How to make healthy choices every day

The Winter Abundance Bowl

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Happy New Year, dear friends! As completely amazing as 2013 was, I am excited to start fresh and begin a new chapter. There sure is a lot in the works for the coming 12 months and I look forward to sharing it all with you!

But first off, let’s embrace the new year with something simple. Something delicious, yet realistic and achievable. So many of you have asked me if there is going to be another “action plan” or detox coming up this month to help purge the garbage we’ve undoubtedly filled ourselves with in December, and ring in the new year with a clean body and mind. I’ve also been asked countless times what my “go-to” meals are, and what I eat on a daily basis. Surely I’m not whipping up Butternut Squash Lasagna and Wild Mushroom Lentil Burgers every weeknight with a newborn baby, right? Right. I suppose I’ve just never blogged about my regular meals before because they really aren’t very “sexy”. They are real. And even though my simple dishes are a far cry from the fancy stuff I try to post here to entice the non-converted to plant-based foods, what the heck, I still think that they are special enough, and I am so grateful every time I sit down to eat. I call them, Abundance Bowls.

I can’t even remember the first time I made an Abundance Bowl, but it was many, many years ago for sure. When I discovered that you could cook almost an entire meal in one pot, I got very excited and began creating all kinds of seasonal combinations. It’s the kind of healthy, hearty dish that is just so do-able for every kind of person, especially those that are hungry and busy and still care about what they put in their mouths (isn’t that all of us?). Indeed. And even if you’ve never tackled a dish from My New Roots due to lack of kitchen confidence, I assure you, you can do this!

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And why are they called Abundance Bowls? Well, I guess because when I hold this meal in my hands I feel pretty darn lucky. Looking down at a bowl so colourful, tasty, full of appealing textures and overflowing with life, I wonder what more I could ask for? Abundance to me doesn’t mean extravagance – it simply means feeling thankful for all the things that I am fortunate enough to have. I hope when you tuck in to this meal you’ll feel the same way.

And in the spirit of making a fresh start, I am going to create and share an Abundance Bowl for every season this year, starting now. Each one will be simple to make, seasonally inspired, and feature a tasty addition that you can use in something beyond the bowl itself. For example, this Winter Abundance Bowl includes a luscious Garlic-Ginger Pumpkin Seed Sauce that can be used to dress all matter of tasty things, like salads, roast veggies, and cooked whole grains. It’s easy to blend up with very simple ingredients, yet elevates the rather basic quality of the meal into something special. Plus, is there anyone out there who doesn’t love drenching food in sauce?! Sheesh, call me if you find ‘em.

Like I said, the beauty of making this meal is its simplicity. Did you know that you could cook all these things in one single pot? It’s like a miracle. The rice and lentils are boiled together and right before they are done, you can toss in the veggies to steam on top. While all that is going on, whip up the sauce, then shred the cabbage and toss it in citrus, olive oil, and a little salt. This raw portion adds enzymes to the dish, which help with digestion, and gives the bowl a delicious crunch. If you’re not into cabbage, toss in some massaged kale or spinach.

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Here’s to a year of inspired health, playing in the kitchen, and total abundance. Thank you for the last 365 days of magic! Looking forward to another trip around the sun with you all.

With love and a full belly,
Sarah B.



265 thoughts on “The Winter Abundance Bowl”

  • Preparing for dinner last night ( with nothing organized ) I looked at the Winter Abundance Bowl recipe and realized that all the ingredients were at hand; except the sunflower seeds for the sauce. Looking online, cashews or almonds were offered as substitutes. Having 1/2 cup of cashews ( enough for 1/2 of the sauce recipe ) in the fridge I began to make dinner. Roasted cashews ( pre-soaked ) produced a sauce that was almost too good! Next time I will make the full quantity of the sauce to spark up other dishes. Thank you for the recipe.

  • Hi Sara,
    This is still one of my favourite go-to meals. I absolutely love the flavours and textures in this dish and the surprisingly creamy dressing with a touch of heat is incredibly satisfying on a chilly Edmonton night. Occasionally I mix it up with swapping out roasted broccoli for roasted chick peas or something else, but other than that I follow the recipe exactly as is! Thanks – your recipes and your blog truly changed my life and relationship with food a few years ago and I am grateful for it.

    A fellow Canadian,
    Heather 🙂

  • This was delicious! We made some alterations to our tastes as a family and it was absolutely wonderful and filling!

    I boiled the potatoes and broccoli, to make them nice and soft. I did not include lentils. We added stew meat for some extra protein. I used Rice Pilaf instead of brown rice. We added sesame oil and seeds, because we love sesame. I did not have access to pumpkin seeds, so I used walnuts instead and it was still so yummy.

    Overall, I will absolutely be making the winter abundance bowl again because I loved it!

