The Fancy Napkins Power Bowl

What the heck am I supposed to call something that there are a million recipes for? Just going to go with the super original “The Fancy Napkins Power Bowl” .. although, it is Super Bowl Sunday, I bet if I named it “The Fancy Napkins Super Bowl” I would get a bazillion views…

The other evening, my friend Kiersten was over for dinner and we were going to cook. Kiersten has Celiac, so it had to be something gluten free and I had been thinking for a while that I should try my hand at a “Buddha bowl” so I thought this was great timing! I will also mention, a reader left a comment on my Facebook page about Tahini brownies…. so we made those too because I had a gluten free recipe from Bon Appetit magazine. I’ll post the review on Thursday! Spoiler alert: they are amazing.

Back to these power bowls…

I did a quick Google search on the ‘Anatomy of a Buddha Bowl’ because I’ve never actually made one before. Sounds like you are supposed to fill your bowl as such: 1/4 grains, 1/4 protein and 1/2 veggies (roasted and raw). Then you can add nuts, seeds, dressings etc. Just some fun toppings and such.

We had some serious discussion (not really) about what we were going to add to the power bowls, so keep on reading to make one for yourself! These ones are vegetarian, but feel free to toss some meat in yours! Just cook it in the frying pan ahead of your veggies.

For the grain (and protein, all in one!) in this power bowl, we used simple white quinoa. I Googled directions on how to use a rice cooker for quinoa because even though quinoa is super easy to cook on the stove, I figured one less thing to pay attention to would be a good thing. I set that up and set it aside while my helpers (Kiersten and Ian) peeled, chopped and spiralized.

We used sweet potato (spiralized, but if you don’t have a spiralizer you can totally roast them with the directions you can find in my post for Skillet Sausage and Peppers), brussels sprouts (which are technically ‘in season’ in February) and broccoli. We sauteed those three veggies together with sesame oil (you can totally use any light tasting oil like canola or vegetable if you haven’t already got sesame oil at home), ground turmeric, garlic powder, salt and pepper for about 25 minutes.

The power bowls themselves were quite easy to assemble:

1. add quinoa to your bowl
2. add veggies
3. squeeze lemon over quinoa and veggies
4. grate beet on top

We shredded raw beet for colour and chopped up some roasted cashews and added them before eating. I really enjoyed this dish, but it most definitely had more flavour when I added sriracha.. so I highly recommend that if you like spicy.

If you are cooking for one, simply buy a smaller sweet potato and the amount of brussels sprouts you would want to eat. Chop up only as much broccoli as you will want and saute altogether with about half the amount of sesame oil. You’ll also want to cook less quinoa – just follow the directions on your package for a serving size for one. Since you won’t use a ton of the beet, I recommend using the rest for salads or do what I would do and Google a recipe! You can always pickle it and then make The Fancy Napkins’ Deep Fried Pickled Beets with Goats Cheese!

Can’t wait to hear what you guys think of this one!