Who can’t relate to this situation: Every day you ask yourself what you want to eat – and in most cases you always think of the same things. You are looking for some variety, want the nutritional values to be good and ideally don’t want to be standing in the kitchen for too long? Then I have just the thing for you! A “toolkit” for a bowl that I like to use myself when I don’t know what to eat! Read on to find out more about how to create a quick and healthy meal in 4 easy steps!
Busy? Then I’ve summarized the most important information of this blogpost for you.
The base – Carbohydrates
As a basis for energy generation, carbohydrates cannot be missing in our bowl. I mostly use rice or, if it is supposed to be higher in protein, bulgur or quinoa. 100g mostly have around 350kcal and form a solid basis for your dinner.
If you want to prepare your meal fast, I would go for quinoa. It is enough to cover the quinoa in a saucepan with hot water, put a lid on and wait for about 7-10 minutes. Your quinoa is ready.
My advice: I often like to mix rice and red or black lentils for a little more protein. Tastes great but is a little more effort!
The main part – Vegetables
What would a bowl be without a lot of vegetables? In addition to numerous micronutrients, vegetables usually have very little kcal but still a lot of volume. Because of this, you can eat a lot of vegetables without really gaining weight. That’s why (and because of the important micronutrients) I always make sure that vegetables make up the majority of my bowls.
I almost always pick cucumbers! Apart from that, I like to use various salads, peppers, cucumbers, white cabbage, carrots, broccoli or tomatoes. If you want your bowl to taste oriental you can of course also use zuchini and eggplants. You will need more time though, because the vegetables first have to be cooked or fried. Use your imagination and experiment a little!
For the athletes: Protein
In a bowl, a source of protein must not be missing! There are numerous options that you can use! If it has to be quick I just like to use smoked tofu which I cut into cubes. Otherwise you can marinate or fry the tofu. Alternatively, you can also use seitan or tempeh.
Other protein sources are legumes such as beans or chickpeas, which I like to combine with the protein sources mentioned above.
If you don’t want to make your bowl vegan, you can just use meat as a source of protein.
The finishing touch – dressing
Last but not least: The dressing. Here it is largely decided in which direction you want to go with your bowl in terms of taste. In the simplest case, I like to combine white wine vinegar and seed oil with some garlic, salt, pepper and chilli. Combined with some water this results in a simple but delicious dressing!
Alternatively, you can, for example, use a vegan whipped cream substitute (soy or oat cuisine) and combine it with Garam Masala, cumin, coriander and chilli.
Another possibility is to create your dressing based on Tahina: It tastes great but Tahina is very high in fat and gives your bowl a huge boost in calories. Nevertheless, Tahina tastes great combined with some water. lemon juice and chilli!
Enjoy your meal! 😉