Vegan Italian Pesto Rainbow Bowl
ChampagneYogiOn Sunday we came home from our local farmers market with a massive bag full of fresh veggies, greens and herbs. We were fortunate enough to be given an extra large serving of basil from our favourite farmer as the market was close to closing. Serena knew exactly what she wanted to make with the basil and asked if we could make pesto. As I love love love vegan pesto on just about anything I naturally said yes.
To create this recipe I tossed all my favourite roasted veggies into one dish. Added a healthy scoop of vegan pesto, garbanzo beans, chopped tomatoes and a mixture of olives. Freshly picked spicy microgreens as a garnish provided a little extra kick.
This 30 minute bowl is full of plant based-protein. How you ask? The Veggies! Plants are nature’s source of vegan protein, plus a whole host of other essential goodies such as vitamins, minerals and fibre. For a little extra vegan protein I added a handful of sprouted garbanzo beans, but this could easily be swapped out or omitted.
Did you know?
- 1 cup of Kale has close to 3 grams of protein!
- 1 cup of broccoli has 2.6 grams of protein!
- 1 cup of zucchini has 1 gram of protein!
Did you know roasted veggies are much easier to digest than raw veggies? In my mid 30’s I ate mostly raw for 2 years, don’t get me wrong I felt amazing, but after a while my body told me it wanted cooked foods. When I was diagnosed with adrenal fatigue, SIBO and elevated cortisol levels, my doctor told me to go easy on my body, and to eat foods easier to process and digest. (I’ll share about my SIBO story in a later post).Now, I happily eat a combination of raw and cooked foods without any restriction and my body has thanked me.
I hope you all love this bowl as much as we do. It’s:
vegan, gluten free, full of protein
satisfying, flavourful, healthy
colourful and SO delicious!
Be sure to try one of my other rainbow bowls recipes:
Roasted Rainbow Bowl with Peso Cauli’ “Rice”
- 2 cups tightly packed variety of greens, roughly chopped (kale, chard, collard greens, spinach)
- 2 zucchini, slice 1/4" on the diagonal
- 2 bunches broccolini, roughly chopped
- 1 red bell pepper thickly chopped
- 1 yellow bell pepper thickly chopped
- 1 orange bell pepper thickly chopped
- 1 large heirloom tomato quartered, then halved again
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil optional
- 1 can garbanzo beans rinsed thoroughly
- pinch himalayan salt and black pepper to taste
- 2 cups tightly packed fresh basil
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/2 cup walnuts or sub with almonds or pine nuts
- 2 cloves of garlic peeled
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- handful microgreens
- mixed olives
- 1 tsp hemp seeds
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper
Split the veggies between the 2 trays, drizzle oil (if using) and sea salt. Toss to combine. Bake for 20 mins or lightly browned and tender.(cook longer if you prefer them heavily roasted) Flip the zucchini half way through cooking time.
Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a skillet, add the chopped greens and sauté until wilted; approx 2-3 mins
In a food processor pulse nuts and garlic into small crumb size pieces. Add the fresh basil and pulse a few more times, scrape down the sides with a spatula, then add nutritional yeast, salt and lemon juice. While the food processor is running, slowly add the olive oil. This will help the pesto to emulsify and keep the olive oil from separating. Occasionally stop to scrape down the sides of the food processor. Feel free to make it as chunky or smooth as you like.
To serve, add wilted greens to serving plates. Top with roasted veggies, a healthy scoop of pesto, garbanzo beans, fresh tomatoes and olives. Garnish with fresh lemon juice (optional), a tsp of hemp seeds (optional) and microgreens.
If you try this recipe, let me know. I’d love you to pin it on Pinterest or share it on Facebook. Post your re-creation on Instagram (tag me @achampagneyogi #achampagneyogi) I’d love to see your creations.
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XO