Crocker - Nourish bowls simple and nutritious balanced meals in a bowl

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NOURISH BOWLS are made from the heart, comforting, fulfilling, health-giving, and delicious. They are everything you need in a bowl to nourish your body and mind, whether you have just a few minutes to pull together a meal, want to try out new ingredients and flavours, or help your body recover optimally after a workout.

From rice and noodle bowls in Japan, to the Korean bibimbap and the Swedish hygge, or hug in a bowl, cultures all over the world have traditional bowl-based recipes. And now it has become a simple way to bring together a nourishing meal, including all the key nutritional elements, to hold in our hands, however hectic our lives. Putting together the bowl feels like an act of mindfulness in itself, combining natural, flavourful ingredients, textures and colours, vibrancy, and vitality.

A nourish bowl can be quick and simple to prepare, with many of the elements being included raw. There is so much variety possible, with countless wholesome combinations of vegetables, greens, grains, plant-based proteins, meat, or fish. From breakfast bowls that combine pear with kale in a smoothie served with cinnamon granola, or miso oats with spinach and a poached egg, to a citrus and fennel salad bowl with goat cheese and toasted quinoa, a brown rice Buddha bowl, and hearty bowls like mushroom rye risotto with baby chard and wet walnuts, or chilli chicken with corn and avocado salsa, black quinoa, and zesty sour cream, we hope to give you plenty of inspiration for creating your own health-giving and delicious nourish bowls.

Go bold with your flavours and combinations, layer up your grains, protein, and leafy greens, then scatter over a few toasted seeds, roasted sweet potato crisps, or a little turmeric dressing. Whether you keep it simple with some roasted veggies, homemade hummus, salad leaves, and a few alfalfa sprouts or fancy some smoked fish with lentils and a big bunch of greens, thinking about the simple elements of the nourish bowl will deliver a nutrient-packed meal every time.

Over the seasons, you can adapt your nourish bowls to the ingredients nature provides. During the summer, add more raw vegetables and leaves, while in the colder months roasted root vegetables are the perfect addition with a red lentil hummus or smashed avocado with lime. There is an amazing variety of grains now available to suit any nourish bowl, especially in your local health food store, including different coloured quinoa, buckwheat, freekeh, millet, and various groats, which are the whole grains of foods we might be more used to seeing as flour or flakes, such as oat and rye groats. These add so much variety of taste and texture. There are also lots of seeds in all different sizes, from the tiny chia to flax, sesame, hemp, and pumpkin. As seeds they are literally packed with nutrients.

You might find some of the recipes are a little more creative than others, for when you want to try something new and adventurous. There are lots of ideas for elements that you can make ahead and keep handy in the refrigerator, such as dressings, pickles, and pastes. Dont feel you have to bake your own soda bread or make your own ricotta, we have simply included as many recipes as possible for when you might fancy giving these things a try. In most instances, the recipes make enough for one serving. If you want to share a nourish bowl with friends, then multiply the quantites by the number of servings required.

The basic concept of the nourish bowl is to include all the nutritional elements you ideally need in one meal: protein (whether it be plant-based, dairy, fish or meat), seasonal fruits or vegetables, leafy greens, complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, and any optional extras you fancy like a dressing, a few nuts, or seeds. Let your imagination go.

	PROTEIN
aim for 25 per cent of your bowl to be made up by protein
	VEGETABLES & FRUIT
vegetables, fruits, or a combination of the two should form the largest proportion of your bowl
	LEAFY GREENS
include a large handful of leafy green in every bowl
	COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATES
ensure that healthy carbs occupy 25 per cent of your bowl
	HEALTHY FATS
if possible make about 10 per cent of your bowl include a healthy fat
	TOPPINGS & DRESSINGS
add any optional extras to add extra bite or flavour

Protein is a key building block for our muscles, bones, cartilage, skin, and blood. It helps our body carry out all the day-to-day general repair work, especially when we have an active lifestyle. Protein also keeps us fuller for longer as it takes the body more time and effort to break down its nutrients. There are plenty of plant-based proteins to choose from, as well as dairy, eggs, meat, and fish.

PLANT-BASED

Tofu

Beans (including aduki, borlotti, broad or fava, edamame, mung, and soybeans)

lentils and pulses (including beluga lentils, split peas, green or Puy lentils, and chickpeas or garbanzo beans)

Quinoa

Nuts

Seeds (including hemp seeds)

DAIRY

Cheese (including goat and sheep cheese)

Yogurt

Labneh

Kefir

FISH & SHELLFISH

Cod (use sustainable whenever possible)

Crab

Crayfish

Haddock

Sea bass

Mackerel

Mussels

Salmon

Shrimps

Squid

Trout

ANIMAL SOURCES

Eggs

Meat (including chicken, turkey duck, lamb, pork, beef use organic whenever possible)

Game birds (including quail and pheasant)