Bottom Up Bowl
Bottom Up Bowls are a fun meal for any time of the day!
I eat this way a lot as it is simple, healthy and creative way to explore different flavor profiles – with sauces to keep it interesting!
This bowl is a mix of tri-colored quinoa, roasted broccoli, and shiitake mushrooms with Vegan Cheezy Sauce. Enjoy these two recipe favorites to accentuate my bowls, and the full checklist of ideas below.
-
Vegan Cheesy Sauce Ingredients:
½ head of cauliflower, cut into 1 inch florets
1 small Yukon gold potato, cut into ½ inch pieces
2 garlic cloves
½ tsp turmeric powder
¾ cup nutritional yeast
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp dried marjoram, chushed
1 tsp white miso paste
½ tsp yellow mustard
¾ cup unsweetened plant milk, like almond, soy or rice
2 teaspoons pink salt, or more to taste
½-1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
Directions:
In a large saucepan, combine the cauliflower florets, potatoes, garlic, turmeric, and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer for 10 minutes or until vegetables are very tender. Cool slightly.
Transfer the vegetable mixture to a blender. Add nutritional yeast, vinegar, marjoram, miso, and mustard. Cover and blend until smooth and creamy, adding enough of the milk to reach the desired consistency.
-
Ingredients:
1 head of broccoli, cut into small florets. ( I also use the stem, take to outer skin off and cut into strips)
¼ of a large yellow onion, cut into thin strips
2 Tablespoons Olive oil
2 teaspoons dried thyme
Fresh ground Salt and Pepper to taste
Juice of fresh lemon
Directions:
Toss your broccoli florets and onion into a bowl with olive oil, thyme, salt, pepper and stir well.
Place and spread mixture on a cookie sheet and give a good squeeze of half a lemon over broccoli.
Roast at 400F for 15-20 minutes.
Switch to broil for about 5 minutes for a crispy treat. Watch that it does not burn. Use as side dish or topper for grains or root veggies.
How to Create Your Own Bottom Up Bowl
Choose a bottom, middle & top, then add your desired toppings and sauce.
Bottom: Steam root and winter squash veggies. Cook grains in Instant Pot or stove top with salt and whatever dried herbs call to you. You can use a double steamer and start with the roots and then add another steam basket on top of root/squash or with a single steam basket, you can add your veggies about 10 minutes before roots/squash are finished, Broccoli and Cauliflower (cut small and thin) take about 5 minutes longer.
Middle: Steam veggies of your choice. You can do a combination or choose one. Example: Kale and Carrots or Chard and Fennel or just Broccoli. You can also make more of a salad bowl with fresh raw veggies on a bed of hot grains and dressing.
You may also choose to saute your veggies with avocado oil, salt and herbs of choice. Or roast your veggies with olive oil, spices and lemon in an oven at 400 F for 20 min., then broil for 5 minutes for a crispy treat.
Fill your bowl with the biggest amounts of dense nutritional non- starchy veggies!!
Top: Beans are best soaked and cooked the next day in an Instant Pot or stove top (stove top takes much longer). Tofu and Tempeh can be baked in the oven or sauteed with avocado oil in a skillet with a bit of tamari or coconut amino acids. Meat products can be baked or sauteed with avocado oil and spices of your choice. With mushrooms, saute with a bit of avocado oil and season with coconut aminos or tamari sauce and set aside to top veggies or if you choose to saute your veggies then add mushrooms in together with the veggies.
Grand Finale Toppings: Have fun exploring different combos of topping or sauces. You can keep extra sauce in a jar in the fridge for a few days.
Mix it Up: You can mix it up, you do not always need a grain or root veggie; you can do beans and veggies with grand finales or grains and veggies with topping and no denser proteins like beans or animal products.. Or a salad bowl with a hot grain bottom! BE CURIOUS!! EXPERIMENT!! HAVE FUN!!
Journal your Experiments
Bottom - Grain/Starchy Roots/Squash
❏ Quinoa
❏ Millet
❏ Wild Rice
❏ Black Rice
❏ Brown Rice
❏ Red Rice
❏ Sorghum
❏ Amaranth
❏ Barley (gluten)
❏ Japanese Sweet Potato
❏ Japanese Purple Potato
❏ Yukon Gold Potato
❏ Yam
❏ Parsnips
❏ Butternut Squash
❏ Delicata Squash
❏ Spaghetti Squash
❏ Kabocha Squash
❏ Ume plum vinegar
Middle - Nutrient Dense Vegetables
❏ Arugula
❏ Asparagus
❏ Beets and beet greens
❏ Bell Peppers
❏ Bok choy
❏ Broccoli
❏ Broccoli rabe
❏ Broccolini
❏ Brussels sprouts
❏ Cabbage
❏ Carrots
❏ Cauliflower
❏ Celery
❏ Collard greens
❏ Cucumber
❏ Dandelion greens
❏ Daikon
❏ Eggplant
❏ Endive
❏ Escarole
❏ Fennel
❏ Green beans
❏ Green onions/ scallions
❏ Kale
❏ Leeks
❏ Mixed greens
❏ Mushrooms
❏ Mustard greens
❏ Okra
❏ Onions
❏ Peppers
❏ Radicchio
❏ Radishes
❏ Red bell peppers
❏ Romaine lettuce
❏ Shallots
❏ Snow peas
❏ Spinach
❏ Sprouts (all varieties)
❏ Summer squash
❏ Swiss chard
❏ Tomatoes
Top - Protein
❏ Red or Green Lentils
❏ Black Beans
❏ Chickpeas
❏ Mung Beans
❏ Adzuki Beans
❏ Navy Beans
❏ Cannellini Beans
❏ Great Northern Beans
❏ Pinto Beans
❏ Black-eyed Beans
❏ Tofu
❏ Temphe
❏ Mushrooms
❏ Cod
❏ Salmon
❏ Trout
❏ (Small Farm or Local)
❏ Organic-Range Free Eggs
❏ Organic-Range Free Chicken
❏ Organic-Grass Fed -Free Range Elk or Bison
Sauces & Toppings
❏ Herbal Pesto
❏ Asian Miso Tahini Sauce
❏ Chimichurri Sauce
❏ Pumpkin Seed Pesto
❏ Tzatziki Sauce
❏ Herb Tahini Dressing
❏ Vegan Queso Sauce
❏ Cauliflower Bechamel Sauce
❏ Spanish-style Herb-Olive Sauce
❏ Masala Simmer Sauce
❏ Zataar Tahini Sauce
❏ Pico de gallo Salsa
❏ Ponzo Sauce
❏ Orange Ginger Sauce
❏ Peanut Sauce
❏ Vegan Ranch Dressing
❏ Vegan Chezzy Sauce
❏ Avocado Sauce
❏ Avocado
❏ Brown Rice Vinegar
❏ Capers
❏ Cheese, Organic and Free Range
❏ Coconut aminos
❏ Tamari, organic, non-GMO
❏ Nutritional yeast Kimchi
❏ Seeds (hemp, pumpkin, sunflower..
❏ Sprouts (radish, sunflower, alfalfa..
❏ Lemon and Lime juice
❏ Olive Oil
❏ Kimchi
❏ Pickled vegetables
❏ Sauerkraut
❏ Fresh ground pepper & Salt
❏ Fresh tomatoes, red pepper, cucumber, in small cubes
❏ Fresh herbs, cilantro, parsley..
❏ Scallions
❏ Seasame Oil w/or w/o chill oil
❏ Seaweed flakes, dulce, wakame..
❏ Crunchy Garlic
❏ Hoisin Sauce
