Southwestern Inspired Quinoa Bowl
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Hi friends! How was your weekend? Mine was extra long since I took the day off on Friday to go see my little brother get promoted to a Captain in the Army. If you follow me on snapchat (bbritnell) then you likely saw my obsessive snaps of us playing on the black hawks that my brother flies. By “playing” I mean that we each took turns getting in the drives seat (I think there’s a more technical term for this?) and taking pictures. Congrats, little brother!
And, the rest of my weekend was pretty relaxing. I had lots of things planned but just couldn’t bring myself to do too much. I did spend plenty of time outside enjoying the nice weather and all of the beautiful flowers that keep popping up all over our property. This is our first spring/ summer in our new house and we keep getting very lovely surprises each time a plant that we thought was a weed turns out to be a flower bush/ tree/ stem. Whoever owned the house before us clearly loved gardening and somewhat aimlessly planted things ALL over the property. I’m not complaining.
In other news, we got our first green(ish) egg yesterday!!! You may remember that a couple months ago I got 2 new chickens and one of those chickens is an ameraucana which lays blue and green eggs. She’s bigger than ALL the other chickens so I’ve been anxiously opening up the coop each day in hopes of finding a colorful egg. In return for her first egg, I gave her a cucumber to enjoy all to herself :)
OKAY. On to this Southwestern Inspired Quinoa Bowl. Let me just say that the amount of sweet potatoes and black beans that I have consumed over the past few weeks is at an all time HIGH. There’s just something about that flavor combination that I’m in LOVE with. Mmmm. I’ve also been eating more raw sweet potatoes which I never would have done 5 years ago but I now find myself craving them raw. Stephen thinks it’s really weird but I think it’s kind of like biting into a raw carrot. Sweet and crunchy and delicious!
The sweet potatoes in this quinoa dish are not raw, though. They’re lightly roasted with a minimal amount of oil and just a sprinkle of salt, pepper, and cumin.
This quinoa bowl is actually a remake of THESE Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tacos that I posted last year. I’m in LOVE with those tacos and wanted to make them into an easy to throw together bowl that’s healthy and fully vegan. That’s what we have here!
The avocado sauce is very similar to what I used in the taco recipe but I swapped out a few of the ingredients in order to make it dairy free.
This avocado dressing is SO so good. I had a bit of it left over and used it as a dressing on a salad which was perfect!
Typically when I make this dish (or something similar to it), I make it in a big batch, eat it for dinner, and then portion out the leftovers to be taken for lunch over the next few days. It re-heats SUPER well and is one of those meals that ALWAYS leaves me feeling very satisfied and happy.
Do yourself a favor and make a nice big bowl of this ASAP!
And, have a wonderful Monday and start to your week, lovelies :D
See How to Make the Quinoa Bowl:
I also have a recipe for how to make the quinoa in your instant pot HERE!
Ingredients
For avocado dressing:
- 1 avocados
- ½ a lime juiced
- 2 tbsp cilantro
- 1 tbsp vegan mayonnaise
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp ground pepper
For quinoa bowl:
- 1 cup of uncooked quinoa
- 2 cups of veggie broth/ stock you can also just use water but the broth adds lots of flavor to the quinoa
- 2 sweet potatoes peeled and finely chopped into half inch pieces
- drizzle of olive oil ~1/2 tablespoon, not much is needed
- s&p to taste
- sprinkle of cumin
- 1 can of black beans drained and rinsed
- couple handfuls of arugula
Instructions
For the avocado dressing:
- Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor or blender and process until smooth and creamy. Add a touch more water if you want the dressing to be a bit thinner. Set in the fridge until ready to use.
For the quinoa bowl:
- Cook the quinoa in the broth according to pack instructions. You can also cook it in your Instant Pot following THESE directions.
- While the quinoa cooks, roast the sweet potatoes. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees F. On a lined baking sheet, gently toss the sweet potato pieces in the oil and a bit of salt and pepper. Sprinkle over the cumin and arrange the sweet potato in a single layer on the baking tray.
- Bake the sweet potato for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly.
- Once the quinoa is done, you can assemble the bowl by simply combining some of the quinoa, black beans, sweet potato, and arugula.
- Drizzle over top the avocado dressing and ENJOY!
Video
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