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.
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.
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