The Dragon Bowl

From the kitchen of Jules Dirsa originally adapted from a recipe in  The Angelica Home Kitchen by Leslie McEachern.

This recipe is healthy comfort food for me. I’ve been making it since I first learned how to cook healthy foods for myself as a young adult. I ate this on a trip to NYC at an organic vegan restaurant called “Angelica Kitchen”. I loved it and bought the cookbook while I was there so I could try to replicate it at home. It’s a basic grain and veggie bowl with a tahini based herbal dressing, which tends to be in my regular rotation of meals, but I especially appreciate it as a type of reset button if I’ve gone off the rails on eating adventures like the State Fair. I feel so good when I’m eating it. It tastes great and feels super wholesome, and helps me get in a good amount of veggies in my meal.  It’s adaptable to different veggies and grains. I try to switch up which veggies I pile onto the dragon bowl to include as much of the rainbow of veggies and mushrooms as possible, or whichever ones have been lacking from my recent meals. When I have access to good quality seaweed I stock up to have it on hand for this meal - especially my favorite, Pacific Sea Palm. I also experiment with different grains, but my favorites tend to be forbidden black rice and tried-and-true short grain brown rice. Any leftover dressing I tend to use on breakfast veggies with eggs on top, which gets me off to a good start. 
 
Ingredients:
The “Dragon Bowl”:  choose your favorites, as few or as many as you want

• 1 bunch of steamed greens (ex: collard greens, mustard greens, kale, swiss chard, or bok choy)
• 1 cup rice or other grains 
• 1 cup beans or tofu  (adzuki beans or garbanzo beans, etc)
• 4 cups root vegetables or seasonal steamed vegetables (ex: carrots, beets, summer squash, rutabega, parnsip, or zucchini)
• 1 oz. or 1 cup sea vegetables  (arame, sea palm, or hijiki, etc)

 
*optional for cooking with sea veggies:

• 2 Tbsp. tamari or shoyu
• 1/3 cup julienned carrots
• 1/3 cup of onion sliced into thin crescents
• 4 cups of water

 
“Angelica House Dressing”:

• 1/2 cup firmly packed fresh parsley, washed, dried, and chopped
• 1 whole scallion / green onion, rinsed and sliced
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1 tablespoon umeboshi paste
• 1/2 cup of water

 
Directions:

1. Prepare the rice and protein of choice, steam the greens and veggies.
2. If using sea veggies: Soak for 30 minutes, then simmer in water for 25 minutes with julienned carrots, onion, and tamari.  
3. Assemble the bowl by layering each component into a colorful pile.
4. Combine all the ingredients for the dressing in a blender and puree until smooth. 
5.  Pour dressing on top of assembled dragon bowl. 

 
 For a printable PDF, Click Here