It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of quinoa bowls. They’re easy, they don’t take long to make, you can prepare them in advance, they’re a simple solution to excess food in your fridge that needs to be used up, AND they travel well. If those aren’t good enough reasons for you to go make yourself a quinoa bowl RIGHTTHISSECOND, I don’t know what is.
I often make pretty simple quinoa bowls because I can’t be bothered to slave away in the kitchen for hours on end (usually). So recently, I made this bad boy.
And he was YUM. Only 3 things in my quinoa bowl (including the quinoa) and a delicious, savoury dressing smothered on top. Awww yea! It doesn’t look like much, but it was perfect. The dressing really makes this bowl, though, so if you skip it, you will have a very sad, bland, boring quinoa bowl on your hands.
I’m still working on getting my little ones to eat quinoa bowls, but they are stubborn! They’ll eat the quinoa, but only if it’s plain. One of them will eat the lentils, but only if the other one isn’t around telling her how “gross” they are.
Sigh. One of these days my kids will like more than just bread and chocolate – right? Please tell me I’m right!
So – on to this delicious quinoa bowl masterpiece [not]…
First, cook up some quinoa and divide between bowls. Cook up some lentils and do the same. While those two are cooking, sautee some greens with a tiny bit of oil, salt, and black pepper. Then, make the dressing.
Ta-da! No muss, no fuss. Simple, easy, delicious.
- ½ cup brown or green lentils
- 1½ cups water
- 1 medium-large garlic clove, crushed
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup quinoa
- 2 cups water
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup greens of choice (kale, spinach, swiss chard)
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp freshly cracked black pepper
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 3 tbsp water
- 3 tbsp tamari
- 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 medium-large clove of garlic, grated
- ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1.5 tbsp tahini
- Add lentils, water, garlic and bay leaf to a small pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low-medium and simmer about 25-40 minutes, or until most of the liquid has been absorbed and the lentils are tender. Remove bay leaf and crushed garlic. Set aside.
- Add quinoa and water to a small pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low-medium and simmer about 12 minutes, or until most of the liquid has been absorbed and the quinoa is tender.
- Heat oil in a medium pan over medium heat. Once warmed, add the greens and cook until softened. Sprinkle on the salt and pepper, turn off the heat, and set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together all ingredients until smooth.
- Divide quinoa between bowls, then add in the lentils and sauteed greens.
- Pour a healthy amount of dressing over each bowl. Serve warm!
Loraine Mazzolini says
January 16, 2015 at 5:50 AMWow, you saved me for dinner tonight. Even though this was an easy dish, to prepare from scratch, I had no time. I recently had one of those new Broth Bowls from Panera and was craving the Lentil and Quinoa bowl and thought why can’t I make that at home. I searched and found your recipe. I already had leftover quinoa in the refrigerator, I opened a can of lentils, rinsed them well, sauted up some kale and spinach and whip up the dressing. It was one of the best dinners we had in a long time. Thank you. I will definitely be subscribing to your blog!
Liane says
September 3, 2014 at 7:11 AMNow that is a crave-worthy meal! The photos look amazing, too.
Cassie says
September 3, 2014 at 11:00 AMThank you so much, Liane!
Linda from the Lentil Institution says
September 3, 2014 at 5:12 AMBowls are great. In fact I just finished writing tomorrow’s post about a bowl I just made! You really can’t go past a tahini sauce to make a bowl incredible. I think I’m going to try this one soon. (My daughter will eat anything that has nutritional yeast and tamari in it, so I know it’ll be a winner at our place.)
Cassie says
September 3, 2014 at 6:36 AMHope you guys like it, Linda. Let me know what your daughter thinks!
Kate says
September 3, 2014 at 1:54 AMThat looks delicious! And I happen to have all those ingredients in my kitchen right now, so I’m going to give it a go for dinner. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Cassie says
September 3, 2014 at 6:36 AMHope you enjoy it, Kate!
mollyjade says
September 2, 2014 at 1:55 PMSometimes the simplest things are the best, aren’t they? I need to give that dressing a try on a bowl.
Cassie says
September 3, 2014 at 6:35 AMYes, I love simple dishes like this!