. She combines two Hass avocados, 1/3 cup of cream cheese, 1/3 cup of granulated sugar, 1/4 cup of whole milk yogurt (with the highest fat content you can find), 1/4 cup of fresh lime juice, and salt in a food processor.

Toppings

This creamy, bright green bowl looks appetizing alone, and she advises choosing your preferred fruit as toppings for acid. Then of course,  for texture, you need crunch. Izard suggests adding crunch is the best way to appreciate creaminess.

Crunch

Instead of granola, Izard suggests a crumble or streusel recipe, which is a great family-friendly weekend baking project that can produce a versatile topping for anything. The chef adds layers of flavor to puffed rice or Rice Krispies, with flour, butter, puffed crispy quinoa, brown sugar, cocoa nibs, toasted sesame seeds, gochugaru, ground Tien Tsin Chili, cayenne pepper, baking soda, and salt. Like fish sauce, Hondashi is one of Izard’s pantry staples that adds umami to anything.

You can use this recipe to make your own crumble with Rice Krispies, adding the seeds and spices of your choice for more or less of a kick. Combine everything in a bowl, spread the mixture on a baking sheet, bake like a giant cookie, and break into a crumble once it cools.

Drizzle

Honey, syrup, and olive oil are among the easiest, most accessible ingredients to drizzle on your breakfast bowl. Izard leverages the tanginess of the yogurt with heavy cream, maple syrup, and fish sauce for a more complex, sweet, and savory drizzle to serve hers.

“It’s just a yogurt and granola bowl, but there are so many ingredients going into it,” Izard said. “You can mix and match. Food and cooking is choose your own adventure.”