These Nourish Bowls are the best I’ve ever had! With hearty roasted veggies and chickpeas, vibrant greens, and the best hot honey mustard sauce — you’ll be in heaven!
You may be wondering what a Nourish Bowl is, and I’m here to break that down for you. But first, let me tell you, this is one of my all-time favorite vegetarian recipes I’ve shared over the years. It’s a feel-good, fresh, vibrant, and ridiculously tasty bowl of food that happens to also be nutritious and nourishing. And truthfully, this sauce is so good, I’m about convinced I could drink it plain, ha!
What Are Nourish Bowls?
A Nourish Bowl is a well-balanced or healthy meal that has a good portion of nutrient-dense vegetables (or fruits) and is typically topped with a dressing of sorts.
Are Nourish Bowls Good For You?
Nourish bowl recipes contain a well-balanced combination of the three macros our bodies need — carbohydrates, protein, and fat. When these three macros are combined using nutrient-dense ingredients, it helps to keep your body satiated for longer. These nutrient-packed bowls are intended to fuel your body while improving your overall health.
These bowls make for a great lunch, dinner, or make-ahead meal (perfect meal prep!) Meal prepping is a great way to ensure you’re adding plenty of healthful ingredients to your diet — since it’s already prepared, it takes the guesswork out of meals when nights get crazy and busy!
How To Make A Nourish Bowl
This sweet potato Nourish Bowl has three components. Let’s break down each below:
- Bowl base: For these bowls, we like to start with a combination of baby spinach and quinoa. We like to cut the spinach into thin ribbons (so good!) and then toss it with cooked quinoa. To keep things super quick and easy, we use already cooked quinoa — more on this in the “shortcuts” section below!
- Roasted vegetables: Next up are the veggies and chickpeas. The combination of sweet potato, chickpeas, and green beans is unbeatable! Feel free to swap out your favorite veggies or change out the beans.
- Sauce: To finish things off, we drizzle the most unforgettable hot honey mustard sauce on top. It’s quick and easy to make and packs a serious punch of flavor. Since developing this sauce recipe, I keep it constantly in my fridge!
Shortcuts
Nourish Bowl Ideas For Quicker Prep
- Microwaveable Packaged Quinoa. Microwaveable quinoa is already cooked and just needs to be heated in the microwave. Alternatively, use leftover cooked and cooled quinoa instead of the microwaveable type in this recipe.
- Measure out honey quicker (and cleaner). Quickly spritz the measuring spoons with nonstick cooking spray and then add in the honey; watch it glide out of the measuring spoon into your dressing!
- Pick packaged green beans. In the produce section of most grocery stores, you can find green beans that have already been washed and trimmed saving you prep time.
- Use packaged baby spinach. Already washed and dried spinach is also a time saver — all you’ll need to do is a quick chop!
Nourish Bowl Dressing
I can’t say enough good things about this hot honey mustard — it’s totally crave-worthy! If you love a good honey mustard dressing, you will love this sauce! A few dressing notes:
- Make sure to use Dijon mustard, not yellow. There’s a big flavor difference. We love Grey Poupon® best.
- The red pepper flakes are responsible for the “hot” in hot honey mustard. I wouldn’t say the sauce is too spicy but does have a bit of a kick. The honey nicely balances the spice, but if you’re worried about it, start with less (you can always add more!).
- Blend the sauce to get a nice emulsion. We like this sauce best when it’s processed in a blender. A small blender jar or food processor will do the trick!
Variations
Variations
- To make this Nourish Bowl Vegan, replace the honey with agave nectar.
- Add in some grilled chicken or leftover rotisserie chicken.
- Swap chickpeas for cannellini beans.
- Switch out green beans for broccoli.
- Not a fan of honey mustard? Try this Balsamic Vinaigrette, Lemon Vinaigrette, or this Citrus Vinaigrette.
- A few more Nourish Bowl Recipes: Kidney Bean Bowls, Black Bean Bowls, Pesto Vegetable Bowls
Nourish Bowls FAQs
What is the difference between a Buddha bowl and a Nourish Bowl?
The two are pretty similar. Buddha bowls usually have a more ‘artful’ arrangement of ingredients. Check out my favorite Buddha bowl recipe!
What is a Wellness Bowl?
A wellness bowl is another name for a nourish bowl. These bowls are packed with grains and nutritious vegetables, intended to fuel your body and improve your overall health.
Quick Tip
Top Recipe Tip: use a LARGE sheet pan. The more space the vegetables have (aka the less crowded they are) the better and the quicker they roast. When vegetables are overlapping or crowded onto a sheet pan, they end up steaming instead of roasting. This greatly affects the end taste/texture. We use this 15×21-inch sheet pan and I can’t recommend it enough. You’ll get perfectly caramelized and tasty roasted veggies every time!
