Allison Day - Whole Bowls: Complete Gluten-Free and Vegetarian Meals to Power Your Day

Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation. Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file. Cover design by Laura Klynstra Cover photo credit Allison Day Print ISBN: 978-1-63450-855-1 Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63450-856-8 Printed in China For my Dad. CONTENTS Introduction One good bowl will take you far. I grabbed a spoon and cozied up on the couch with a blanket, a book on my lap, and a dog at my feet.

Comforting, warm, and greedily proportioned, I tucked into my bowl of dinner with abandon. Beads of brown rice, golden coins of sweet potato, a grassy mountain of steamed kale, and a scoop of chickpeas. The sauce was the anchor, keeping everything groundedsimply tamari, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar drizzled on every component until it looked right to me (no measurement). This recipe wasnt special or sophisticated or something I wrote down to share, but it was all I needed and then some. My meal comprised the previous nights leftovers and a batch of chickpeas I had cooked and frozen, assembled on the fly when hunger pangs set in that evening. It made me feel full and happy and taken care of.

I could choose my bites with precision, cherry-picking a morsel of each element with every spoonful. The bowl itself was something Id use as inspiration for dinner the next day; maybe Id fill it with pastabut not before breakfast in the morning with oatmeal, a tumble of blueberries, and walnuts as decoration. A large salad with greens and grains and beans for lunch would sit pretty within the curved walls. And for dessert, ice cream perhaps, or rice pudding. It was this one bowl, a rather ugly onefaded white, oddly shaped, with fork scratches on the bottom and a chip on its shoulderthat would inspire many more plentiful meals to come. This one ugly duckling bowl full of this and that from the refrigerator and pantry, composed neatly, eaten messily, and nearly licked clean (then literally licked clean when no one was watching), helped me come up with the concept for a series of dishes for my recipe blog, Yummy Beet , followed by this very book.

For Whole Bowls , my goal was to create an entire cookbook of these much-loved, visually alluring, mouthwatering, and aromatic recipes that would find themselves at home within the walls of this snug serving vessel any time of day. None of the ingredients would stand alone, working harmoniously for a healthy meal concept that focused on abundance, not restriction. These recipes, like the ones I create for Yummy Beet , are a tribute to fresh, local, seasonal foods, and the vibrant international flavors that I find so appealing. Theyre wholesome, plant-based, balanced, one-bowl meals that not only taste delicious, but ignite every other sense simultaneously. Whole Bowls is about flexibility. Make a little today.

Save a few key components for a week of packable lunches. Mix and match the ingredients. Freeze a batch of grains and beans. Use this sauce over that sauce. These bowls are ideal for solo cooks as much as they are for an entire family, with the ability to be transformed into an elegant meal for guests or yourself, or eaten casually standing at the counter late into the night. Quite simply, there is no precept to these dishes, including how you eat them, serve them, and savor them.

Some may want to enjoy each component separately, like a well-organized painters palette, jumping into a different element with each bite, while others may feel compelled to mix it all together. For my perfect bite, a little bit of everything needs to hop onto my utensil: crunchy, creamy, acidic, salty, sweet, and bitter. Whatever your method of operation, the recipes youll find in these pages emphasize accessibility, everyday luxury, and pleasure. In brief, Whole Bowls is a guide to practical vegetable, grain, protein, and condiment (and dessert) recipes that all come together with my straightforward build-a-bowl approacha theory you can try for yourself with The Whole Bowls Formula . The formula is simple, and best of all, versatile. This is not only with regards to the ingredients, but the number of diners who can enjoy these complete, meal-in-a-bowl feasts.

Many of the grains, protein options, condiments, and vegetables that are integral to the formula can be made ahead, pared down, or traded for another component in an entirely different recipe. The choice is yours; these recipes are meant to be unfussed, unhurried, and rule-free. Though this cookbook is fully vegetarian with many wholly vegan options and plant-based substitutions, its by all means meant for every dietary preference, containing a range of familiar flavors that will appeal to even the most steadfast meat-eater. I like to think of the recipes as a jumping-off point; a blueprint for consuming more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, and legumes, whether that be at every meal of the day or one plant-packed meal per week. The recipes and ingredients in this book are not to be alternatives in the dietary fringe sense, being enticing, exciting, and delicious as-is. In addition to being vegetarian, the recipes youll find in here are gluten-freenaturally soa way Ive been cooking almost exclusively for a decade following my sisters celiac disease diagnosis.

Though brown rice, quinoa, buckwheat, and all other inherently gluten-free whole grains need no validation of their versatility and exquisite flavor, in the name of flexibility, if a gluten-containing grain or pasta is more to your liking, feel free to replace the gluten-free option Ive laid out in the recipes. Whole grain, gluten-containing trades I enjoy include spelt (especially the pasta), barley, wheat berries, and rye. And, while I wont tell you what to eat, I did have a few requirements for the bowls in this book. First, accessibility to every skill level and kitchen size. Second, I wanted complete meal bowls for all dining opportunities, including dessert for those with a sweet tooth (me). Third, the recipes had to be balanced, not just nutritionally (as a nutritionist, I do think about these things), but also flavor-, color-, and texture-wise.

Each component really does need to be seasoned generously, not only with salt, but also spices, acids, colors, and texturesbowls are truly multisensory. Finally, each bowl had to be lip-smacking and feel a touch luxurious because I love to eat tasty, beautiful food, no matter the label attached.