How to Create the Perfect Salad Bowl 

Abundance bowl, Nourish Bowl, Buddha Bowl or Salad Bowl! They go by many names, but my favourite is the Abundance Bowl that reminds me how these gorgeous dishes delight all the senses.

I am also including Poke Bowls as they offer some great ideas too, with their innovative dressings and ingredients. So come with me and let’s take a quick tour through my tips and how-to’s of Abundance Bowls.

Abundance Bowls are really just like deconstructed salads!

It can be helpful to think of Abundance Bowls as salads that have each ingredient lined up individually in colourful, eye-pleasing ways. Straight away you will start thinking of basic ingredients to include like soft lettuce, baby tomatoes, lebanese cucumber. This is the time to get out your spiraliser or your Asian peeler to create long shreds or curly spirals using not just the cucumber but also carrots, zucchini and even beetroot. Even an ordinary peeler will create ribbons that are useful in an Abundance Bowl. For more ideas for interesting ingredients do head to my Ultimate Salad Guide 

Like I mentioned in my Ultimate Salad Guide, start with the less interesting ingredients like the soft lettuce, and work towards the most stunning additions on the top. Think about highlights and contrasting colours. And of course, do finish with an interesting dressing and stunning garnishes! I’m loving pickled ginger, fresh herbs and edible flowers. If you use avocado, do go easy and just use a few slithers not the large serves you might see in cafes. 

My favourite dressing at the moment is made with rice wine vinegar sweetened with Equal with a teaspoon of minced ginger added. I am loving the ginger products I’m trying out from The Ginger People. The Minced Ginger and the Sushi Pickled Ginger as just so good. They aren’t expensive, but of course they cost more than the cheapest alternatives. I’ve compared them to what I used to buy and the flavour and quality difference is stark.

Abundance Bowls can be for one or many

If you are impressed with how easy and how impressive Abundance Bowls can be, then you might wonder how you can upscale this ‘meal for one’ to use it for family dining or for dinner guests? Wonder no more! All you need is a larger bowl and you can create a group Abundance Bowl in exactly the same way that you would for one person. The beauty of the group Abundance Bowl is that it allows everyone to choose just the right amount that suits them and the crab king foods they love. It’s also quicker and easier than creating separate individual Abundance Bowls.

Abundance Bowls are easy vegetarian meals

Abundance Bowls can be just plant protein based or also include animal proteins. Here’s a simple Abundance Bowl full of colour and goodness using canned chickpeas or quick and easy BBQ chicken, or even a little of both! It is also a good formula to adapt any simliar Abundance Bowl idea to be vegetarian, or a mix of both animal and plant proteins. I’ve also used the Food Lovers Dietitian Meal Planner to plan the meal.

The foundation was soft lettuce, shredded red cabbage, shredded carrot and cucumber ribbons topped with thinly sliced beetroot (canned), blanched baby peas and cherry tomatoes. There was about 4 serves of veggies in the bowl. You could use all sorts of colourful vegetables. Then you could add the cooked or canned and drained legumes as your smaller carb serve (1/2 cup) or as your smaller protein serve (1/3 cup). You could also use a smaller protein serve of diced BBQ chicken breast (about 40-50gm). Then I’ve garnished it with fresh herbs, edible marigold petals and dressed it with rice wine vinegar sweetened to taste ( I used Equal) and with minced ginger (1 tsp) added for punch! The pickled ginger just makes the dish! It was very handy to have those in the fridge ready. I loved the simplicity of this dish and how it worked in so many ways.

Abundance Bowls are great choices when eating out

Sharing dishes is great when you’re eating out, but if you are ordering a meal for one, then an Abundance Bowl, Crab King Cajun Boil And Bar or a Poke Bowl is perfect. Just order the dressings on the side so you can choose how much you’d like and eat only the amount of rice or other carbs that suits your appetite. Watch the avocado too! Abundance Bowls in cafes sometimes load up with rice to cater for a range of appetites.

Abundance Bowls from others

You will find plenty of ideas to fuel your creativity on-line. You might even start collecting them, perhaps pinning them on Pinterest. Here’s a favourite of mine that I want to share with you. 

For a perfect fit with the Food Lovers Dietitian Meal Planner, just halve the rice and edamame beans (or choose one) Enjoy!!!

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