  • I made this earlier in the week and can’t believe how flavorful the sauce is! Perfect meal and perfect message of gratitude for the abundance we have.

  • just want to say that i’ve made this yesterday (though i used walnut instead of pumpkin seeds) and my partner who is usually green vegetable-phobiac and first he was like…. “oh…. is it COOKED VEGETABLES for dinner?” but after, “it was awesome dinner, thanks!” so…. thank you 🙂 thumbs up. ps i love your blog. beautiful.

  • oh my beautiful mother earth!
    I just made this sauce on my search for an alternative to the usual tahini sauce I make for most warm dishes (baked sweet potatoes, bowls like this, you name it.) and I enjoyed it so much, I had to come back and leave you a little thank-you-for-everything note.
    I used coconut oil instead of olive oil and it gave the sauce a gorgeous hint of coconut that I enjoyed a lot. I had some roasted veggie leftovers, added a bunch of black beans and then the sauce on top. don’t even get me started on the colour! I will need to make more turquoise food from now on haha

    thank you so much! xxx

  • I have just made this for the second time and I must say it is now my go to dish when I feel like I need to take extra care of myself. Love love love it!!

  • This is definitely in the top-5 recipes I’ve made most often (When I searched I was surprised that I hadn’t left a comment already). But this one is special in that it has become a comfort food. As if that weren’t enough, I found out on a road trip in April that it’s a fantastic travel meal, too! So even in summer, even with the abnormal heat we’re experiencing in the Pacific NW (US), I’m making this to take as my meal on a trans-Atlantic flight. For this trip I’ll modify to 1. mix the broccoli raw with the cabbage and massage both, 2. omit sweet potatoes (I determined over a couple of previous occasions that I prefer roasting them separately), and 3. mix in approx half the dressing pre-packing, and carry 3oz. of dressing in my lovely little quart baggie — for the TSA’s fear that this dressing provides the ideal environment in which to hide explosives, omg, if only that were a hilarious joke. Wait, maybe it is.

    • woowie, give me a glass o’ vino and a keyboard and lookit me go! Sorry, only really wanted to say how much I love this recipe, haha. :o)

  • Hey, I just wanted to say that I tried the sauce and it’s so amazingly delicious! I didn’t have most of the ingredients for the whole bowl, but we ate a very tasty salad yesterday with the sauce! <3

  • Hi there, I just wanted to let you know that I made this dish recently and LOVED it. It was the perfect way to recover from lots of rich holiday foods, and was SO delicious! Thanks for sharing a lovely recipe. 🙂

  • Unbelievably delicious! Made this tonight for my family of five and everyone raved about it, from the 6 year old all the way to the husband. Did not have broccoli so I subbed roasted asparagus. Yum!

  • PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, keep blogging your “… not very ‘sexy’ …” abundance bowls. I cannot get enough of them. To me they are soul food, temple food. These excite me so much and I feel good just looking at the pictures. They may be everyday, ‘regular’ food, but this is the food we should eat every day to bring peace to our bodies and minds. I love these bowls, they are manna.

  • Sarah, I made this again last night for my family (my two toddlers LOVE it), and I’m joyfully eating it today for lunch. The cabbage is especially bright today–yum.
    You go, mama!

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  • We made this a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it. I roasted the sweet potato and broccoli because I prefer them roasted to steamed and don’t care about whether it’s a one-pot meal. The lentils and rice cooked together were amazing! So much greater than the sum of their parts. The dish as a whole was satisfying and beautiful.

    I wasn’t a fan of how sweet the sauce was, though. If I make the sauce again, I will omit or severely decrease the sweetness.

  • Please please please keep posting the über simple recipes!!! I almost cry when I read your blog. The food looks amazing and the few recipes I have tried were great and I would adore to cook like this all the time but my noodle and sausage family would revolt! Simple options are so accessible and make it possible to try and slowly convert the under-6 crowd plus the hubs.

  • My timing really stinks! I started to cook the lentils and rice, and then I made the sauce before cubing the sweet potatoes and chopping the broccoli. This was a mistake. I ended up burning the bottom portion of the rice and lentils, because I forced them to cook longer than they needed to in order to accommodate the sweet potatoes and broccoli which were somewhat undercooked in the end. My kids were not impressed with my, “I’m trying a new recipe tonight” attempt. The sauce was great! I will try it again, but this time I will get the order right. 🙁

  • Oh, my goodness! The sauce is amazing. I use it as a spread on my toast. In fact, I’m gonna get one of those right now…

    • Oh, and it’s a WONDERFUL breastfeeding fuel for my four-month-old (and for me not to run out of the goodies for myself).

  • I usually don’t leave comments but I had to after making this dish. So simple, but so crazy delicious! It was so satisfying and the dressing was unbelievably tasty. To echo other commenters, make the full batch – it will not go to waste.

