The Best Rainbow Bowl Salad

As the weather gets colder I’ve been filling my body with warming soups and curry as I’ve kind of fallen out of love with salads these past few weeks.  That is until I made this huge and delicious Rainbow Bowl!  This has been exactly what I’ve craved this winter – a salad that is filling, mixed with different ingredients, a little spicy and full of delicious flavor.  This rainbow bowl salad has layers of flavor from my spicy chili chickpeas, warming paprika hummus and a creamy lentil and rice side.  I am an avocado and pomegranate fiend, which is why I always try to add these two ingredients to any dish – I swear they just make everything taste so much better!  I love the cooling and buttery flavor of the avocado with the sweet pomegranates that work beautifully to balance out the spice within the bowl.  The great thing about rainbow bowls are that you can tailor them to whatever ingredients or leftovers you have on hand.  I like to make my chili chickpeas and hummus in bulk which makes for a easy lunch to pack up for work or university - I just toss it all together with a little sautéed spinach.  If you don’t have spinach or chickpeas try kale or black beans.  It really is up to you!  If you are looking to lighten up the bowl, try swapping out the rice for shredded carrots or tomatoes. 

Because of all the wonderful ingredients in this bowl you are getting a great range of vitamins, minerals, plant protein and fiber!  By adding protein rich hummus and chickpeas, health fats from the avocados, and countless vitamins from the garlic, spinach and pomegranates it is a great way of insuring you are hitting all your daily recommended intakes!  This really is the perfect salad bow, utterly delicious and healthy.

Serves: 1 very hungry person

Prep Time: 10 minutes| Cook Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients for the Rainbow Bowl:

- 2 large handfuls of spinach

- 2 garlic cloves

- 1 tablespoon olive oil

- 2 cups water

- ½ cup brown rice

- ½ cup red lentils

- sprinkle of sea salt

- half of 1 avocado

- ½ cup pomegranate seeds

Ingredients for the Hummus – recipe in previous blog post found here

Ingredients for the Chili Infused Chickpeas – recipe in previous blog post found here

Instructions:

Start by making the chili infused chickpea recipe or simply warm up the leftover chickpeas – you can find the recipe and instructions here.  Then prepare the paprika hummus – you can find the recipe and instructions here.  Once these are finished, start by making the rice and lentil mixture by rinsing and draining both.  Then add the rice, lentils, sprinkle of sea salt and water into a saucepan and bring to a boil with the lid on top.  Once this starts to boil reduce the heat to low and cook until all the water has absorbed.  This will make more rice than needed in one sitting so just store the rest in an airtight container in the refrigerator. 

For the sautéed spinach, simply chop the garlic into small pieces and toss them into a small saucepan with the olive oil.  Cook this on medium heat for a few minutes and then add the spinach.  Allow the spinach to wilt down to about half its size (this will be a few minutes) and then you are all done!

Finally dollop all the delicious ingredients into your bowl with a side of avocado and pomegranate seeds, mix together and enjoy this fantastic meal!