Nourish Bowl with Miso Avocado Dressing
A bowl full of delicious vegetables and nutty freekeh layered on a salty, creamy miso avocado dressing. A nourish bowl aimed to delight the taste buds and fill with healthy goodness.
Why I Love My Nourish Bowl
After a few days of eating out or big feasts, I do crave simple, fresh dishes. Something to help cleanse and revitalise.
This nourish bowl totally hits the spot. A delicious vegan salad with a healthy combination of earthy flat mushroom, juicy cherry tomatoes, creamy avocados, roasted beets mingled with nutty freekeh and layered on top of homemade miso avocado dressing gets me moving again.
I have deliberately kept most of the ingredients in the vegan salad bowl simple as the miso avocado dressing is full of flavour and does wonders when mingled together.
What Is A Nourish Bowl?
So you’ve heard this term being thrown around, nourish bowl. What is a nourish bowl exactly?
A nourish bowl is a well balanced healthy meal packed with nutritional ingredients. It will generally combine vegetables, healthy fats, protein and good carbs in a bowl.
Many nourish bowl recipes are plant-based, but you can, of course, add meat as the quality protein component.
Nourish bowls are also known as salad bowls, buddha bowls, bliss bowls, abundance bowls or power bowls. Regardless of the name, they are an easy way to get a healthy and delicious meal together.
Are Nourish Bowls Healthy?
Nourish bowls are formed on the basis of including whole foods and a balanced combination of nutritional ingredients.
So yes, nourish bowls are a great healthy meal option! Nourish bowls are a great way to meal prep as most components can be prepared in advance.
How to Build A Nourish Bowl?
The best part of a nourish bowl is that you can build a nourish bowl to your liking. There are three basic principles: base carb, layer with vegetables and finish with delicious flavourings.
Start with a quality carb like quinoa, brown rice, wild rice, buckwheat, soba noodles or freekeh just like in this recipe.
Then layer with a variety of vegetables to create texture and flavour. You can have all raw ingredients like tomatoes, sliced cucumber, grated carrot or leafy greens or have cooked vegetables like roasted sweet potatoes, cauliflower and beets.
Then top off with a healthy, delicious dressing or sauce and add extra texture like seeds, nuts and spices.
And if you need a little help in building a delicious healthy salad, then keep on reading and follow our nourish bowl recipe.
How To Make Meal Prep
This is a vegan salad you can definitely prep ahead for the week. Roast beets, pan-fry mushrooms, cooked freekeh and cut tomatoes ready to go. I would cut avocado when ready to eat and store the vegan avocado dressing separate to the salad ingredients.
How to Make It A Meal
If you wish to add extra protein, you can top up with poached egg. Otherwise, this nourish bowl is substantial enough for a light vegan meal.
How to Make Nourish Bowl
How to Roast Baby Beets
I have selected baby golden beets in this vegan salad recipe because I love the colour, but red beets work as well. The contrast in colours is striking as showcased in our 3 Way Beetroot and Feta Salad.
Trim the green tops off the baby beets, give it a good wash, season with salt and place in foil. Wrap foil parcel up tightly and roast in oven. This will take approximately 45-55 minutes in a preheated 180°C or 350°F oven.
Smaller beets will cook a little faster so you may want to check after 30 minutes in the oven.
To check if the beetroot is tender, you can use a fork or skewer to pierce through it. Beets are done when you can slide the fork or skewer easily to the centre.
Remove from oven and let the beets cool down. After the beets are cool enough to hold, peel the skin. Set aside for assembly.
How To Cook Freekeh
Bring to boil 2 cups of water. Add one cup of freekeh and simmer it on medium heat for 35-40 minutes. Cooking time may vary so you may want to check the labels on the packaging.
When done, drain the freekeh and run under cold water to stop the cooking process. Set aside for assembly.
Image below shows uncooked v cooked freekeh. If you’d like to use them in other salad recipes, you could try our Freekeh Grain Salad with Preserved Lemons or Pomegranate, Barley and Freekeh Salad.
How To Pan Fry Flat Mushrooms
For this recipe, I used large flat mushrooms, also known as portobello flat mushrooms. You can, however, substitute flat mushrooms with your favourite variety.
Wash flat mushrooms and shake dry.
Place mushrooms cap side down. Hold the mushroom steady and slice into 0.5cm strips. Don’t cut too thin as mushrooms shrink when they cook down.
Prepare fry-pan for medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a frying pan. Add mushrooms to frying pan and sprinkle ½ teaspoon of dried oregano on top.
Keep moving the mushrooms around and cook until they turn brown. Remove from heat and set aside to serve.
How to Prepare the Salad
Wash cherry tomatoes and slice in half.