  • This is SO wonderful! Thank you! I’ve make it twice in the last week. I used rainbow carrots instead if the sweet potato. Ignore the part about making half the sauce….its so good, there’s no way it won’t get used up in time 😉

  • I am currently out of town on vacation with my family. Ater a week of eating out 2-3 times a day I felt disgusting. Today I decided to cook instead of going out and this dish was a godsend! So easy to make in the tiny kitchenette at our hotel, and with limited kitchen supplies. It was incredibly delicious and I feel so much better about the food I consumed today than what I’d previously been eating on this trip. Thank you! I can’t wait to make this, and versions of it again and again!

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  • I have never left a comment on a blog before, but I was inspired to try the abundance bowl, and I just felt that I had to share how great it was. I have packed it as a work lunch three times now and am amazed every time how delicious, fulfilling and beautiful it is. Thank you so much for this recipe it has really changed the way I look at my lunch box.

  • I made this last night for dinner for my husband and I and we loved it! It was super-fast to cook and very satisfying. I made a number of changes based on what I had in my pantry and from my CSA farmshare.

    For the sauce, I used sunflower seed butter instead of the toasted pumpkin seeds. For my veggies, I used raw green cabbage, and cooked purple carrots, kabocha squash, and beets.

    The sauce was very flavorful, but didn’t overpower the yumminess of the veggies. The crunch from the cabbage was really nice.

    Thanks for a great post!

  • This dish looks amazing! Any advice on how I might tweak the sauce to work without garlic? I’m severely allergic to it 🙁

  • I have made this a couple of times now and plan to make it again tonight. It feeds my cravings for healthy, simple food like nothing else does! I sincerely hope you post more ideas for Abundance Bowls. The name alone makes me happy. Thank you for this!

  • I loved this! Super yummy, filling…and it general, it just made me happy.
    I seriously CANNOT WAIT for you to post another Abundance Bowl.

  • I made this today and it was wonderful! So glad I made enough for a few days to prepare for the latest swing of the polar vortex! This warms my belly.

  • OMG! Its +40C in Western Australia and this post has me drooling. Abundance Bowl! I wish it was winter now. In my opinion this bowl is full of so much goodness that it does my spirit a kindness just looking at it. Feel totally free to post as many abundance bowls as you like in my opinion! And no matter what the weather I think I may have it this week anyway, even if it is not seasonal for me. xxx

  • Yum! This looks simple and delicious; I will have to give it a try.

    I happened upon your site, and everything looks amazing! As a vegetarian, I’m drooling over your dishes 🙂 One of my goals this year is to cook more, and I will definitely be bookmarking your site to try out some of your recipes!

  • I made this last week and its on the menu again tonight! I cooked the rice and lentils in my rice cooker, subbed butternut squash for the sweet potato and roasted it and the broccoli. The sauce- I didn’t change a darn thing. The flavor is AMAZING. This made great leftovers for lunch then next day too!

  • I was wondering if you have a substitute suggestion for the green lentils? I don’t currently have any in my pantry, and wondered what you thought might work instead but still have the same health/taste benefits? thanks!

  • My fiancé and I made this last night & it was awesome! The different textures and tastes paired so well together. Thanks!

  • I absolutely loved this dish, the flavours & goodness of it made me feel great. I’ve been struggling with adrenal fatigue & managing my diet to help me get well. This recipe is certainly on my list of things that make me healthier, but also make me happier!

  • We had a build-your-own-bowl dinner last night with some friends and I made this sauce. Everyone adored it and asked for the recipe. It’s really outstanding. I had some leftover with pasta and roasted vegetables today and it was great on that too. Yum.

  • I made this for dinner last night. I LOVED it. The flavor of the sauce was over the top. I can pour that over anything. Another fabulous recipe. Thank you so much.

  • you are amazing! thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and passion!! can’t wait to try this abundance bowl! thank you again!

  • I whipped this up yesterday using just brown rice (no lentils on hand but I bought some today – that’s how excited I am about these) with sweet potato, green beans and green cabbage. That sauce is amazing! This is going to be a staple for sure and I look forward to finding new combos and sauces. It reminds me of my favorite lunch/breakfast item I used to whip up at a deli I worked at: quinoa, shredded carrots & beets, chopped spinach, tahini dressing, seedy herb blend &a a fried egg -and soooo

  • Sarah, I just made this tonight for myself and my husband after Jessica at howsweeteats.com linked this recipe in one of her posts. I will now be following your blog and whipping up an abundance bowl at every opportunity. Both my husband and I enjoyed the simplicity, but we were GAGA over the sauce! I thought I had pumpkin seeds at home, but it turned out I was wrong, so I subbed in almonds and it was delicious. Thank you for the wonderful recipe and the beautiful post.

