How to Pack the Perfect Bowl

It is said that Buddha carried a bowl from village to village, collecting small offerings of food along the way. At the end of the day, he would eat his meal, enjoying a variety of flavors that ceremoniously blended together. No wonder the legend inspired the trendy name craze for satisfying go-to meals.

It doesn’t have to be a Buddha bowl or a power bowl to be delicious. Just pack a bowl with some basics for a healthy one-dish breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

1. Start with grains for the base‍

Here, in the Breakfast for Dinner bowl, we have steel-cut oats but use what you’ve got. Other suitable grain bases include rice, quinoa, pasta, and even veggie noodles to satisfy low-carb diets.

2. Add fresh veggies‍

This bowl is packed with greens, including arugula, and avocado for some of that healthy fat. We thinly sliced radish to add a little extra spice—but mostly to make this bowl look pretty with splashes of fuchsia. You can try any other fresh veggies you have on hand.

3. A little protein‍

Top it off with a fried egg or go for toasted chickpeas to keep it vegan. Seafood, or some cubed-up leftover chicken, beef, or any protein will also do just fine.

4. Some sprinklings‍‍‍

Sprinklings like the everything bagel spice mix, which also happens to go with everything, add extra nuttiness, crunch, texture, protein, and flavor. You can also sprinkle with sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, sesame seeds, other chopped nuts, and more.

5. And Special Sauce‍

What’s a bowl without a little dressing? It can be as simple as a little extra-virgin olive oil and lemon juice, or a nut-butter dressing.

Need some inspiration to get started? Bastyr University nutrition students and faculty put together a few healthy bowl recipes to get you started.

• Breakfast for Dinner
• ‍Greek Cauliflower-Rice Bowl‍
• Mediterranean Bounty Bowl‍
• Southwestern Spiced Comfort Bowl‍
• Pickled Carrot Noodle Bowl