Roasted Vegetable and Quinoa Salad Bowls | www.floatingkitchen.net

Roasted Vegetable and Quinoa Salad Bowls

This post was originally published here February 27, 2017. I’ve since updated the photographs and text. These vegan, gluten-free salad bowls are one of my go-to meals. I hope you try them!

This space has been rather devoid of salads lately. Which is weird. Because thanks to a steady groove of preparing big batches of vegetables, grains and salad dressings at the start of each week, I’m having more salads right now than ever before. Even more than I typically eat in the Summer (I know!).

These Roasted Vegetable and Quinoa Salad Bowls have been a staple of mine this past Winter. I’ve probably eaten one of these bowls (or a similar version of one) 5 out of 7 days of the week, every week since January. That sounds like a lot as I type out the words and do the math in my head. But I guess it’s proof that they’re good. And I hope you’re convinced to try them.

Roasted Vegetable and Quinoa Salad Bowls | www.floatingkitchen.net

There are a couple different steps to making these bowls, but as always, I’ve tried to streamline the process wherever I can. For example, the vegetables can all be roasted on the same baking sheet (hooray for fewer dishes!). But just make sure you give the sweet potatoes and beets a bit of a head start, then add the broccoli as your nearing the end of the cooking time. This ensures the broccoli doesn’t get overcooked. Or worse yet, that the sweet potatoes and beets end up undercooked. I like to keep the three vegetables mostly separate from each other on the baking sheet so that the juices from the beets don’t stain the sweet potatoes or broccoli. I guess this could be considered overly fussy. But it does make for a prettier presentation in the end. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like pretty foods.

Roasted Vegetable Power Bowl | www.floatingkitchen.net

While the vegetables are roasting you can get all the other steps done, like making the tahini-based dressing and cooking the quinoa, if you haven’t done so already. And from that point on, it’s just assemble and eat!

One reason I continue to reach for salad bowls like these is because of how easy they are to customize to your liking or to what you currently have in your refrigerator. Other vegetables that I like to use include butternut squash, cauliflower or brussels sprouts. And grains like rice (gluten-free) or farro (not gluten-free) often make an appearance as well.

Cheers,

Liz

Roasted Vegetable and Quinoa Salad Bowls

Roasted Vegetable and Quinoa Salad Bowls

At a Glance:
Yield: Serves 2
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

For the Salad:

  • 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 1 medium beet, trimmed, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 2 cups broccoli florets
  • Extra-virgin olive oil
  • Salt
  • Black pepper
  • 4 cups mixed greens
  • 1 cup cooked quinoa
  • 1/4 cup almonds
  • 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro

For the Dressing:

  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons tahini paste
  • 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • 1/4 tsp. salt

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees.
  2. In a medium bowl, toss the cubed sweet potatoes with about 2 tsp. of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Add them to one side of a large rimmed baking sheet. Repeat this process with the cubed beets, adding them to the same rimmed baking sheet next to the sweet potatoes, but keeping them somewhat separated so the color of the beets doesn’t bleed into the sweet potatoes. Transfer the baking sheet to your pre-heated oven and roast for 10-12 minutes.
  3. Add the broccoli florets to the same bowl and toss them with about 2 tsp. of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Remove the baking sheet from your oven and add the broccoli florets next to the beets. Then return the baking sheet to your oven and roast everything for an additional 10-12 minutes. Remove and set aside to cool to room temperature.
  4. Meanwhile, in a small bowl stir together all the ingredients for the dressing until smooth. If the dressing is too thick (this can depend on your brand of tahini paste), you can add a tablespoon of water to thin it.
  5. To assemble the bowls, divide the greens and cooked quinoa evenly between two bowls. Top with the roasted vegetables, almonds and cilantro. Drizzle with the dressing. Serve immediately.

57 comments on “Roasted Vegetable and Quinoa Salad Bowls”

  1. Love this idea of making a veggie bowl, Liz! I could totally eat this everyday, too. And I love the quinoa in here too, sounds perfect to go along with the sweet potatoes and broccoli!

