Vegan lunch bowl

Vegan lunch bowl

vegan lunch bowl portion

As we are in the middle of another heatwave and I am not coping very well, I’ve decided to take it easy until it cools down (apparently next week). Therefore today’s recipe is very easy to throw together. It’s an idea for a simple vegan lunch bowl, the variation of which we tend to eat a lot, in the summer months.

It features beautifully sweet cherry tomatoes that we can’t get enough of, cooling cucumber, crunchy Romaine lettuce and a creamy avocado. Alongside these, I usually place some spiced chickpeas and cooked quinoa (another mild tasting non-grain or actual grain will work well too).

To top it all off, I lavish the bowl with finely chopped capers for saltiness, quick-pickled red onions for sourness and a simple lemon and chilli dressing for a bit of spice. And that’s it.

What I like about this kind of lunch is that you can prepare a big batch of spiced chickpea, quinoa and quick-pickled onions at the beginning of the week and simply dip into this reserve whenever you need to make lunch in a hurry.

The quantities for these three items I have given you below should cover 6 portions easily so that with a little bit of prep and forward planning you can have a few days of hassle-free healthy meals that actually taste good.

vegan lunch bowl close up

vegan lunch bowl side

serves
2-3
PREP
30 min
COOKING
30 min
serves
2-3
PREPARATION
30 min
COOKING
30 min
INGREDIENTS
SPICED CHICKPEAS

  • 4 cups cooked chickpeas (about 2 cups dry)
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 heaped tsp smoked paprika
  • ½ tsp hot chilli powder
  • ½ tsp salt, more to taste

BOWLS

  • 10 large Romaine lettuce leaves, chopped
  • 1 Lebanese cucumber, sliced thinly
  • 16 cherry tomatoes, quartered
  • ½ small avocado, peeled and diced
  • ¼ cup capers, chopped very finely
  • ½ cup spiced chickpeas
  • ½ cup cooked quinoa
  • a few strands of quick pickled onions, chopped very finely
  • black pepper, to taste

QUICK PICKLED ONIONS

  • 2 red onions, sliced very thinly
  • ½ cup / 120 ml apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • ½ cup / 120 ml water
  • ½ tsp salt

DRESSING

  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • ½-1 tsp sambal oelek (Indonesian chilli paste)

METHOD
SPICED CHICKPEAS

  1. Place chickpeas in a colander for at least 15 minutes to drain them well. If you have time leave your chickpeas on the sieve for a few hours so that they dry out a bit, you could also towel them with a paper towel if you wish. You may want to save the canning or cooking liquid (if you cooked them yourself) for another use like this cracking chocolate mousse, for example. If you cooked the chickpeas yourself, let them cool down completely before pan roasting them.
  2. Mix all the spices and salt together in a tiny bowl. If you haven’t salted your chickpeas during cooking, use 1 tsp of salt. If you have or you are using tinned chickpeas, go easy on the salt (start off with ½ tsp and adjust to taste afterwards).
  3. Heat up a heavy-bottomed pan on a medium-high heat. Pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil on the hot pan and wait a few seconds for the oil to heat up – it will start rippling gently but don’t get it so hot that it will start to smoke!
  4. Chuck dry chickpeas into the hot oil – they should sizzle as soon as they hit the pan. Let them roast lightly, stirring them regularly so that they don’t burn. Once the chickpeas are lightly roasted and charred in places, sprinkle them with spice and salt mixture and mix everything well until all the chickpeas are evenly coated in spices. Take the pan off the heat and let the spices finish roasting in the pan’s residual heat, moving the chickpeas around the pan. Taste and adjust with salt if necessary. Set aside.

QUICK PICKLED ONIONS

  1. Prepare quick-pickled onion by bringing vinegar, sugar, salt and ½ cup / 120 ml water to the boil.
  2. Place sliced onions in a sterilised jar. Pour hot pickling liquid over the onions. Let the mixture cool first and put aside in the fridge. Although you can start using the onions after about 1 hour, their flavour will benefit from being stored in the fridge overnight.