  • Wow, Sarah, this was really phenomenal! It seems like such an easy idea, but the combination of flavors is brilliant! The lemony cabbage and the incredible pumpkin seed sauce absolutely take the flavors in the dish to a whole new level. Thanks!

  • Thank you so much for this delicious, nutritious, and EASY meal. It left me feeling very grateful and my belly very full. I made this last night and ABSOLUTELY loved it! As did my husband and 9 month old son 🙂 I am wondering if I did something wrong with the sauce though. The taste was fantastic but the texture was a bit off. The pumpkin seeds left a funny texture that I am not sure is how it is supposed to be. I used a Cuisinart food processor. Any advice on how to make the sauce smoother? Any advice is greatly appreciated. ~blessings

  • I stumbled across your blog earlier this week and have been scouring all of your recipes. I made a bowl tonight with similiar ingredients, but I had to use almonds since I didn’t have pumpkin seeds. Turned out great!

  • I found your blog through my CSA’s post on FB. I’m working on my own blog to keep my recipes in one place and love your idea of an abundance bowl. Thank you!

  • Your abundance bowl post coincided with my first visit to your site. I’m hooked! As someone living in the southern hemisphere, some of those veggies aren’t in season at the moment, so I look forward to new abundance bowl recipes as the seasons change. In the meantime, you’ve inspired me to experiment with what IS in season down under.

  • I love this! My go-to version is barley, black beans, sweet potato and kale with cumin. This one is definitely on my list to try, though. (Also, I bet you started making these in college. Goodness knows I did. I can’t even count the number of times I looked at the depressing dinner offerings in the caf and decided to grab some veggies from the salad bar, go back to my dorm, and make my own.)

  • Dear Sarah,

    My little four year old boy has been fussy with food since I weaned him. I’m talking tantrums every-single-dinner time, since he was 6months old sort of fussy.
    Tonight I cooked this meal and was able to give little Elliot his without the yummy sauce. Were there tears? Yes, from both of us! Eventually he ate something other than plain pasta – he ate two new things tonight: sweet potato and brown rice.
    The elation is unreal!

    Thank you for helping me to help my child be nourished wth good honest food that I can cook in one pot!

    Thank you again and again! I will be buying your book!!

    With warmest wishes,
    Georgina

  • Just made this tonight and I couldn’t believe how good it was! (considering how easy it was to make). Thanks for another great recipe; more abundance bowls please… this is how I like to cook!

  • OK, I am seriously in love with your blog!!! I am SO happy I found you. It’s exactly what I was looking for and I love the Abundance Bowl. On my to cook this week – list.

  • Can I just say MAGNIFICENT….I loved this meal I couldn’t wait to see if I would have leftovers, of course I did which made the next days lunch MAGNIFICENT lol………

  • Just made it for lunch and it was delicious!! (Like always…. truly!)
    For the kids, I left the pumpkin sauce out and gave them natural yogurt instead. Loved it!
    a heartful Thanks!, dear Sarah
    Iren

  • We loved having this for dinner at our house tonight. So so yums! Red cabbage is not ready at the farm where I shop so I added beets to some green cabbage just because I really wanted that color on the plate. Avocados are in season where I live so I threw a half of one into the sauce and Oh doggy it was good!

  • I made this tonight to bring for lunches this week at work. I had a couple tastes and it was amazing! Such a quick, healthy meal. This will be great in the evenings after a long day as well, when cooking doesn’t seem so appealing! Thank you so much for sharing.

  • Dear Sarah,
    I love the name, I love the pictures and I’m sure I’m going to love eating one of these “Abundance Bowls”. It looks so “wholesome” and comforting!
    I don’t normally use sauce on my food but I’ll definitely try this one today.
    Thank you.

  • I had to chuckle when I saw this. We make our own version of abundance bowls pretty often, with different grains, legumes, root veggies, often something fermented, usually some kind of home canned fish or homemade sausage with it too. We drizzle everything with vinegar, olive oil and seasonings. I never thought about making an actual sauce; Next time I will!

  • Sarah – this is on the stove now and I know it is going to be delicious. Thank you! One quick question – how big should the bite size sweet potato chunks be? The cooking method didn’t exactly work for me (had to remove rice and keep cooking / steaming sweet potatoes as they weren’t even close to being done). I imagine I cut them too big, but was wondering if you have any advice on this!

    Thank you! Love this type of meal!

  • I have to thank you for this recipe. Absolutely wonderful – particularly the sauce. I’ve eaten it for the past two evenings and will happily have it again this evening. And this is the first time I’ve succeeded in cooking perfect rice by the absorption method – must be the soaking that helps. Looking forward to your book!

  • I feel a bit dense, but when you say pumpkin seeds, do you mean the shelled pepitas or shell-on seeds? I’m excited to try it!