More Vegetarian Meals
- Vegetarian Thai Green Curry with butternut squash
- Vegetarian Split Pea Soup Recipe with loads of veggies
- Corn Pasta with a “secretly” healthy cream sauce
- Vegetarian Chili Mac made in one pot!
- Vegetarian Gyros with crispy chickpeas!
Nourish Bowls
Ingredients
- 1-1/4 teaspoon each: paprika, onion powder, garlic powder
- 1-3/4 teaspoon chili powder
- Fine sea salt & pepper
- 1 large sweet potato, peeled & chopped (~3 cups; 345g)
- 12 oz. green beans, trimmed & halved (~3 cups)
- 1 can (14.5 oz.) chickpeas, rinsed & drained
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, separated
- For serving: baby spinach, 1 large ripe avocado, 1 (8 oz.) packet quinoa, fresh basil Note 1
Hot Honey Mustard Sauce
- 2 tablespoons each: Dijon mustard, honey
- 1/4 cup olive or vegetable oil
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon each: water, apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- PREP: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Set out a very large pan (I use a 15×21-inch pan) or use 2 smaller sheet pans (Note 2). Prepare the seasoning mix by combining the paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, salt, and pepper in a small bowl and stirring together. (I add 3/4 tsp fine sea salt and 1/4 tsp pepper, but add to your preference.) Set aside.
- VEGGIE PREP: Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into chunks. (I cut the sweet potato into discs and then each disc into 1-inch pieces.) Trim green beans and cut in half. Rinse and drain chickpeas and thoroughly dry (I like to dry in a salad spinner).
- FIRST VEGGIE ROAST: Place the prepared sweet potatoes on the sheet pan. Add two tablespoons olive oil (25g) and half of the seasoning mix (just eyeball it) on top. Toss to evenly coat all the potatoes, space out the potatoes so they aren't overlapping (the more room they have, the better they will roast) and bake for 15 minutes in preheated oven.
- SECOND VEGGIE ROAST: Remove from the oven and flip/stir all the sweet potatoes around and move to one side of the tray. On the other side of the tray, add the chickpeas, green beans, and remaining 2 tablespoons (25g) oil and remaining seasoning. Toss together and space everything out to have plenty of room to roast. Return to the oven and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until vegetables are crisp-tender. Remove from the oven and toss everything once more. Taste and add more salt if needed.
- SAUCE: Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Add everything to a small blender, season to taste with salt and pepper (I add 1/2 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper) and blend until smooth. (Make sure the honey doesn't pool at the bottom; stir and re-blend if needed). Transfer to a mason jar and place in the fridge while waiting on veggies.
- ASSEMBLY: Thinly slice (ribbon) the baby spinach and add to four bowls (add as much/little spinach as you'd like). Microwave quinoa according to package directions and divide it equally among the bowls. Drizzle in a touch of dressing into each bowl and give it a quick toss. Divide roasted veggies equally among the 4 bowls. Thinly slice or chop the avocado and add in equal parts to each bowl. Ribbon the fresh basil and add on top (to taste). Drizzle the sauce over each bowl (as much or as little as you'd like -- there will likely be extras!) Enjoy!
Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Chelsea, I’m looking for healthy recipes’ for my mom but she can’t have spicy food. Can you recommend an alternative to your hot honey mustard? I’d be ever so grateful.
Christine
Hey Christine! I recommend the dijonnaise in this recipe: https://www.chelseasmessyapron.com/sausage-potatoes-cabbage/. Hope this helps! Thanks for your comment!
Made this for dinner last night! It was a hit and sooo good! The honey mustard dressing was amazing. I didn’t have a can of chick peas so I used black eyed peas and they worked great. It was nice to have a meatless dinner that completely filled us up. Thank you for this recipe!!
Yum!! So glad you enjoyed! Thanks! 🙂
99% of the time when I make recipes I find through online food blogs I don’t comment or engage with the blog/author about it. This time, however, I did want to leave a comment just to say that this is literally one of the MOST BOMB RECIPES I have made in a LONG time. This is new favorite of mine. So thanks.
I am so thrilled to hear this! Thank you so much Ryan! 🙂
Chelsea thank you again!! Really though. I have been trying to cut so much meat out of our diet. I just feel guilty every time i see the chicken trucks heading to the processing plant every day. Makes me cry. My husband hates this idea and wants meat all the time but he actually liked this meal and I loved it. So happy to be finding good meals without meat and no pasta. You are a gift!
PS for whatever reason i didnt have honey so i subbed with 100% natural maple syrup and was still great!
You are so kind! I am so thrilled to hear how much you enjoyed these Nourish Bowls! We are always trying to have more meatless meals and this one is a fave! Thanks! 🙂