Even though it’s the dead of winter and all I want to do is crawl under the blankets with some hot cocoa and a chocolate bar, I’ve been making an extra effort to increase my veggie intake. The more veggies I eat, the more chocolate I can have, after all. It’s simple math. Some days it’s easy to forget how great I feel when I’m fueling my body with a rainbow of plants; they keep me sane during the cold, dreary days of winter. Food has this amazing power to influence my mood (much like exercise) and I often tell myself that feeling better is only a meal (or workout) away. It really is true! So keep this in mind if you are feeling the effects of a long winter like I am. Healthy eating begins with the very next meal…
I go through vegetable phases all the time. Right, now I’m hooked on cauliflower (enough to turn it into creamy alfredo which you seem to be enjoying a lot!), cabbage (via sauerkraut…lol), and sweet potatoes. Always sweet potatoes. This tasty lunch is something I threw together recently and I loved the combo so much I decided to share with you. The main event is an energizing black bean and sweet potato quinoa salad. The only thing I missed was a sliced avocado (I opened it up and it was all bruised…sigh), so if you have some around definitely throw it in.
In addition to the salad, I added roasted sweet potato rounds (because you can never have too much sweet potato on a cold winter day), roasted cauliflower, hemp hearts. and a big ‘ol scoop of hummus for good measure. Since I already had the salad made in advance, all I had to do was throw the veggies into the oven to roast while I tended to other things. It came together quite fast! Three cheers for leftovers.
This isn’t so much an exact recipe I’m sharing today, but more of a show and tell to hopefully inspire you to create your own. I lightly adapted one of my favourite quinoa salads from last year (see link below), and then added in other things to create a filling and feel-good lunch bowl! Oh by the way, as my sister discovered last weekend, this quinoa salad is also fantastic in a wrap with hummus and other veggies. A very good idea, I’d say!
For the bowl:
– Black Bean & Quinoa Salad (I made it with roasted sweet potato instead of carrots – loved this variation so much!)
– 1-2 cups chopped roasted cauliflower
– 1 sweet potato, sliced into rounds and roasted
– hummus, as needed to get your daily quota (the salad is so good mixed with some hummus, FYI)
– hemp hearts, for garnish (adds more protein and healthy fats…and let’s not forget edible confetti)
~~~
So there you have it. A mood-booster-in-a-bowl.
Is it spring yet?
A bowl is a fabulous way to get many nutrients and flavors. Thanks for the great idea!
Hi Angela,
I remember somewhere reading about if we pre-ordered your cookbook you were doing something about an e-book with some recipes. Was this in your newsletter? I can’t find that email. I haven’t seen anything else on this – is it still in the works? Please advise. Thank you very much! (Can’t wait for your cook book!)
This looks great! It’s summer here in Australia but that isn’t going to stop me from making this sometime soon! Hope spring comes quickly!
Sam xx
smart-twenties.com
This looks like just the thing I was craving and didn’t even know it. More importantly- I truly LOVE your new profile picture! It’s GORGEOUS! You literally are absolutely GLOWing! Thanks for sharing your talents and recipes with all of us foodies :D
Veggie bowls are the best! They’re just so easy to put together which I reckon makes them taste better too (even though they taste awesome already).
Here in Perth, Western Australia, we’re sweltering… what I would give to swap a few days of weather with you! lol
Robyn xx
This is my kind of meal; leftovers galore!!
This is definitely the perfect cold winter day bowl! Love roasting sweet potatoes and cauliflower. I’ve recently started adding hemp hearts to my salads as well. As far as hummus goes, I will make a HUGE batch, then freeze it in 1-2 cup portions. It can be frozen up to 6 months (mine never lasts that long). Simply take it out of the freezer and once thawed, give it a stir. Works like a charm.