  2. Power salads? I’m all in. Love the idea of butternut squash in there, too. And the combo of tahini paste and maple syrup?– damn. I’m hungry for a salad now and it’s only 8:30am.

  3. Ohh I NEED this for weekday lunches!

  4. This is a beautiful bowl! There is nothing like roasted vegetables and making a salad of them is a great idea.

  5. This is a bowl packed full of goodness! All tasty and healthy and so pretty too!

  6. I can never get enough of these types of veggie bowls. SO healthful and tasty! I love your choice of roots, too – seriously making doe eyes at you right now. And that tahini dressing? Hand me a straw 😉

  7. I love hearty salads, and this one looks right up my street! I love the idea of sweet potato and beetroot in there! Yum! x

  8. Oh yeah, I’m with you! I could go for this everyday too! Just gorgeous!

  9. Liz, I am so obsessed with bowl food right now!!! in fact, I just read something in bon appetit magazine about how to build the perfect bowl . . you did it right here, yo!!! love the roasted sweet potatoes! and yes! if this is all I had for the rest of my life (with a side of cookies), I’d be a-ok. 🙂

  10. I’m with you on roasting a ton of vegetable at the beginning of the week and then eating them gradually throughout the week. It’s funny because I get sooo lazy about cooking actual lunch. I just open the fridge and see what’s in there and eat! That or just eat whatever I’m shooting.

    • Yeah you’d think that working from home would mean really great lunches everyday. But I do the same as you most days. Just scrounging around or eating “work” food. But I’m trying to be better lately!

  11. This looks seriously delicious! Love all of the healthy goodness you packed in here and obsessed with the bright colors and that dressing 🙂

  12. Looks so hearty and satisfying, and that dressing sounds amazing! What a great lunch!

  13. I think I could eat this everyday for lunch too! Beets, sweet potato, maple syrup – a winning combination. Must try.

  14. I love this! This is a great lunch idea!!!

  15. Now that is a bowl I could definitely power through! Gorg.

  16. This looks superb and I love how customizable it is depending on what you have around and are I the mood for. Pinning for later!

  17. This veggie bowl sounds amazing! Love that you roasted the veggies!

  18. I love having roasted veggies in the fridge to assemble salads at a moment’s notice! These power bowls look delicious, and are the way I love to eat!

  19. You know how I like to eat! Salads that don’t feel like salads are the best!

  20. Big bowls of veggie goodness like this ARE MY LIFE. SO in love right now!

  21. This looks like an AMAZING salad!! Beets are my favorite and the tahini dressing sounds awesome!

  22. This is amazing. I love it! Thank you so much!

  23. I am doing an elimination diet right now and I am not supposed to have sesame seeds. What could I substitute for tahini? Almond Butter? Thanks!

  24. Pingback: 17 Healthy Salads That Aren’t Rabbit Food | WIN-WIN FOOD

  25. I love veggie bowels because they make great lunches the next day, I will definitely be trying this one. Also, is it just me or do those almonds look huge in the photo?

    • I hope you try it out. And the almonds are just regular almonds I got from the grocery store. Not sure if they look any different to me?

  26. This is totally my kind of salad Liz! Nice and hearty. I’d do the sweet potatoes because they’re a favorite! Love the dressing!

  27. SO glad you brought this one back, Liz, because somehow I missed it before and that is a dayum shame! I can totally see why you want to eat this every day of your life for ever and EVER, because YUM! Roasted veggies are the jam, so this power bowl is SCREAMING my name! Pinned! Cheers, lovely!

  28. I’m loving your updates, Liz! This bowl is perfect for gray wintery days… hearty, yet comforting, bright and sunny! Just what I need after a morning of SNOW! That tahini dressing is fabulous!

  29. Hi,

    I just had the roasted vegetable power bowl, delicious!!!!! I was skeptical about it tasting good. I love everything about it. It’s a keeper.

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