As a longtime meatless eater and fan of cookbooks, my cookbook shelf is burgeoning with some 80-plus vegetarian and vegan cookbooks. I inherited this from my grandmother. She kept a stack of Gourmet magazines on a little stool in her kitchen—a stool I inherited from her.
I’m not sure whether my grandmother actually cooked from all these magazines. She just liked to read them. I’m the same way. So why would I go online to search for recipes when I have such a plethora of resources at home? I guess I’m just ravenous for recipes. Plus, most of my cookbooks don’t include veggie bowls, a trend I’ve come to love.
Today’s Meatless Monday veggie bowl comes from Veggies Don’t Bite. It’s a tasty, healthy dish that has everything a bowl should have—protein, carbs, veggies and a killer sauce. My partner and I really enjoyed this. The sauce was complex and robust, and I felt it tasted even better in the next day’s serving. So if you want to make the sauce ahead of time, that will not only make the prep process less complicated, but it will also yield a tastier sauce.
My only quibble is that the measurements in the original online recipe were a little wonky. (Cookbooks have editors—blogs, not so much.) Since I’ve been reading cookbooks and cooking from scratch for decades, I knew not to follow the proportions that were recommended. The recipe below makes two bowls, plus enough rice and beans left over for another two. I made more potatoes the second day and substituted roasted romanesco for the chard just for variety’s sake.
The recipe that follows lists the proportions that I used rather than those of the published recipe.
Power Bowl
- 1 cup uncooked brown rice
- 3/4 cup dried beans (I used sprouted bean mix. You can use canned beans instead if you’re in a hurry. If you want to use dried beans other than smaller varieties such as lentils, cook them beforehand.)
- 2 cups veggie broth (This is for cooking the rice, but you can use water if you prefer)
- 1 bunch chard, kale or spinach, cut in 1-inch ribbons
- 4 green onions or 2 spring onions, sliced about 1/4 thick
- 1 pound potatoes (I used Yukon Gold. The recipe calls for purple potatoes, which would definitely look cool, but I couldn’t find organic ones.)
- Celtic sea salt or Himalayan pink salt and lemon pepper to taste
- BBQ tahini sauce (see recipe below)
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wash and cut potatoes 1/2-inch cubes. Place in a mixing bowl and drizzle with veggie broth (or oil), salt and lemon pepper. Bake on a parchment-lined cookie sheet for 25 minutes or so, until crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.
- Wash and coarsely chop kale/chard/spinach. Wash and chop spring onion. Sauté all in a large sauté pan with a little veggie broth (or oil if you are using it), salt and lemon pepper until greens are just wilted. Remove from heat when they begin to turn bright green.
- Place rice in a 1-1/2 quart pot with veggie broth or water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 35-40 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender.
- Cook beans according to package directions if they are not canned. (The sprouted bean mix I used took less than 20 minutes to cook.)
- Make the sauce according to the recipe below.
- Arrange everything in a bowl and add at least 1/4 cup of the tahini sauce to each bowl.
BBQ Tahini Sauce
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons tahini
- 3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon tomato paste
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup or agave nectar
- 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon molasses (I used barley malt syrup instead.)
- 1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke
- Celtic sea salt or Himalayan sea salt to taste
- 1/8 teaspoon chili powder (optional)
- approximately 1/2 cup water, depending on the consistency you want to achieve.
Place all ingredients in a food processor or high-speed blender and process until smooth. You can use a whisk instead if your tahini is already pretty smooth to begin with.