The Dragon Bowl

From the kitchen of Jules Dirsa, LAc, 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

Jules Dirsa is a licensed acupuncturist with many years of experience in both individual and community acupuncture. He is dedicated to the healing process of each of his clients, and meets with each client where they are at in an open-hearted and non-judgmental way. He utilizes gentle, effective treatments which pull from the tools of Traditional Chinese Medicine (acupuncture, herbs, cupping) in order to help each client unlock the healing potential within themselves. Jules strongly believes you can feel healthy at any age, any size, any phase of life.