    • I am wondering the same thing! I bought them in the shell but not sure if I need to remove that outer part or not.

      • Ok so I just made the sauce and used pumpkin seeds still in the shell. I ran them through my magic bullet blender. The sauce tastes AMAZING!! My husband is drooling over it. I found I needed a bit more than 1 cup of water though. Next time I make it I will use unshelled pumpkin seeds. There is a bit of a texture to the sauce from the shells and Id prefer if it was a bit smoother. Great recipe though I will be making the abundance bowls for our dinner tomorrow and the sauce will be perfect for them.

  • Wow. Merci! This sauce is so delicious; no way it’s going to last five days in my house! Lovely idea to make everything in one pot. Being the mom of a busy ten month old I appreciate the straight to the point approach to this meal: Fabulous, Healthy and Easy Meal. Cheers to that! The potatoes took longer then expected to steam; but it must be that I didn’t chop them small enough or maybe the burner was on too low. Anyhow, it turned out yummy anyways.

  • I made this the other day & I loved it, especially the dressing. It is going to be one of my staples, I think. I will be sharing it too.

  • Thanks for this yummy recipe. Thanks also for a sauce that doesn’t use cashews….I mean, I love them, but am so happy to mix it up! The pumpkin seed sauce has made our usual nightly meal of roasted veggies and grain even more satisfying. Yay for you!!

  • Happy New Year, Sarah!

    The timing of this recipe (if I can call it that – it is more of a all-purpose formula) couldn’t be better. I find that I have no problem doing creative and elaborate things in the kitchen on weekends or my days off, but I still feel pretty stumped when it comes to making a fast and delicious weekday meal after work. I made this Monday and used very lemony brussel sprouts instead of red cabbage and it was perfect. I mean that sauce is as miraculous as this bowl is abundant. Thank you.

  • I made this for my family this week and everyone loved it! We live in Buffalo, NY and have been snowed in with a major blizzard, so everyone was happy to have this healthy bowl of deliciousness while trapped inside – thank you for posting! This is definitely going to be a regular in our house.

  • This sauce is a life-saver. I had it with some roasted vegetables and it is delicious!! Really easy and all ingredients I have at home.
    Thank you for sharing this!

  • Thank you for the recipe. This meal is absolutely delicious! The sauce is super tasty and the contrast of the crunchy lemon cabbage with the soft rice and lentils is fantastic. I made this for a house full of our extended family, including lots of kids and dedicated meat eaters and everyone loved it! Yum!! Thanks again 🙂

  • This is the first recipe I’ve made from your site – and it is lovely lovely lovely! Made exactly as written (swapped cayenne for paprika though) for tomorrow’s lunch for hubs and I – and am now sitting down having a bowl. The sauce is fantastic! I will be spinning this 101 ways in the upcoming weeks I am sure – but that sauce (and this dish) is forever in my life.

  • This is such a great idea, my boyfriend and I loved it! You were right about the sauce too, it’s been so useful and I’ve used it on heaps of dishes this week. I would love to know some more of your recipes for easy, healthy sauces. It’s such a quick and easy way to add flavour to meals. 😀
    I’m am also Australian and it is summer here right now. I know you probably won’t post your summer bowl until it’s winter here, but I was wondering if you had any seasonal veggies you would suggest for a summer-y version? Thanks so much for all your wonderful work! x

  • The pumpkin sauce is the bomb! Love it! We had it tonight with butternut squash backed in the oven with a little olive oil instead of sweet potato. Awesome!

  • this is pretty much what I eat on a daily basis, swapping brown rice for quinoa or buckwheat pasta and changing veggies everyday. I was lacking ideas for the sauce I usually stick to miso paste + lemon + olive oil or soya sauce and ginger. I am definitely going to try this one. It sounds very interesting and lovely.
    I think your Abundance bowl looks like a Korean bibimpap rice…it is all about comfort, proper nourishment and simplicity!
    Happy New Year!
    I would love you to post about your favourite places to eat in Copenhagen. My husband, our daughter and I are coming to visit at the end of February and would love to have some recommendations! Thank you.

  • you must of read my mind lady. i’ve been living on a variation of your beautiful creation. i call them “soul bowls” nourishing on all types of levels. thank you for sharing your enchanting spirit and art with the world. you are raising the level of awareness bringing more abundance and happiness with every post. much love to you!

  • I just spent the last hour making this bowl of goodies and the most excellent sauce! I have had to stop myself from eating the entire bowl of sauce I made…..it’s delicious alone and I know I will put it on everything until I run out and need to make another batch. Your recipes are super and they work, and that’s something rare in the blog/recipe world, thank you!!

  • I made this last night for my husband, sister, and I. We all loved it. I’m not going to lie, I detest rice and I was even thinking about leaving it out…but I didn’t, loved it and I brought it for lunch. Thank you for sharing and happy cooking.

