Vegan Quinoa Nourish Bowl

This vegan nourish bowl is filled with a well-balanced mixture of plant-based protein, raw and roasted vegetables, healthy fats, and a tangy basil kale pistachio dressing to tie it all together!

Vibrant. Satisfying. Savory. These are the words that I would use to describe this plant-powered nourish bowl. It's filled with fluffy quinoa, roasted garlicky mushrooms, crisp red cabbage, protein-rich black beans, seasoned sweet potatoes, creamy avocado slices, and a dollop of basil kale pistachio sauce. It's a delicious combination that's ready in less than one hour! 

What's so great about a nourish bowl, is that it's easily customizable so you can tailor it to your tastes or build it with whatever vegetables that you have on hand. Another reason to love this recipe is because it's perfect for meal prepping! This is a delicious and filling meal that you can enjoy for breakfast, lunch, or dinner and it can be eaten hot or cold. 

Now that I've told you how great a nourish bowl can be, let's talk about why it's called a nourish bowl. 

What are Nourish Bowls?

Nourish bowls can also be called macro bowls or buddha bowls. Basically, it means that you fill a bowl with a balanced amount of nourishing, vitamin-rich vegetables, fruits, protein, healthy fats, and carbohydrates, and you can top it with a healthy dressing. 

How do You Make Nourish Bowls?  

The trick to quickly preparing all the ingredients for nourish bowls is to stagger the cooking start times so everything is cooking at the same time and it will be ready to eat at the same time. 

The sweet potatoes and mushrooms take the longest to cook, so start by prepping and roasting them first. Next, cook the quinoa according to package instructions. When it's done cooking, take it off the heat and leave it covered so it stays warm until you're ready to build your bowl. 

While the mushrooms, sweet potatoes, and quinoa are cooking, slice the red cabbage, rinse the canned black beans, and make the pistachio sauce.

Once the sweet potatoes, mushrooms, and quinoa are done cooking and you have the cabbage, beans, and dressing prepped, it's time to build the bowl! Wait to slice the avocado until right before you build the nourish bowl. If you cut it too early, it will start to turn brown.

Fill a large bowl with a scoop of the roasted mushrooms, sweet potatoes, avocado, black beans, red cabbage, quinoa, and a dollop of the pistachio sauce. It doesn't matter if you make a big pile or go section by section like the picture, both ways taste delicious!

How Long Will it Last in the Refrigerator? 

As long as the ingredients for the quinoa nourish bowls are stored in the refrigerator properly, they should last for 3-5 days. You can learn more about the best practices to store the food, here.  

Can You Freeze Nourish Bowls?

You can freeze all of the ingredients except for the red cabbage. Raw cabbage doesn't defrost well, it needs to be cooked first if you want to freeze it. However, I wouldn't freeze the nourish bowl ingredients together in one container, I recommend that you freeze all of the ingredients separately in their own containers. Doing this will make it easier to defrost and reheat the ingredients for a future meal. 

Ways to Adapt this Recipe

• Make it a Salad: You can still enjoy it in bowl-form, but build it on top of a base of fresh greens. 
• Breakfast Nourish Bowl: Replace the black beans with curried tofu scramble to make a delicious breakfast bowl!
• Use a Different Dressing: Use spicy avocado chipotle sauce or roasted red pepper hummus. 
• Switch Up the Seasonings: Use taco seasonings on the sweet potatoes and mushrooms and use the chipotle sauce dressing (that I shared above) to give it a Mexican flair!
• Make Tacos: You can use all of these ingredients to make delicious plant-based tacos.
• Tofu Buddha Bowl: Swap the black beans for the best baked tofu for added texture and flavor!

 

Substitutions & FAQ

• Quinoa Substitutions: You can use cooked brown rice, farro, barley, or couscous instead of quinoa.
• Sweet Potato Substitutions: Roasted red potatoes, Yukon gold potatoes, or russet potatoes are fine to use in place of the sweet potatoes. 
• Black Bean Substitutions: Instead of black beans, you can use great northern beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, black-eyed peas, or chickpeas.
• Cabbage Substitutions: You can use green cabbage, napa cabbage, or fresh greens (spinach, kale, or swiss chard) instead of the red cabbage. 
• Mushroom Variety Options: Button mushrooms or portobello mushrooms can be used instead of cremini mushrooms. 
• What Can You Use Instead of Pistachio Sauce? You can use your favorite salad dressing, any flavor of hummus, avocado chipotle sauce, or lemon tahini dressing instead of the kale pistachio sauce.

Success Tips

• Try to get all the recipe ingredients cooking at the same time, and time it out so everything is ready around the same time. If you do this, it should only take about 45 minutes to make all the bowl ingredients.
• Check the instructions on your bag of quinoa before you cook it because some require you to rinse the quinoa before cooking it. (I use the uncooked quinoa from Costco because it's pre-rinsed, affordable, and it tastes great!)
• If you're making this healthy quinoa bowl recipe for meal prep, you can assemble the bowls in advance, but I recommend that you store the pistachio sauce in a separate small cup with a lid so it doesn't make the bowl ingredients soggy.
• Slice the avocado right before you're ready to eat the bowl so it stays bright green. If you need to cut the avocado in advance, drizzle lime or lemon juice over the slices to help stop them from browning. 

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