Look- I am all over the food blogs and yours is simply amazing. Easy, creative and delicious. Thank you so much for putting it out there for us. I have made many of your recipes and I have yet to be disappointed. Again, thank you for sharing. -Amber
This sounds great! I make a quinoa salad that’s almost identical to this, except I also toss in tomatoes, cilantro, and avocado – the lime juice and the press of the quinoa keeps the avocado surprisingly fresh and free from oxidization. I’ve never thought of tossing some other roasted vegetables in with it – I’ll have to try it!
OK – this looks amazing!!! It is freezing here too- but I truly love it because we get to hibernate a bit, make yummy warm food like this and go to bed early :-)…Oh yes, I know how to live!
Made your cauliflower alfredo last night – oh my – I LOVED it! My family did not know what it was (I called it cheese sauce as they are vegetarian and eat cheese – though they knew it was vegan cause I was eating it) and ate it up – even had seconds- and even my picky son (who does not like ‘warm cheese’ and is obsessed with his cheese always being straight from the fridge) liked it. My boyz have a race today so pasta was the perfect pre race meal- thanks for making it interesting – and delicious! for us :-)
Enjoy your weekend!
I can not wait to try this!!
This is a great way to help one eat more baggies during the winter. I know I have to make an effort to do that, and salad just doesn’t float my boat unless it has a grounding aspect to ti, which this does! Thanks!
Oh Yum!! My kind of lunch or dinner!! ;)
xoxo ella
i LOVE YOUR RECIPES. Keep up the good work.
I LOVE your bowls!!! I look forward to seeing more updates!!!
p.s. I totally understand that exercise helps mood – it raises your endorphins!
I was wondering where you got your twig cutlery from
they are so pretty
Hi Kate, It’s from West Elm :)
thanks so much…for the recipes to I am actually making it right now
my daughter and I love it sooooo yummy!!
This looks so good, and so filling. Yum!
brightsidefilms.com/
This looks amazing! So healthy yet it looks incredibly delicious! I will have to make this for my family! I also make vegan recipes if you’d ever like to check out my website. XOXO
Hi! First, I want to say this looks AMAZING. This blog inspired me to go vegan and learn how to cook. I am a teenager so my parents were really against me going vegan at first, but I learned how to cook so my mom wouldn’t have to make extra meals for me, and now I cook and bake for them all the time. If it weren’t for OhSheGlows I would probably have given up. So thanks Angela! :)
I also have a question… I’m not sure if this is the right place to ask but maybe someone could direct me to a better place? I eat a lot of really healthy food like this – whole grains, legumes, fruit and veggies, nuts and seeds – and I exercise daily. I don’t eat huge meals that make me over-full. Despite this, I get severe stomach aches and bloating at least one day almost every week. I was wondering if this was something that all vegans experience because we eat such high-fiber foods? Or maybe we are deficient in healthy bacteria that other people get from yogurt? (I know someone is going to mention gluten but I don’t eat many things with gluten anyway and I don’t think that’s the problem.)
Sorry for posting this here but everyone seems so friendly and I don’t know where else to ask. Thanks!
I started taking a probiotic a while ago and it’s helped a lot with digestion! I also eat lots of fermented foods (like sauerkraut) several times per week as those have healthy gut bacteria too. Just a couple ideas you might want to try. :)
Thanks for the advice. Where do you get your probiotics from?
We think I might have a nut intolerance but we’re approaching this cautiously because a vegan diet is already relatively limited when it comes to protein and right now I think I get half of my calories from peanut butter :)
Wasn’t I supposed to do something with my receipt for my pre-order? I read it in the newsletter, but I’m so efficient that I deleted it after reading it to keep my inbox clean. Now I have my pre-order receipt (ordered 2 copies!) and can’t remember what the offer was.
This looks like a big ol’ bowl of greatness. What a wonderfully balanced meal!
Great recipe! By the way, what do you have under your iPhone? Is it a binder, a coaster? It looks so beautiful, where did you get it? : )
Thank you, it’s a notebook from Indigo :)
I could eat a different “bowl” like this every single day without getting tired. They’re just so filling, energizing, and delicious! It really shows you how good fresh and simple food can taste and make you feel.