  • I was so excited to try this recipe but was so disappointed by the outcome. Maybe just not my cup of tea:(

  • This looks delicious! I love your idea of steaming the vegetables on top of the rice & lentils; I never thought of doing that. Looking forward to hearing about your other Abundance Bowls! Happy New Year to you & your family!

  • Happy New Year and Congrats on the new baby! I am a mama to a six month old and, as I am sure you have already figured out, this is an INCREDIBLE ride!
    I was introduced to your blog from some friends less than a year ago and have been busily using many of your recipes. I appreciate your clarity, humor, nutritional information, and creativity. Thank you.
    I look forward to making this recipe in the near future…I make bowls similar to this, but never in ONE POT. This will be so helpful! The dressing also sounds divine and very versatile. I’m happy to see your seasonal take and am eager to see what you come up with throughout the year.
    Thank you!

  • Dear Sarah,

    I love this hearty winter dinner! Do you realize that lots of the new healthy foods and cooking techniques are very traditional middle eastern? For instance, the date and nuts being served together (as the crust of some of your recipes) is a traditional Iranian snack/dessert (the walnut is stuffed into the date, and then sprinkled with coconut).

    In this case, the lentils and rice in Iran is called adas polo (in the Arab culture its called mujaddara). Most people would soak the rice over the night, and any other bean that was being cooked. Of course, the fancy way to prepare it is with fried onions, raisons, and garnished with saffron, but I love the simpler, healther, more fiber-rich foods you pared here. And the sauce looks ah-mazing!!

    I really enjoy your creativity and enthusiasm and humility, thanks for sharing a bit of yourself with us through this great blog!

    I lo

  • I just finished making this and had to tell you how much I loved it! I used bok choi instead of broccoli and red sauerkraut for the cabbage because that’s what I had. After the non-stop gorging of the past 6 weeks, this absolutely hit the spot. Thanks for sharing something so simple!

  • Thank u for posting this!!!! Being a wife ,mother of three and being on a budget all these ingredients don’t only look delicious but are very reasonable in price! I love it thank u can’t wait to try it…

  • Delicious! Made this for dinner tonight and everyone loved it. The sauce is so tasty and the lemon cabbage is a wonderful crunchy contrast to the rice and lentils. So easy and super healthy. Thanks for the recipe! 🙂

  • This is such a beautiful and wholesome recipe 🙂 The perfect thing for a winter’s night (or any night for that matter). And as always, your photos are lovely, thank you for sharing – Niki x

  • What a great recipe! I concocted this tonight and it was met with rave reviews. Let’s just say the rest of our weekend had been a bit too “over abundant” so this was exactly the clean, delicious fuel we needed. The sauce was creamy and unique; quite popular, so I had to make a second batch! I loved the crunch of the raw cabbage, it really added the perfect textural contrast to what might have otherwise been a soft dish. I thought it might be too simple and lacking flavor but the gorgeous pictures enticed me to sample this abundantly healthy dish. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Hearty and full of flavor, supremely satisfying. It made this along with the Egg and Veggie Tower of Power. Nothing felt lacking. Thank you for your fantastic blog!

  • I just finished making this and I can’t begin to tell you how amazing it tastes!!! I used sunflower seeds (because I didn’t have pumpkin) and added some asparagus. It was one of the best things I’ve made in a while. Great recipe!!!

  • My roommate and I made this for dinner today and it was DELICIOUS! Seriously.. Best food I’ve had this week and I love that it’s so healthy as well.

  • This looks fantastic! A similar recipe adds saurkraut and roasted tamari almonds. This is ideal for winter.

  • How can it be that ANY recipe of yours that I made was ecstaticly, insanely delicious? 🙂 This dinner I just made – thanks to you – blew my mind again. The dressing is to die for, I’m STUPID for making a half portion only. But I’ll do it again and again and again, this is soooo good! Thank you so much!

  • Just made the pumpkin seed sauce – it’s scrumptious and looking forward to pouring this loveliness on my rice and veggies tonight! Thank for you for coming up with such flavourful recipes.

  • I love this! But it is summer here – do you have any suggestions for a seasonal abundance bowl for here in Australia? I don’t want to have to wait six months!! Can’t wait to try it. Delicious.

    • Hi Emma!
      You’ll have to wait until summer here to see. But just use the rice + lentil combo plus any veggies that are ins season now…isn’t that pretty much everything?! 🙂
      Good luck with it and enjoy.
      Sarah B

  • Here’s to love and full bellies! Just one question – I’ve read lots of things about pulses/legumes and how often we should eat them/whether we should combine them with carbohydrates like rice and potatoes. Would you say there is any limit to how often you can eat these each week?

    • Hi there – I have pretty much based my diet on combining grains and legumes for 15 years now. I eat them every day 🙂 I guess there are differing opinions out there but I’ve done a lot of research and all of it supports this kind of diet!

