From the Power Plates cookbook by Gena Hamshaw, these vegetarian macro bowls are the perfect balance of beans, grains, and veggie. They are full of miso’s deliciously sweet-salty-savory flavor and are packed full of nutrients.
Apparently eating food in 2018 means getting down to the nitty gritty of what we’re putting in our bodies.
A lot of this can probably be done on intuition alone, but those of us who love mac and cheese a little too much most likely need a bit more direction.
(i.e. ME)
So. MACRO BOWLS.
Otherwise known as food bowls that cover all of your macronutrients – fat, protein, and carbs in the form of whole grains and veggies. If you knew what was good for you, you were probably eating this way anyway, but now we’ve put a trendy cute hipster name to it.
Honestly, prior to making these I was utterly convinced that macro bowls were things only to be eaten by health food fanatics and that they required weirdo ingredients that would necessitate a trip to a health food store.
Also, I was pretty sure they tasted bad.
WRONG. WRONG. WRONG.
This is all totally normal run-of-the-mill stuff that you can likely find on your average weekly grocery trip.
AND IT TASTES GOOD.
I mean, we’ve got sesame-seasoned brown rice, miso-roasted kabocha (or butternut!) squash, kale, beans, and kimchi all smothered in a tahini-miso dressing. There’s nothing not to love.
The recipe for these comes out of the Power Plates cookbook by Gena Hamshaw and, honestly, I cannot recall the last time I was this obsessed with a cookbook. This is NOT SPONSORED at all and I purchased the book with my own money, so believe me when I say that I want to make ALL of the recipes in this book. In fact, I’ve been cooking my way through it, making one recipe a week and so far so good. The recipes are all vegan and SO good for you, but also SO delicious. I’ll let you know when I get to one I’m not totally obsessed with, but be warned I’m really doubting that will ever happen.
- 1 cup brown rice
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
- 1 scallion, green part only, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp mirin
- 1 tbsp grapeseed or other neutral oil
- 1 tbsp white miso
- 1 tbsp tamari
- 1 tbsp mirin
- 1 lb kabocha squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch thick chunks
- ¼ cup tahini
- 2 tbsp white miso
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 2 tsp minced ginger
- ¼ cup warm water
- 1 bunch lacinato or curly kale, stemmed and torn into small pieces
- 1½ cups cooked adzuki beans
- 1 cup kimchi
- Cook the rice according to package instructions. Once cooked, drizzle with the sesame oil and then fold in the sesame seeds, scallion, and mirin. Set aside.
- Meanwhile, make the squash. Heat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. n a small bowl, whisk together the oil, miso, tamari and mirin. In a large bowl, toss the squash with the miso mixture until completely combined. Spread on the parchment-lined baking sheet and roast for 20-30 minutes, or until tender and just starting to brown.
- To make the dressing, whisk together all of the ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. If it is too thick, add additional warm water 1 tbsp at a time to thin it to a more pourable consistency.
- To serve, divide the rice, squash, kale, and beans among four bowls. Top each with a quarter of the kimchi and drizzle with dressing. Serve warm.
I love macro bowls! Well I love most bowls in general. Buddah bowls, macro bowls, acai bowls…
I love these sort of bowls of dinner – like you say they are really the sort of thing I eat anyway but thinking of them as macro bowls encourages me to have more parts to the bowl!
Oh yum. I seriously love everything about this macro bowl!