Bowls of Deliciousness

Book review by Kristina Sepetys

There’s something very satisfying about food in a bowl, whether it is a soup, stew, salad, grain mixture, or other dish. Maybe it’s that the contents of a bowl can be consumed as easily on a couch as at a table, or that a bowl is capable of holding a generous serving of food. Whatever the reason, a cookbook filled with dozens of bowl-ready recipes is a welcome addition to a home cook’s shelf.

Whole Bowls: Complete Gluten-Free and Vegetarian Meals to Power Your Day
By Allison Day
(Skyhorse Publishing, 2016)

Allison Day is a nutritionist, food writer, and creator of the award-winning whole food, vegetarian recipe blog yummybeet.com. Day’s recipes for meals in a bowl showcase her love of this cozy serving dish, staying true to her philosophy of eating with visually alluring, seasonal, delicious, whole foods. Along with more than 50 full-meal, vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free recipes (and dozens of mini recipes-within-recipes), the book offers an innovative, easy-to-follow formula for creating your own bowls that are properly balanced for nutrition, texture, and flavor. Chapters are organized by breakfasts (a particularly extensive chapter), salads, entrees, and desserts. Recipes for cooks of all abilities include dishes like Oat Risotto with Soft-boiled Eggs, Avocado, and Hazelnut Dukkah; Danish Grod with Cardamom Berries; Sweet Potato Breakfast with Gingerbread Pecan Crisp; Wine Country Salad with Wild Rice Grape Pilaf and Halloumi; Curried Falafel with Kale Salad; and Smoky Corn and Grilled Peach Salad with Black Beans and Cilantro Jalapeno Pesto. Using fresh ingredients, Allison offers straightforward creations that can be made ahead of time, whipped up quickly on a weeknight, or invented off-the-cuff.