Roasted Chickpea Quinoa Bowls with Creamy Vegan Ranch

February 28, 2024

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These roasted chickpea quinoa bowls are a high-protein, flavor-packed possibility so as to add to your weekly meal prep or dinner rotation. They characteristic fluffy, cooked quinoa, crispy baked tempeh bacon and roasted chickpeas, chopped romaine lettuce, and a beneficiant drizzle of creamy selfmade vegan ranch dressing. Every bowl packs greater than twenty-five grams of plant protein, together with fiber, texture, taste, and colour—what could possibly be higher?

A large, white bowl is filled with vegetables, roasted chickpeas, quinoa, and a creamy ranch dressing. The bowl is topped with pepitas.

The longer I domesticate a behavior of vegan meal prep, the extra I recognize the worth of vegan fundamentals.

By “fundamentals,” I imply simple parts that may multitask effectively in meals. Fundamentals may embody easy vegan proteins, selfmade vegan cheeses, sauces, and snacks.

With the appropriate fundamentals in your fridge, you’ll be able to go on to create what I consider as being “meeting” meals. They’re not a lot recipes with a lot of cooking steps a lot as the tip product of blending and matching.

More often than not, what I combine and match are combos of proteins, like beans, tofu, or tempeh, complete grains, sauces, and no matter greens I occur to have at dwelling.

These roasted chickpea quinoa bowls are an ideal instance of what’s doable if you take the time to arrange a number of strong vegan fundamentals. Massive taste, a lot of texture, and an particularly nutritious meal.

Because of not one, however three sources of plant protein—chickpeas, quinoa, and tempeh—one among these bowls provides about twenty-five grams of protein.

Greens, beans, and grains are all ample sources of dietary fiber, iron, and phytonutrients. Right here, they’re offered in a enjoyable, flavorful, and colourful method.

Protein-packed meal prep

I’m most likely a damaged file with the next message, however I feel it’s so necessary to place protein at entrance and heart with regards to vegan meal prep.

My reasoning is that the opposite macronutrients—fats and carbohydrates—are likely to deal with themselves.

For those who eat a plant-based food plan, with its ample choices of legumes, grains, grain merchandise, corn, and potatoes, it’s actually not arduous to acquire enough carbohydrates in your food plan.

Remembering to incorporate a healthful fats supply with meals might require somewhat extra thought, however it occurs very simply. A drizzle of French dressing or olive oil, a sprinkling of toasted nuts or seeds, an avocado half or scoop of guacamole—all of this stuff may be added to your meal immediately.

With protein, it’s somewhat extra tough.

In fact it’s not an enormous ask to open up a can of beans and add some to a salad or bowl.

Nevertheless, if you would like a very well-seasoned protein—for instance, flavorful brothy beans, baked and marinated balsamic tofu, or savory tempeh meatballs in your subsequent bowl of pasta—you’ll have to do some planning.

For me, planning = meal prep.

I can have a lot of nice concepts about upcoming meals that I’d prefer to eat. But when I don’t carve out time every week to plan and execute meal prep, only a few of them will come to fruition.

As I wrote in my cookbook The Vegan Week,

“My enthusiasm for cooking will most likely at all times wax and wane, however because of the behavior of meal prep, I handle to prepare dinner and eat properly even after I’m resistant or unmotivated. I change into extra intentional about what I eat, and my meals change into extra healthful. My style buds are grateful for range, and my physique is grateful for wise, balanced diet.”

A wise consumption of vegan protein is an enormous a part of how I conceptualize “balanced diet.” Meal prep is how I make it occur.

Two small baking sheets are lined with parchment paper and strips of vegan tempeh

For this roasted chickpea quinoa bowl, you’ll meal prep three separate, good sources of protein.

These are:

Collectively, these three components add as much as a lot of protein, and a diverse array of amino acids, at that.

Past their performance, these parts make the bowl a delight to eat. The chickpeas and tempeh bacon every present crispy texture, whereas the quinoa is tender and fluffy.

By means of in a creamy dressing and bowl of crunchy greens, and also you’ve obtained a bowl that’s particularly stuffed with sensory delight.

An angled image of a glass mason jar, resting on a white surface. It contains a creamy vegan ranch dressing with herbs. — You should use both recent or dried herbs in your selfmade vegan ranch, however I feel that recent herbs add essentially the most vibrant taste.

Creamy, selfmade vegan ranch dressing

A phrase about that dressing: it’s a brand new invention for me, although I’ve been making an attempt to excellent a selfmade ranch for years.

After experimenting with a number of components and creamy bases, I known as upon my culinary MVP, cashew nuts, to create a wealthy, easy texture.

I like to make use of recent herbs within the vegan ranch, slightly than dried, however my recipe provides choices for utilizing both.

For me, ranch dressing + smoky flavors seems like a pure, traditional combo. Actually, it was this dressing that impressed the complete roasted chickpea quinoa bowl.

Nevertheless, dressings are one of many selfmade fundamentals that I create most frequently, so I’ve options to give you if ranch isn’t your factor. Listed here are some:

The Vegan Week

Embrace the enjoyment of consuming selfmade meals on daily basis with the hearty and healthful recipes in The Vegan Week.