Thank you so much for this amazing looking recipe! I love healthy recipes and I will look forward to trying it out and sharing it with my followers at TianaGustafson.com. As Arnold says “I’ll be back” :) Thanks again!
This looks delicious!!!
I am in LOVE with roasted veggies! I know what I’m having for lunch today;)
I recently discovered the amazing combination of sweet potatoes with tangerines. It would make a great addition to this bowl. (Also try tangerines with avocado – in tacos, burritos or bowls with beans, greens and peppers – sprinkled with cumin, coriander and ground ginger – yummmmy!)
The feel good lunch bowl turned into a fabulous dinner. This was absolutely deelicious!!! I added cucumber, tomatoes and avocado. SO yummy…will make this ALL the time. Thank you :)
What do you mean, “enough hummus to meet your daily quota”? I should be eating hummus everyday? Please embellish.
Much Love,
Beginner among beginners,
Toni
haha nope, that was just a joke! ;)
We just had this for dinner a few days ago and it was so good. We had roasted curry cauliflower on the side as well as the sweet potato rounds. We ended up with a giant sweet potato to go in the salad and added chickpeas to go with the black beans. It was very tasty, but the added material meant it could’ve used more dressing. I think I would put the dressing on when eating it, I found that the dressing (which was really good) kind of disappeared after the salad had sat in the fridge for a day.
Ohhhh yum. Pour over a bit of tahini sauce, and I am all over this. <3
Bonjour,
Is there a French version of your book?
Your recipe are only in English on the website…
It’s a shame! Everything looks so good.
I’m sad.
I will have to ask my editor if there will be translated versions. Thanks for your interest!
Thank you. Keep me informed. Please
Wow.wow.wow.
The title and photos caught my attention originally, and this evening I finally got around to making this for dinner. And, it was SO good, SO healthy and SO satisfying, I had to comment for the first time.
Mind you, I’ve been extremely impressed with most every recipe I’ve made of yours – you really have a gift for creating incredibly delicious, healthy recipes, like this one … that my not-so-into-vegan husband said was delicious, and both my little ones gobbled up happily!
I’m anxiously awaiting my (well, your) cookbook to arrive! :)
Thank you so much!
Do you use any oil to roast the vegetables?
Made this for dinner tonight, added mango to the black bean salad, gradually converting my husband to the vegan way of life! Have made many of your recipes over the past month or so and all turned out fantastically! Thanks so much for being so inspiring and proving food that promotes health doesn’t have to be boring!
I enjoy your blog.
dsmith
I made this today/night…..I would have to say its the best salad I’ve Ever tasted!! Thank you for uploading it!
New to this…..LOVE YOUR BLOG. So much goodness there.
made the squash burritos…LOVED them. WeIll be having that again this week. Couple questions…..
What is edible confetti.
How do you roast your cauliflower ?
Thanks so much!
I absolutely love you blog, for the past few months I have been trying to change my diet and your blog is a massive help. Thank You!
I made this for dinner tonight and love it! I love all the flavored together and the cumin dressing is awesome. Thanks for this recipe! I bought your book today and can’t wait to start trying everything.
lovely and cozy recipe!
Yum!! This bowl looks so good and like something I would eat for lunch everyday! Although where I live was about 80 degrees today, I could totally use a warm delicious meal like this! Also, I have that same notebook and use it to keep all my recipes in :)
I made this for dinner today (so it rather was a “feel good dinner bowl” lol) with just some tiny modifications. It tasted SO good! Thank you for this recipe, will definitely make this more often from now on!
I modified this recipe a bit, specifically buying a few of the ingredients and then throwing in some of what I already had on-hand. It is so delicious! I’ll definitely be putting this one into rotation, and it’s easily adaptable. I’m constantly trying to mix things up and keep the lunches that I bring to the office interesting, which can be challenging. Thank you for inspiring such a satisfying, colorful, vegan meal!
I’m so glad you’ve been enjoying the recipe, Shannon! I agree, it’s always great to keep meals interesting :)