Wash and roughly chop parsley.
Cut one avocado in half lengthwise. Peel the skin off and remove stone. Place avocado cut side down and cut into cubes.
How to Make Miso Avocado Dressing
This is a delicious, creamy vegan avocado dressing that has a unique umami flavour. The white miso paste carries a slightly salty taste, and the added sweetness of maple syrup helps deliver a dressing that is incredibly addictive! I loved it with everything in the nourish bowl.
Peel and cut one avocado into cubes. Place in a food processor or hand blender.
Add miso paste, maple syrup, olive oil and lemon juice in the food processor.
Blitz until smooth. If the dressing is a bit too thick, add a teaspoon olive oil and ½ teaspoon of lemon juice to balance.
How to Assemble the Salad
I would serve vegan nourish bowls individually in bowls, of course. However, I used plates too.
Scoop 2 tablespoons of the miso avocado dressing on ¾ of bottom of bowl.
Divide the flat mushrooms, avocado, cherry tomatoes, freekeh and roasted baby beets into 4 portions.
Place each of the nourish bowl ingredients next to each other in the bowl with some overlapping the miso avocado dressing.
Scatter chopped parsley over the bowl and finish with cracked pepper to serve.
There may seem to be quite a few different components in this nourish bowl recipe, but they can be all prepared whilst the baby beets are roasting in the oven. And if you wish, you can even prepare the ingredients in advance and assemble when you need to serve.
So next time you are craving something fresh, healthy and full of flavour, try our vegan Nourish Bowl with Miso Avocado Dressing.
That’s all!
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Ingredient Pairing Ideas
If you’d like to create your own salad and have an ingredient you’d like to hero, we have some great pairing suggestions to help you work out what flavours go well together.
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Nourish Bowl with Miso Avocado Dressing
Ingredients
Salad
- 8 baby beetroot
- 2 cup water
- 1 cup freekeh, uncooked
- 6 mushrooms, flat
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- 250 g cherry tomatoes
- 1 avocado
- 3 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Salad Dressing
- 1 avocado
- 1 tbsp white miso paste
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- pepper, to taste
Click on the toggle below for conversion to US Cooking Units.
Instructions
Salad
- Trim baby beets, wash, place in foil and season with salt. Wrap foil parcel up tightly and roast in oven for approximately 45-55 minutes in a preheated 180°C or 350°F oven. Check if beets are tender with fork or skewer. If tender, remove from oven and let the beets cool down. After the beets are cool enough to hold, peel the skin. Set aside for assembly.
- Bring to boil 2 cups of water. Add one cup of freekeh and cook it on medium heat for 35-40 minutes. When done, drain the freekeh and run under cold water to stop the cooking process.
- Wash and slice flat mushrooms into thin strips. Add 1 tbsp of olive oil and add mushrooms to fry pan and sprinkle ½ teaspoon of dried oregano on top.Pan fry mushrooms until then turn brown.
- Wash cherry tomatoes and slice in half.
- Cut, peel and cube one avocado.
- Wash and roughly chop parsley.
Salad Dressing
- Peel and cut one avocado into cubes. Place in a food processor or hand blender.
- Add miso paste, maple syrup, olive oil and lemon juice in the food processor.
- Blitz until smooth.
- If the dressing is a bit too thick, add teaspoon olive oil and ½ teaspoon of lemon juice to balance.
Assembly
- Using individual bowls, scoop 2 tablespoons of the miso avocado dressing on ¾ of bottom of bowl.
- Divide the flat mushrooms, avocado, cherry tomatoes, freekeh and roasted baby beets into 4 portions.
- Place each of the nourish bowl ingredients next to each other in the bowl with some overlapping the miso avocado dressing.
- Scatter chopped parsley over the bowl and finish with cracked pepper to serve.
Notes
- Nourish bowls can be adapted to your liking.
- If you can’t find golden beets, you can use red baby beets or 2 large beetroot. Just cut into smaller pieces.
- You can swap the flat mushrooms for your favourite mushrooms such as swiss brown, white button, oyster, enoki or even shiitake.
Nutrition
*Disclaimer: Nutritional information provided is an estimate only and generated by an online calculator.
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I absolutely love how colorful this dish is! I can’t wait to make it this week!
Thanks Jessica! Hope you’ll enjoy it.
I can’t find white miso paste, can you use other types of miso paste in this? The brown one is all we have here.
Hey Kelly. The white miso paste is in fact a light brown coloured paste. The packet should say shiro miso or white miso however to make the distinction. Hope this helps.
This is such a wonderful recipe, would be great for lunch.
Thanks Audrey! Yes! It’s perfect for lunch on the go too.