  • I love making bowls like this! I use “leftovers” in my fridge like roasted squash and brown rice and then steam some spinach or kale for my greens. I usually make a tahini dressing with some greek yogurt but I’m really interested to try the pumpkin seed sauce you have here! I always add some crumbled nori over top to finish it off. They make a great lunch.

    If you’ve ever been to Fresh in Toronto, they have delicious veggie bowls there too. I don’t live downtown, so I will often take a peak at their menu online to try and create my own at home 🙂 hehe

    Thanks for the constant recipe and healthy living inspiration. Happy new year!

  • I just made the sauce, and I give it 5 stars. I used a mini Cuisinart to chop and grind, then finished it in my NutriBullet which made it so smooth and silky. I might have gone heavy handed with the ginger as we like it a lot, and the garlic cloves were on the large side. We had warm brown rice just made anyway, some fresh kale and carrot strips, so I improvised a bowl quickly in order to try this new yummy sauce. I tossed some cashews on top- and cilantro leaves. Both of us love the sauce, and tomorrow we will try the other part of the recipe as you wrote it with sweet potato and broccoli. I can see where this sauce will be used on a lot of things in the weekly mix. Don’t be afraid to go heavy with the cayenne, the sauce can stand up to the extra spice, and we think the extra zip made it even better.

  • Delicious! I made this tonight in -30 weather in Edmonton, Alberta. Thank you so much for sharing and helping warm us up with abundance:).

  • Just finished eating this for the first time and it was beyond delish! So. Good. My husband, my MIL and I all licked our plates clean. Oh, and that sauce! Yum! This has become an instant favorite and will be made over and over throughout the winter. Already looking forward to the Spring Abundance bowl. Thank you for sharing this recipe.

  • Seriously this is the best sauce ever! I mean it-like everyone should stop what they are doing and make it. Now. Thanks so much!!!! The extra special bonus is the iron from the pumpkin seeds-I needed to up my iron intake and this is the MOST delicious way!!!

  • Happy New Year! We made this for lunch today – and “that green sauce is awesome” (per my five-year-old dude). So nourishing and so delish… just what we needed on a stormy, cold, Ontario winter afternoon : )

  • This looks incredible! Thank you so much for sharing your “everyday” meal with us. I love the idea of a whole balanced dish that cooks in one pot. I will definitely be trying this out!

  • I made it for dinner tonight and it was perfect – filling, super tasty, and incredibly nourishing. Thank you for this recipe!

  • I absolutely loved this recipe – I’ve been trying a few of your recipes since I discovered cooking for myself and every single one has been cooked a million times by now. The sauce for this one is divine, I couldn’t imagine what it would taste like from the recipe, but the flavours are beautiful and the meal was very fulfilling and satisfying, exactly what you promised 🙂

  • Question – why soak the lentils and/or rice? Neither need soaking for fast cooking. I would almost imagine the lentils would get too mushy with soaking.

  • Perfect! I made this yesterday and just had the leftovers for breakfast today. Simple, wonderful combination and I love that it’s seasonally inspired. Can’t wait to see what the other seasons bring!

  • We just had this for our Saturday lunch and it is absolutely amazing!! And specially sauce , I think I could eat it with everything. Thank you for recipe!!

  • Sarah – I have been making a double batch of this beautiful dressing to top salads, quinoa, sprouted grains, etc. It would be delicious on the abundance bowl (my almost-3-year-old and 10 month old eat it up, too!):
    1/4 cup Tahini
    2 garlic cloves
    1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons if you use a juicer)
    1/4 cup Nutritional yeast or a bit more, to taste (I always use a bit more)
    2-4 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil (first-pressed, cold-pressed – or alternatively flax oil), to taste
    1 tsp pink Himalayan salt
    3 tbsp water (I drizzle this into the food processor at the end an usually use all 3 tbsp so it isn’t too thick)

    – In a food processor, add all ingredients and process until smooth. Makes about 1 cup.

  • Good Morning Sarah,

    thank you for sharing this simple meal. I made a winter abundance bowl last night for dinner with onions, carrots and kale. When I made the garlic and ginger sauce, I didn’t read the recipe properly, so I used sunflower seeds instead of pumpkin seeds – it was also very yummy! I never made a dressing like this for a hot meal before so thanks for the inspiration.

