How to Build a Plant-Based Bowl
When I first went vegan, I had no idea how to create a balanced meal that actually met all of my nutritional needs. Fortunately, creating healthy vegan meals is not as daunting as it may seem. Follow along with me as I create a healthy, protein-packed Medditeranean-inspired bowl and take the guess work out of plant-based eating.
1. Get your greens
I like to start with a big bowl of leafy greens. In the summer, I may use a lighter, crispier lettuce, while on cooler days, I tend to prefer sauteed kale, spinach, or collards. Leafy greens provide vitamins and minerals, fiber, iron, and more. Eating large amounts of leafy greens has too many health benefits to list! In this bowl, I used some mixed baby greens.
2. Add some grains
A hearty serving of carbohydrates helps keep you satiated and provides energy. I often use grains like quinoa, rice, buckwheat, cous cous, and faro or potatoes or sweet potatoes. These ingredients help bulk up your meal and keep your body and brain fueled. Here, I used quinoa.
3. Toss in some protein
This doesn’t have to be a legume, but legumes are an excellent and inexpensive soure of fiber, iron, protein, vitamins, and minerals. They are truly a superfood! I find when I eat lots of healthy, plant-based protein, my energy levels are more sustained and I’m less likely to resort to unhealthy, processed snacks. Lentils, beans, tempeh, tofu, and seitan are some of my favorite protein sources, but I also enjoy prepared meat substitues every now and then. Legumes can be hard on some people’s digestion (especially if you’re new to eating a diet high in fiber), so nuts and seeds are also viable sources of protein. In this bowl, I used chickpeas that I sauteed with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder.
4. Load it with veggies
I then top my bowl with some extra vegetables for flavor, of course, as well as extra nutrients. I love seeing how many colors I can incorporate into my bowl. I topped this bowl with diced cucumber, tomato, and fresh parsley.
5. Now for the healthy fats
Fats are so important for your skin, liver, hormones, and digestion. I love adding avocado, cashew cheese, nut-butter sauces, pepitas, sesame seeds, or hemp seeds. On this bowl, I used a lemon tahini garlic sauce and some homemade vegan feta (You can find the feta recipe here***)
Bonus points if you top your bowl with dulse (high in iodine), nutritional yeast (high in b12), or extra herbs.
Keep in mind, not every single bowl needs to be nutritionally perfect, but each meal is an opportunity to practice self love by eating a wide variety of nourishing foods. You can also implement this method for other meals too! See if you can incorporate greens, a healthy carb, a protein source, and a source of healthy fats into foods like pizza, baked potatoes, burritos, etc. What’s your perfect plant-based meal?