Dinner Bowl with Peanut Sauce
My favourite kind of dinner - clean, simple ingredients that you can play around with to fit your taste, and a sauce that isn’t going to make your meal less healthy!
The dinner template that will never get old.
Presenting a bunch of ingredients you love in the most appetising way, is just going to be a winner every time. This should be such an obvious recipe that we come back to all the time, but I find many of us forget about this simple option of putting together a “Buddha bowl” (usually describing a vegetarian version of this meal) or dinner bowl with a mix of cooked and raw ingredients. So as Alanis would say, I’m here to remind you. There are millions of possible combinations here, and I will list out some other ingredients at the end, but let me just share an example of my favourite dinner bowl - and the simplest, tastiest no-cook sauce ever.
Dinner bowl
For 2 people
2 chicken breasts
3/4 cup bulgur wheat
1/2 cucumber
1 avocado
1/2 mango
1 large or 2 small grated carrots
A handful of coriander
For the peanut sauce
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp honey
Optional: 1 tsp sriracha sauce for a kick!
1/4 cup (or a little bit more) of water
Instructions
Cook your chicken breasts on a piece of baking paper in the oven at about 170ºC in a fan assisted oven (190ºC for regular oven), just over 370ºF, until cooked through (about 15 minutes). Chicken is cooked when not pink inside, and inside temperature is over 74ºC.
At the same time, cook your bulgur wheat. If you are cooking it in an Instant Pot, check out my video on how to make perfect bulgur here. If you cook it in a pan, the process is very similar - add your 3/4 cup of rinsed bulgur in a pan with 1 1/2 cup of water (exactly twice the amount of bulgur), and if you wish, a tiny bit of stock for extra taste. Cook it gently on low heat, covered, for about 12 minutes and then let it rest, still covered.
While you are waiting for your bulgur wheat and chicken breasts, cut cucumber, avocado, mango into chunks, grate your carrot(s) and finely chop your coriander.
To make the sauce: In a bowl, combine the peanut butter, tahini, soy sauce and honey, mix them together with the water, a tiny bit at a time. Just slowly add more water - simply mix it with a fork or a small whisk. Don’t give up! It all looks a bit lumpy and weird at first, but with the perfect amount of water it suddenly becomes a smooth, lovely sauce.
When the bulgur is ready, divide it between two bowls. When the chicken breasts have rested for a little while, slice them up and place in the bowl. Then add the cucumber, carrot, avocado and mango. Sprinkle some coriander over the top and drizzle on the sauce. Ready to eat!
Other ingredient ideas:
Of course you can do pretty much whatever you want with these bowls. For the meat you can do salmon, tuna, beef chunks, turkey… You can also do tofu, which I often do with these - it’s delicious!
For the raw ingredients you can add whatever you want; apple, pineapple, sweetcorn, cabbage, red cabbage, lettuce, Chinese leaf lettuce, spinach, edamame beans, melon, broccoli, kale - honestly, anything you like!
You don’t have to use bulgur wheat, you can do white rice or brown rice, or couscous if you like. Or skip this part completely for a more low carb salad-type meal.
Over the top you can sprinkle sesame seeds, parsley, fresh or dried chilli, and also squeeze some lemon or lime for freshness.
Do you see what I mean by millions of possible combinations?!
I want to see how your dinner bowls turned out! Did you follow my favourite recipe, or do something completely different? Do you have a favourite dinner bowl? Share your result with me on Instagram and tag @TheFromScratchBody and hashtag #TheFromScratchBody so I don’t miss it!