    Best wishes from Germany
    Claudia

  • How lovely to hear from you Sarah,
    keeping it simple has always been my moto (most of the the time!) and its great to encourage others that good food ican be simple, achievable And tasty.Thanks for the
    inspiration .Hope you’re enjoying snuggling up with your little chicken.
    Sincerely jules

  • This is the kind of dish that reminds me of my student days – yummy, cheap and easy! But that garlic sauce! What a winner! I love your ideas and your recipes…the best thing that has happened to my family this year was finding your blog. Happy New Year! Xx

  • I made this last night after I saw this post and I’m so glad that you decided to post your everyday meals. It was absolutely delicious, and the only change I had to make was not toasting or soaking the pumpkin seeds before making the dressing (due to time). It still came out beautifully. Congrats on the new addition and thank you for always, always inspiring us to get back into the kitchen and try something new.

  • This looks so yummy!! I can’t wait to try it out! I love seeing your every day meals – looks just as incredible as everything else here!

    Best wishes to you and your beautiful family in this new year!

  • I often make a big batch of some sort of brown rice/legume/veggie combination and freeze it in individual containers so that I have a whole week’s worth of lunches for my husband & I to take to work. I’ll have to try adding some raw cabbage and this sauce. I love things that instantly take a meal from standard to amazing!

  • Bowls like this are a staple in my house as well. In the winter, I love being able to roast some root veggies, cook up some quinoa, brown rice, faro or other ancient grain, adding some beans or lentils and keeping it in the fridge all week. It makes staying healthy and satisfied easy with such a busy schedule! Thanks for sharing your Abundance Bowl – I will definitely be trying this one out 🙂
    http://onthesideblog.com

  • Is it my imagination or are all the comments from ladies? Great stuff here guys, come en get it!

  • Just a quick question if you have a moment….are red lentils just as healthy as green lentils? They taster better to me for some reason, but want the healthier option =))

    • Hi Imen – green lentils have more fiber than red ones because they are un-hulled, but the protein and fiber should be about the same! Red lentils fall apart when cooking, so I use them in soups and stews instead of salads and dishes like this one here. Hope that helps!

  • Hi Sarah, this looks wonderful! I’m wondering if you typically leave the skin on when you chop your sweet potato? Thanks and look forward to trying this!

    • If the sweet potato is organic than definitely leave the skin on. It’s where all the good stuff is!!

  • oh, how i LOVE the layered cooking, here! i often eat all these, together. but cooked together? no! YES!!

    and the sauce is, well, frosting on the abundance.

    happy day!

    and a very happy new year, you new family of three 🙂

    xo,
    molly

  • Your Abundance Bowl looks like a winner to me loaded with healthy benefits to start a brand new year! Thank you Sarah for this bright meal and including the raw version for the Garlic-Ginger Pumpkin Seed Sauce, I cannot wait to try it! Happy Healthy Prosperous 2014 to you & your little family!!! love & light

  • Happy New Year Sarah B.! I hope you had an amazing first holiday season with baby.
    The abundance bowl is beautiful. I eat something similar to this nearly every day. I call it a Buddha bowl (saw it on a restaurant menu), and add a healthy serving of kimchi. I know what you mean about feeling lucky for the abundance, the colors, the flavors and the life within that bowl. That’s what makes them so appealing and comforting to me. Oh, and of course I love how easy they are to make. Sarah B., I cannot wait to try your sauce in my lunch bowl tomorrow. You never fail to inspire : ) xoxo

  • LOVE this! I’m a busy mother of two and I’m always looking for quick healthy recipes. Thanks so much can’t wait to try this!

  • This is a wonderful idea, and I especially look forward to seeing your seasonal variations. I really enjoy spending a lot of time in the kitchen occasionally, but on a day to day basis I’m all about the one pot meals.
    Thanks for sharing!

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  • I absolutely love that this is called an “Abundance Bowl.” Healthy and beautiful. What more could you ask for? Love your word choice 🙂 Great way to channel that positive energy!

  • awesome ,can’t wait to try this. this would make a great cookbook topic. congrats on your new baby!!!!

  • Your Winter Abundance Bowl looks beautiful and colorful, perfect to face the stormy grey weather raging outside. Plus, I’m a huge fan of the one-pot-meals (there’s little left to wash afterwards!!!!) so I’m following you on this. Plus, I would love to see more of your daily meals, after all, time is consuming and most of us do not have enough hours on our days for fancy meals. Normal everyday meals sound just right for me!
    Merry 2014 Sarah, in perfect health, with peace, harmony and happiness 🙂

  • This is totally my style as well. I love making elaborate dishes but by dinner I usually just cook whatever grain I have on hand and through it in a bowl with whatever veggies I have. Can’t wait to try this sauce though! Happy New Year!

  • Thank you for posting this. I am a fan of your page, nut yes I get stuck trying to work out what to eat when I am tired and hungry and want a quick meal. Will be reverting to this for sure.

  • So wonderful that I feel as if I know you just through your posts and following you for a while now. This bowl looks deliciously beautiful. It inspires me. Looking forward to trying this combination of bowl goodness and to try my own. No more “pile a salad with all the veggies left in your fridge” lunch & dinners!

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