QUINOA

  1. Rinse the quinoa very well. I tend to cook 2 cups of dry quinoa at once.
  2. Place the quinoa in a pot with a 1:1½ quinoa to water ratio (2 cups of quinoa to 3 cups of water). Cover the pot and set the hob to a low heat. Let the water come to the boil and simmer until all the water has been absorbed (check by tilting the pot slightly seeing if any water flows from underneath the quinoa). Once all the water has been absorbed, switch the heat off and keep the quinoa covered for another 5 minutes so that it finishes off cooking in its own steam.
  3. Once cool, store in an airtight container in the fridge.

ASSEMBLY

  1. Prepare the dressing by whisking olive oil, lemon juice and sambal oelek together. Refrain from using salt as the chances are that the chopped capers will add a sufficient amount of salt to the dish.
  2. Divide all the salad ingredients, quinoa and roasted chickpeas between two bowls. Drizzle with the dressing and season with a touch of black pepper. Top with finely chopped capers and pickled onions.
SHARE
NUTRITIONAL INFO
calories
360
18%
sugars
12 g
14%
fats
24 g
34%
saturates
3 g
16%
proteins
7 g
14%
carbs
31 g
12%
*per serving
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5.0
3 reviews, 9 comments
REVIEWS & QUESTIONS
Akira:
Lovely recipe! Unfortunately, I am allergic to chickpeas. Are they any good substitutes I can use? Also, can I add soy rice?
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi,
    Sorry to hear, how about using a different kind of beans (haricot/small navy bean for example) prepared in the same way. Not sure what you mean by soy rice (rice seasoned with soy sauce?), but it's your lunch so use whatever makes you excited about the meal! x Ania
Davinia:
Thanks so much! Turns out I had a Thai, garlic, chili sauce that I used. This recipe was delicious! It will definitely be one of our lunch/dinner staples. Thank you for sharing. 😁
    Ania
    Ania:
    Great to hear that you enjoyed it, Davinia!
Davinia:
Hi Ania, I don’t have any sambal oelek. Is there something I can substitute for it? Or do you have another dressing recipe that I could use? Starting prep now. Will see if hubby can pick up some on the way home. Just want an option in case he can’t find any. ☺️
    Ania
    Ania:
    Hi,
    You can use another spicy sauce/condiment instead (harissa paste works well, for example), be sure to adjust the amount to your taste as it will vary depending on how strong is the condiment you are using. Hope that helps! Ania
Natascha:
Thank you for this really nice recipe! The roasted chickpeas are so great, never tried this before. Also the simple but delicious dressing for the salad and the added capers. So many simple things but altogether it tastes fantastic! Will definitely make it again.
I wanted to take a picture but it smelled so good and I was so hungry that I started eating immediately. ; )
    Ania
    Ania:
    Aw, thanks so much for kind words, Natascha! I'm really pleased to hear you liked it so much! Ania
Karly:
This is perfection! Light, but still gives you enough energy to make it through the rest of the day. Need to try this soon!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks so much, Karly! Hope you'll like it. x Ania
Nora:
Recently, I've often been making a variation of this for take-away lunch. I cook some potatoes and layer them in a jar with whatever salad-y things I have around. Sometimes just lettuce (for a very bare-bones lunch), but sometimes also tomates, chickpeas, grated carrots or some kind of leftovers. When potatoes are cut in pieces, they cook very fast (about 10 minutes). So it's quite a simple and easy lunch to prepare. The layering in a jar first resulted out of necessity as I didnt have any plastic Tupperware around. But I love the look of the layers in a jar! Looks very fancy, if you ask me :)
Enjoy your lunch and all the best for coping with the heat (I'm not good at that :) )!
    Ania
    Ania:
    Thanks for sharing, Nora! I've never made salad in a jar but they always looks stunning! Thank you, I cannot wait for a bit of a cooler patch ;) Ania
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