Whether or not you might have three, two, and even only one hour of time to spare, The Vegan Week will present you batch prepare dinner diverse, colourful, and comforting dishes over the weekend.

Methods to make roasted chickpea quinoa bowls

My finest recommendation for making these flavorful, successful bowls is to check out the varied parts, then take into consideration if you wish to meal prep them.

For those who stagger the preparation course of, it’ll be really easy to only put the bowls collectively if you’re able to eat (or to pack up a meal).

Once I put together a grain bowl like this one, I at all times deal with at the least one or two parts forward of time. Ideally, I put together all of them prematurely of assembling.

If you wish to take a very proactive strategy to the roasted chickpea quinoa bowls, you’ll be able to freeze one or a few the parts. Roasted chickpeas, tempeh bacon, and cooked quinoa can all be frozen for as much as 6 weeks.

With that mentioned, right here’s a walkthrough.

Step 1: Put together your protein parts in keeping with your schedule

Get a head begin on this recipe by making ready at the least the crispy tempeh bacon and crispy roasted chickpeas. You may make them collectively—as long as the oven goes to be on, chances are you’ll as properly multitask—or create them individually.

For the tempeh bacon, do not forget that it wants a while to marinate (two hours) earlier than you bake it.

An overhead image of two small, white bowls. One contains crispy roasted chickpeas, while the other contains darkened, crispy baked tempeh bacon. — The crispy parts of this recipe, chickpeas and tempeh bacon, may be roasted across the identical time or ready individually, advance or proper earlier than mixing the bowls. Alter this to suit your schedule!

Step 2: Put together the quinoa

Quinoa takes much less time to prepare dinner than many different grains, which makes it handy. Nevertheless, it may well typically be somewhat finicky.

With a view to keep away from quinoa that’s too gummy or not tender sufficient, I like to recommend a 1:1.75 ratio of grain to cooking liquid.

I additionally suggest simmering the quinoa, lined, for precisely 13 minutes. Then, take away it from warmth and let it stand, lined, for an additional 5 minutes.

An overhead image of a silver saucepan, which is filled with fluffy, cooked quinoa. — 13 minutes of stovetop simmering, a 5 minute resting interval off warmth, and a few fluffing with a fork will guarantee tender, completely cooked quinoa every time.

Lastly, uncover the quinoa and fluff it with a fork.

Sure, a exact cooking time of 13 minutes might sound somewhat foolish. But I’ve discovered that the following tips are the important thing to attaining completely cooked quinoa, meal after meal.

Step 3: Assemble your bowls

Lastly, it’s time to place your roasted chickpea quinoa bowls collectively.

Distribute the chopped romaine into 4 bowls. Divide the tempeh bacon, chickpeas, quinoa amongst them, then add somewhat heap of halved grape or cherry tomatoes.

Lastly, go forward and gown every bowl generously—smother the bowl, if you wish to!—with the creamy vegan ranch.

A white bowl holds greens, tomatoes, cooked quinoa, chickpeas, and some slices of tempeh bacon. — Grape tomatoes add colour and juiciness to the chickpea quinoa ranch bowls.

I personally like to prime these bowls with pepitas, a kind of shelled pumpkin seeds. For those who like somewhat further crunch, you can additionally attempt topping the bowls with:

Some recent, chopped cilantro or parsley is a pleasant completion as properly.

Meal prep & storage

For those who don’t plan to serve the roasted chickpea quinoa bowls straight away, then you’ll be able to retailer them in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as 5 days.

There are two methods to go about this: you can assemble your “bowls” in meal prep storage containers (you may get my suggestions in my newbie’s information to vegan meal prep), or you’ll be able to retailer the parts individually and assemble as prepared.

In both case, I like to recommend storing the dressing by itself and including it proper earlier than you sit all the way down to eat.

Variations

As with a lot of the vegan bowls on this website, there’s loads of area to range parts and make substitutions inside the roasted chickpea quinoa bowls.

Most notably, you should use store-bought roasted chickpeas or tempeh bacon instead of selfmade. I really like the Tofurky model Smoky Maple Bacon particularly.

You possibly can additionally commerce roasted chickpeas for plain, un-roasted chickpeas, straight from a can. The bowl may have rather less crunch, however it’ll nonetheless be stuffed with texture total.

Tempeh bacon may be changed by any of the next easy plant proteins:

You possibly can additionally add a store-bought, baked tofu. Just a few manufacturers provide ready-to-eat choices lately.

Lastly, whereas I really like the crunch of chopped romaine within the bowls, there’s no motive to not experiment with another sort of lettuce or varied extra veggies.

Roasted purple peppers, broccoli florets, chopped cucumber, and shredded cabbage would all work properly within the recipe.

Lastly, it’s very rewarding to make selfmade ranch, however it’s not at all a necessity. The Observe Your Coronary heart model and Primal Kitchen model every make good, store-bought vegan ranch dressings.

Extra nutritious vegan bowls to savor

For those who love a great bowl for a meal prep dinner or meal prep lunch, I’ve loads of extra recipes so that you can discover.

Listed here are a number of of my favorites, all of which put protein entrance and heart:

And right here’s the crunchy, satisfying new creation that I’m including to the record.