Whole Bowls: Complete Gluten-Free and Vegetarian Meals to Power Your Day

I have been collecting cookbooks for decades in search of my ideal book for everyday meals. I have what seem to have been impossibly high standards for recipes - fresh and healthy ingredients, affordable, and extremely flavorful. What I've found particularly in vegetarian-focused cookbooks are typically those that either utilize an inordinate amount of processed ingredients or depend on the always-bountiful produce available in the western and southern parts of the US. While I'm as much a fan of Alice Waters, Anna Thomas, etc. as the next person, I live in northern Minnesota where the growing season tends to be over mere moments after you've picked up your seeds or plants for the growing season. This means that for most of the year, our produce is shipped-in from distant farms and lacks the quality and flavor that can easily stand alone in dishes made by our Chez Panisse friends and other warmer climate restauranteurs and cookbook authors. I've been delighted to find that with every recipe I've tried so far, the outstanding flavor combinations, seasonings, and varied textures within each of the dishes Whole Bowls contains have been truly outstanding. Lovely photographs are plentiful which I find beneficial since I am feeding a family of mostly veggie-haters; because Allison is also a food stylist, I glean helpful and practical ideas about designing plates that look appealing. I've had no trouble finding ingredients in our limited natural foods store. Whether I'm using produce fresh from our lovely summer market where veggies and fruits come to sale straight from the farm that morning or purchasing the bleak mid-winter produce of our local co-op, all of Allison's recipes have resulted in fresh, tasty, healthy, visually beautiful, and satisfying meals. If you are looking for outstanding, easy, affordable and flavorful vegetarian meals and live in an area of the country with a limited growing season - or even if you live in a locale with a plethora of year-around fresh ingredients - this book is for you. After years of hoping for a tome of recipes I can enjoy daily and meals prepared with ease, I've finally found my favorite go-to cookbook. Thanks, Allison Day, and I hope you continue with future cookbook projects!

I love this cookbook, and have eaten my way through most of the book. I bought the book after it came as a good suggestion from a friend that also owned and loved the book. I highly suggest this book. The meals were easy to make and the ingredients were simple and easy to get. Each recipe is very flavorful, unique and nutrient dense. Making some of the recipes for the first time, I questioned some of the seasons and food pairings. I thought they were strange, only because many of them are not things I would necessarily put together on my own. BUT! I have been pleasantly surprised again and again, and have loved each one of her recipes. For 99% of all the recipes Allison Day (the author/chef of the cookbook) uses "normal" ingredients that are easy to get, but she still manages to create exotic and fulfilling meals! While the whole recipes are great, I personally love each one of the sauces or dressings that she created and many of them steal the show of the meal. The book also has lots of full page colored images of the food, and (easy) suggested plating techniques so that the food I made, often looks equally beautiful on my plate as it does in the pictures. As a vegetarian, I really appreciated that none of her recipes tried in any way to make tofu taste like beef or suggest that some vegetable will become just like meat. Each recipe celebrates whole foods, and supports the flavors of each of the food. I also appreciate that many of her recipes are nutrient dense, and I'm not hungry again 30 minutes later like I am with many other vegetarian and vegan cookbooks.

I honestly dont see how someone can give this a 1 star review. The Banquet Bowl with cauliflower hazelnut pilaf, dhal and raita is a fantastic recipe. She has what essentially is a coconut bechamel, that she refers to as a coconut gravy, and that recipe too is solid. Allison's recipes work, I've cooked 4-5 out of the book already and they all work. I use some of them as a starting reference point and embellish my own ideas into them to suit my palate and this is the point of the book. She uses contrast in her recipes with sharp pickles and fruits and adds crunch as well. Her recipes are well balanced and nutritious on top of being tasty. If you want to eat healthy and want a book to find inspiration in, then this book is for you.

I've had this book for two days and cooked two dinners from it, and both have been judged winners by the whole family - including my 9 year old son who can be hard to please when it comes to vegetarian recipes. The recipes are not difficult to follow and the flavors are outstanding. The first recipe I tried was the Three-Bean Garden Salad w/ Asparagus and Coconut Dressing. Simple and so good! I couldn't find wax beans, so I skipped them. I also forgot to add the peas, and no one thought any less of the dish. I used light coconut milk for the dressing, so it was thin, but very tasty. There was plenty of dressing left over - perfect to dress up a plate of steamed rice and vegetables the next day. The toasted hazelnuts also added a nice touch and crunch, and the extras were good on cereal the next morning. The second recipe I tried was the Spice route Bowls w/ Sweet Potato Coins, Millet Couscous, and Golden Curry Pecan Sauce. I was worried it wouldn't live up to the previous recipe, but...yum. Each component tasted great on its own, and the sauce pulled it all together and made it a pretty special dish for a weeknight dinner. If I were to change something about the book, it would be to provide some alternatives to the dairy in dishes that call for it - there is cheese in a number of dishes, and a few with cream. The recipes I've made have also called for more salt than I like, but I've just gone with my gut and used what felt right and it's worked great. I like the fact that there's not much call for obscure ingredients that require trips to specialty stores. The most exotic seem to be things like black rice and garbanzo flour, both of which were easily available at Whole Foods. It's unfortunate that there is no Look Inside for this book. Here are some of the recipes I'm looking forward to making: Black Rice Coconut Porridge w/ Toasted Coconut and Pineapple Brunch Bowls w/ Chickpea Turnip Hash, Asparagus, Eggs, and Homemade Ketchup Tunisian Parsley Salad w/ Kabocha Squash, Dukkah, and Spiced Yogurt Warm Lentil Salad w/ Roasted Peppers South of the Border Bowls w/ Walnut Meat and Grilled Avocado Tuscan Bean Stew Roasted Fennel and Pea Tri-Grain Penne w/ Hazelnuts Double Grain Wild Mushroom Risotto Carrot Cake w/Cream Cheese Dollop and Candied Carrots Mint Chocolate Stracciatella Gelato (my son's request) Coconut Dreamy Whip Would recommend this book to anyone who wants to eat tasty, healthy vegetarian meals at home and is willing to spend 45 - 60 minutes cooking.

