Coconut Bowls Project - Part 1

Hello, my friends! Welcome to the first installment of my Coconut Bowls project!

For those of you who may not follow me on social media, let me catch you up a bit. This year I've decided to cook my way through the entirety of the Coconut Bowls cookbook, "Vegan Bowls for Vegan Souls". I decided to do this because it seemed like a fun way to try out a bunch of new recipes and step outside my comfort zone a little bit - and because I hope it shows my followers that vegan food can be fun and delicious! All of the recipes are plant based, and I'll be making approximately 2 recipes each week. Think of me as the plant based Julie and Julia.

I've been posting updates as I go on my instagram stories, but I wanted to also post installments on the blog as I go so that you can follow along in whatever way you wish! Today I'll be talking about the first 6 recipes of this journey.

You'll notice that I don't give the exact recipes in this post. That is simply because they are not mine to share. However, I will be sharing with you the general idea of what I'm making to hopefully inspire your own cooking, and I will be providing page numbers so that you can cook along with me if you have the book at home! If I make any adjustments of my own to the recipes as I go, I will be sure to document those here as well. I plan on sticking with the recipes as they are written for the most part, but you may seem some simple substitutions as I go to ensure that all of the recipes match my whole food plant based lifestyle well.

If you decide that you want the cookbook so that you can follow along, be sure to check out the Coconut Bowls website and use the coupon code joyfulbalance-10 to get 10% off your order! Each recipe in the book is created by a different recipe creator, so also be sure to follow them if anything catches your eye!

Now, onto the first 6 recipes!

Asian-Inspired Buddha Bowl

• Recipe # 1/100
• Recipe by @rainbownourishments
• Page 134

If you're a Buddha Bowl fan, this is a great option! It is relatively simple to make and is packed with nutritious ingredients. This bowl is essentially made up of some quinoa, tofu, veggie slaw, and a lemon sauce. The lemon sauce is where most of the flavor comes from, which means you could easily swap out the lemon sauce for another sauce if you wanted to switch it up!

The recipe did not specify how to cook the tofu, so I pan fried mine. I also watered down the lemon sauce just a bit because mine came out pretty thick. Other than those two adjustments, I followed it pretty closely! I doubled the measurements and ended up with about 4 bowls worth.

The Coolest Chilli "Buddha Bowl"

• Recipe # 2/00
• Recipe by @absofruitlymel
• Page 146

Not going to lie, I wasn't sure how I would feel about this one. The basic idea behind this one is that it's essentially a cold chili. You chop up a bunch of veggies, throw together a tomato-y sauce, and combine! The idea of a cold chili sounded really strange at first, but I actually REALLY liked it. It gave me those cozy chilli vibes, but with a summer-y twist. Proud of myself for trying this one because I don't think I would have thought to make something like this on my own! Will definitely make this again.

I followed this recipe exactly! The only difference is that I left the jalapeños off of mine because I'm a spice wimp. But my husband included the jalapeños on his and said it was delicious! This made about 5 bowls worth for us. Since this one uses so many fresh veggies, I suspect that the amount it makes probably varies greatly based on the size of your veggies.

Maple Coconut Soaked Oats

• Recipe # 3/100
• Recipe by @candicelynnfitvegan
• Page 40

This one was a pretty simple overnight oats situation. I haven't ever truly hopped aboard the overnight oats train, but this made me think that maybe I need to experiment with the concept more! The flavors were pretty light, which was nice because I could top it with whatever I wanted and change up the flavors that way.

I followed this one pretty closely. The recipe calls for any nut butter and I used peanut butter here. I actually think that using a hazelnut spread would be a really get substitute if you wanted to make it more decadent! This made about 3 bowls worth for me, but the recipe says it makes 1 bowl - so perhaps I eat small servings of oats compared to others!

Avocado Pesto Pasta

• Recipe # 4/100
• Recipe by @earthfawn
• Page 92

I've made a LOT of pestos in my time, and I'm not lying when I say that this is one of my favorites. I think it's the avocado that really puts it over the top for me. It adds a creaminess that is just SO good! This is also a GREAT recipe to try when you have random greens in your fridge that you need to use up, because you can use whatever greens you have on hand for this one! Obviously the taste will be different depending on what you use.

My fresh greens of choice were spinach and kale, my herb of choice was parsley, and my nuts of choice were cashews and pine nuts. I left out the vegan butter and I replaced the olive oil with water since I try to be oil free! This one made about 3 bowls for me.

Mexican Fiesta Bowl

• Recipe # 5/100
• Recipe by @fivesechealth
• Page 176

I always love Mexican-inspired dishes, so I knew this one would be a hit. This is basically a Buddha Bowl with a bean "chili", a salsa/guacamole mix, and some yummy roasted potatoes. I often like to make potato "nachos" where I pile Mexican-inspired ingredients onto French fries, and this reminded me of a new take on that! The potatoes and the salsa/guacamole mix were both AMAZING. I kept snacking on them as I cooked (whoops).  I really enjoyed the flavor of the bean "chili", but I would have liked it to be just a bit chunkier - so in the future I'll probably add more beans and less tomato sauce! But that's just a personal preference depending on what texture you're looking for. I also specifically bought Culina coconut yogurt to try as a topping on this one and I have to say, I'm hooked.

This one I pretty much followed exactly! The only small change I made was that I added a pinch or two of garlic salt and a little extra lime juice to my salsa mixture (because I like things limey and garlicy!) I doubled the chili and salsa for this one but quadrupled the potatoes - this landed me with about 4 bowls! (Can you tell I really like potatoes?)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Balls

• Recipe # 6/100
• Recipe by @mynuttydelights
• Page 198

Am I still allowed to call these "protein balls" if I omitted the protein powder? I'm going to say yes. They do include other protein-rich ingredients such as chia seeds, so it works out!

The name of this one is pretty self explanatory. To be honest, I haven't played around much with the energy-ball craze, but these were good! I loved having them as a healthy snack throughout my day.  My husband isn't a huge fan of chocolate so they were a bit rich for him, but they were perfect for this chocolate-loving girl.

I replaced the protein powder with an extra ½ Tablespoon of cacao powder, and I replaced the coconut oil with 2 teaspoons of water. I also rolled mine in coconut shreds. They came out great! Made 12 small balls for me.

Wrap Up

There you have it - installment number 1 for my Coconut Bowls project! I hope you continue to follow along this fun journey of mine, and that it inspires you to try some new things in your kitchen!

Don't forget to use the coupon code joyfulbalance-10 for 10% off your very own copy of the Coconut Bowls cookbook!

Stay well!

 

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