Healthy Food Staple: Vegetarian Grain Bowls

You may only have ever had vegetarian grain bowls while out at health-food cafes and similar establishments. These wholesome bowls of grains, vegetables, and toppings are delicious and satisfying, providing clean-burning energy that doesn’t weigh you down. No wonder they’re appearing more and more on cafe menus! The secret? Vegetarian grain bowls are so easy to make, and so affordable to make at home, that they can become a staple of your diet in no time.

For a Better Bowl, Add Ghee to Your Grains

When ghee-lovers like us at Full Moon Ghee make vegetarian grain bowls, we add a dollop of ghee to our grains while they cook. You’re probably familiar with the practice of adding a teaspoon of butter to a pot of rice at the beginning of cooking. According to Ayurveda, the ancient Indian science of health, adding ghee (Indian clarified butter) to a pot of grains while they cook has the benefit of balancing out the dry quality of many grains. This makes grains more moist and digestible than they would be without the addition of ghee. We prefer ghee to butter because it is lactose-free. This means ghee delivers the beneficial vitamins and fatty acids found in butter, minus the lactose, which can be irritating for many people’s digestive systems. Learn more about ghee by reading our blog post, What is Ghee Used For?

At Full Moon Ghee, we prepare our ghee on the full moon with chants and prayers, to infuse each batch with healing energy. Keep reading for our take on vegetarian grain bowls with ghee!

Looking for ghee? Visit our online store!

Recipe: Vegetarian Grain Bowls with Ghee

Ingredients

Grains:

• 1/2 cup dried farro, quinoa, white basmati rice, or brown basmati rice
• 2 tsp. ghee (find it in our online store)
• ½ teaspoon each ground cumin, coriander, and turmeric
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Vegetables:

• 1 cup broccoli or cauliflower florets, or 1 cup chopped squash or beets
• 4-6 leaves kale or other green, cut into strips

Toppings: Choose from our list, using a small handful of each topping, or swap in your favorites!

• Chopped nuts, raw or toasted
• Sunflower seeds
• Raisins
• Parsley or cilantro, finely chopped
• Shredded carrots or beets
• Feta cheese
• Sauerkraut
• Sprouts
• Sliced avocado

Sauce:

• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 Tbsp. tahini
• 2 tsp. mustard (optional)
• 2 tsp. raw honey (optional)
• 1 tsp. miso (optional)
• Splash of apple cider vinegar (optional)

Instructions

1. Rinse the grain in a fine-mesh sieve and add to a saucepan with 1 cup of water (or, for quinoa, ¾ cup), ghee, cumin, coriander, turmeric, and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer. Quinoa and white basmati simmer for 15 minutes; farro and brown basmati simmer for 35-40 minutes. When the time is up, remove pot from heat and keep covered for 5 minutes. Then open the lid and fluff grains with a fork.
2. While grains are cooking, add florets, squash or beets and kale strips to a large saute pan with ¼ cup water. Cover and steam veggies over medium heat until tender, 8-10 minutes.
3. Make the sauce. In a jar, combine olive oil, lemon juice, tahini, mustard, raw honey, miso, and apple cider vinegar. Seal the jar and vigorously shake until ingredients are well combined and smooth.
4. Assemble your vegetarian grain bowls! Divide cooked grains between two wide bowls. Top with cooked vegetables and toppings of your choice, and drizzle sauce over everything. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Photo by Denise Johnson on Unsplash