Recipe Round Up: Vegan Bowls

I just really love eating out of bowls! Vegan Bowls by Zsu Dever is another great bowl book. In fact, it was my first vegan bowl recipe book. I've already posted about it couple of times, and you can see those posts here.

Corn Tortillas: OK, so not a bowl. The book does have a few basics. Buying corn tortillas here is terrible, no matter what you do they always tear and taste weird. As I'm not GF, I often just use flour ones instead. Or, sometimes, I make my own! I don't have a tortilla press, I have to roll them out, and as you can see they aren't pretty. But they are tasty and they don't tear.
Rating: :)



Roasted Zucchini and Mushroom Pilaf Bowl: The pilaf here is a mix of quinoa and orzo pasta, which is mixed with roasted vegetables (mushrooms, zucchini, corn) and greens (I used spinach instead of the suggested arugula or watercress). I also left out the chile/ This is a fairly light dish, and you could easily add some chickpeas to bulk it up. It is good served with nutritional yeast, hummus, and toasted almonds on top.
Rating: :)



Southern Beans and Grits Bowl with Collards: This bowl has three parts: grits, collards and carrots, and a bean saute made that is then mixed with a simmered sundried tomato broth. Grits aren't a thing here. We have polenta, but I understand that grits are a different texture... grittier? I did find some GF cous cous made from corn, essentially a coarser polenta, so I decided to give it a try. I only had one cup of these, rather than 1 1/4, so I decreased the liquid accordingly. The grits are creamy, and also have some miso in them. We also don't have collards here, so I used kale. This meant instead of boiling the kale, I first cooked the carrots and then sauteed the kale with them.
Rating: :)



Sweet and Spicy Eggplant-Zucchini Bowl: Zucchini and eggplant is tossed with a marinade and grilled, before being stir-fried with other vegetables and sweet and spicy sauce. Of course I made mine more sweet than spicy! I used my inside little George Foreman Grill for the grilling, and unfortunately overcooked the eggplant a little. So it was a bit smooshy, but still good. The recipe is served over rice (I used brown instead of white and cooked it in the rice cooker) and topped with pan-fried cashews (though I just used some dry roasted ones straight from the packet). I also served mine over some baby spinach. I got three servings.
Rating: :)



Spicy Ginger Polenta Bowl with Bock Choy and Chickpeas: Creamy seasoned polenta is topped with pan-fried chickpeas, bok choy, and a ginger and soy broth. Again, I decreased the spice considerably! The recipe calls for baby bok choy to be halved and pan-fried, but I could only get a big one so I chopped it up and stir-fried it. The recipe also calls for 2 cups of cooked chickpeas, but I just used one tin (which is about 1 1/2 cups). The recipe says it serves 2-3, and I was cooking for 2, so it worked fine.
Rating: :)



Tex-Mex Risotto Bowl: This risotto made a lot, enough for about 6 serves (the recipe says serves 4-6). It is a complete meal in itself, with lots of vegetables as well as black beans. The broth is lightly flavoured with chipotle (it was meant to be puree, but I just used a light sprinkle of powder and I also decreased the salt), and as always I found the risotto process to be very soothing to make with all the stirring.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



'Oh mother, what is with all the photos of other cats... and a dog? I am really just quite miffed. But I still love you.' Let us get back into some photos of my beautiful princess (who definitely didn't accidentally step in her own poo this morning), Dim Sim.