Oh friends, do I have a fabulous recipe for you tonight!
If you’ve ever been to New York City, you know that chopped salads are a mainstay for fast-casual lunches for the work crowd there.
Chop’t, Just Salad, and Sweetgreen are the “Big Three” there, with a made-to-order salad counter that has a line out the door come lunchtime every day, rain or shine.
And Sweetgreen is far and away the best of the best. Local, organic ingredients, a creative and seasonally-changing menu. It’s definitely a pretty penny, but you get what you pay for. It was, safe to say, my favorite place to eat for the 12 years I lived there.
And now that I’ve been in Cincinnati for the last year and a half, I miss it so much.
SO, I decided to try my hand at recreating one of their power bowls — read: not a salad — for my husband and I for dinner. And let me tell you: it is my husband’s new favorite meal.
As in, he requests it. Which says a lot.
And it is SO healthy, and if you have all the ingredients prepped ahead of time, like I usually do, you can literally have this on the table in 5 minutes.
I will walk you through making all the components, BUT, most nights I have all the leftovers on hand, and this comes together in a snap.
And this is somewhat of a “no recipe” recipe, as it can be modified to your liking, you can swap out the protein for something else, switch up the veggies, etc. It’s totally customizable.
Plus, it’s gluten free, Specific Carb Diet friendly, paleo, keto and TOTALLY DELICIOUS!
I’ll share the quantities for one single bowl, just so you know the proportions, but I always cook — for example — one pound of turkey, and have the leftovers for another day.
Here’s What You Need: (Makes one bowl)
1/2 cup cooked wild rice OR [SCD:] 1 cup cooked cauliflower rice
1/3 cup cooked ground turkey
— cooked in 1/4 red onion, 2 garlic cloves, 3 Tbsp EVOO, salt and pepper
1/3 cup roasted beets, chopped (or roasted brussels sprouts/red onions)
— Roasted with 3 Tbsp EVOO, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper
1/2 cup chopped romaine lettuce
4 Tbsp fresh pesto
–– 2 cups fresh basil, 2 garlic cloves, squeeze of lemon, 1/3 cup pine nuts, 1/3 cup parmesan cheese, 1/3 cup EVOO, salt and pepper
Tools:
Rice cooker – this one is BY FAR the best!
Large, nonstick skillet
Good chef’s knife – this is the one I use and love
Baking sheet
Food processor
Cheese grater
Nonstick Tinfoil – a true game changer
Directions:
Rinse your rice, and make it in your rice cooker. (This takes about 45 minutes to an hour. I always do this in the afternoon.) *Protip: use broth instead of water.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with nonstick tinfoil. I cut my beets into 1/2 inch rounds, but you can also dice from the get-go. Toss with 3 Tbsp EVOO, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper, and then arrange in a single layer on your baking sheet, not overlapping. Bake for about 35 minutes, until tender.
Meanwhile, cook your turkey. In a large, nonstick skillet, heat 3 Tbsp EVOO. Add your onion and garlic, salt and pepper. Let saute for about 2 minutes over medium heat. Add your turkey. Break it up with a wooden spoon and brown until it is completely cooked through. Set aside.
In the same non-stick skillet, cook your cauliflower rice. Add another 2 Tbsp EVOO and your bag of cauliflower rice. Season with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Cook for about 4 minutes, until the cauliflower is just starting to be tender.
Lastly, make your pesto. (*This can also be done days ahead of time). Into your food processor, add your basil, pine nuts, garlic cloves, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Process until it resembles wet [green] sand. Then, with the food processor on, drizzle in your EVOO. Stop the food processor, scrape down the sides, and add your cheese. Pulse multiple times until the cheese is all incorporated. *You don’t want to add the cheese until the end, otherwise the heat from the friction in the food processor will melt it.
To assemble: into a pasta bowl, place your bed of rice — either cauliflower or wild rice. Then, into each of the four quadrants, add your turkey, beets and chopped romaine lettuce. Finally, add about 3 Tbsp of the pesto sauce to the top. Serve immediately. *Protip, this meal is best if mixed all together so you get a little bit of everything in each bite!
Oh my gosh, this might be my favorite meal of the moment! Not only because it is positively BURSTING with flavor, but also because it is so easy!
You see, all of these ingredients are things that I always have meal-prepped in my fridge at a given moment. I always make a big thing of rice at the beginning of the week. I will always have 1/2 lb of some sort of protein in the fridge, (I like to make a pound, use half for one dinner and half for another), and pesto! Pesto is also great to make a big batch of at the beginning of the week, and then use it for pastas, as spreads on sandwiches, over eggs — truly it is so versatile. And by adding that squeeze of lime, it preserves it (and keeps its green color) for several days!
Really, the only thing I have to make for this meal is a veggie — if we don’t have some already made from the night before, and the cauliflower rice…which takes all of five minutes.
And you can switch it up! We’ve made this with ground grass-fed beef & pesto with roasted brussels sprouts and red onion. We’ve make this with ground organic chicken & pesto with honey-roasted carrots.
I’ve also made this with salmon as the protein – which is wonderful because it’s flakey and really mixes in well with everything.
And I have visions of making it this week Mexican style with ground grass-fed beef, fajita peppers/veggies, salsa and guac!
Truly, the sky is the limit.
This is great to make before you go out of town and need to use up whatever’s in the fridge. It’s great to make for a healthy and delicious supper. This packs super well (just bring the lettuce in a separate ziplock baggie and add at the end).
Plus, I love that Steven and I can eat the same meal! Just with a slight rice variation!
But this particular iteration is my favorite with the turkey, the beets and the pesto (there’s something about pesto and beets that really pairs well together!)
So there you have it, sports fans! I hope this has inspired you for dinner this week! Have a wonderful evening, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow!
xox Caralyn