I LOVE this cookbook. It meets all my criteria: simple ingredients common in my pantry, easy recipes, delicious food! Everything I have made in this is a win. The breakfast and dessert options aren't really my style, but the salad and meal bowls are excellent.

This is a fine book with lots of healthy recipes.

I don't think I've ever written a review online for anything, however this book is too good and world needs to know it! I have more cookbooks than necessary for any one human being, particularly of the plant-based variety., but have never felt satisfied with my collection. I realize now that I have Whole Bowls, my collection had been missing a book that was straightforward, beautiful, and most importantly, reliably delicious. This book is 100% all of those things. The flavor combinations are intriguing yet familiar. JUST ABOUT EVERY RECIPE HAS A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE ACCOMPANYING IT! I have also found that most recipes come together easily on a weeknight with ingredients I typically already have on hand or aresimple to substitute. A really great feature of Allison's book is that she notes how many days in advance the different components of her bowls can be made. This is helpful as I tend to pick a few recipes over the weekend to plan for the week. That way the occasional odd ingredient can make it onto my grocery list and I can easily plan advanced prep if necessary. When I ordered this book it was a last minute addition to a cart that contained two other popular vegan cookbooks I had been eyeing for awhile. I was skeptical about Whole Bowls since "grain and veggie bowls" are already my go-to for a sans-recipes, lazy weeknight. However, In the three weeks I've owned this book I have made thirteen recipes from it. and there isn't a single one I'm not excited to make in the near future. I would 100% recommend this book to anyone as a kitchen staple that's inspired, yet practical. It doesn't leave my recipe stand!

This is the first cookbook that I have cooked more then one or two recipes out of. My family is not vegetarian or vegan so I will add just a little meat on the side, at my husbands request. Things I like about this book: Instructions are clear and easy to follow. Has a make ahead section to every recipe. So if you have your week of meals are planned you can cook certain ingredients ahead of time. i.e. I'll roast my chickpeas all at once that we will be eating for the next few days. Beautiful pictures of almost every recipe. Easy to switch out different ingredient for foods that accommodate my families tastes. i.e. Spring Rice Bowls with Chive Oil, we don't like fava beans so I switched it out for colored string beans. I also roasted the chickpeas and vegetables together and sprinkled a little shredded Parmesan cheese for the last 5 minutes of roasting. The sauces are the right amount for all the food that is prepared. I don't have to worry about a lot being left over or going to waste. The sauces complete the meals. There have only been one or two that I haven't really enjoyed but they are easy to spice up or change. Such as the curry I prefer spicy curry and peanut sauce, so I spice those up to be more mild. Great way to introduce new foods to my family. My kids love the beans, rice and different greens. I love that each recipe is a complete meal. I don't have to try to think about what sides would go well together. Things I didn't like: Amount of time spent cooking. I am already use to spending about an hour a night cooking and was hoping these meals would shorten the time. It didn't unfortunately. But it has been worth the healthier variety of food we are eating. If you plan on using these recipes on a daily bases you do have to keep a lot of ingredients on hand. It did increase our food bill a bit. I defiantly would recommend this book to all my friends vegetarian or not.

Find it useful to have all of the meal in a bowl

Das Buch war ein Weihnachtsgeschenk und kam sehr gut an. Ich habe vor dem Einpacken selbst darin geblättert und war begeistert von den Rezepten sowie den tollen Bildern! Alle Rezepte sind glutenfrei und vegetarisch. Auch wenn man auf keine dieser Ernährungsalternativen angewiesen ist, tut man sich mit diesen Vitamin- und Nährstoffbomben sicher etwas Gutes! Außerdem bin ich mir sicher, dass man mit den tollen Bowls aus diesem Buch auch diejenigen begeistert, deren Fokus sonst nicht unbedingt auf gesundem Essen liegt. Ich liebe den "Bowl"-Trend, weil mir die Art und Weise, eine Mahlzeit in einer Schüssel anzurichten und sie gleichzeitig nicht nach Eintopf-Matsch aussehen zu lassen, gefällt. Tolle Fabrkontraste durch die Zutaten und ganz neue Geschmackserlebnisse machen diese Gerichte zu etwas Besonderem. Zwei kleine Haken haben die Rezepte allerdings: Nicht alle Zutaten sind leicht zu bekommen und die Zubereitungsdauer ist teilweise länger als 30 Minuten. Kein Haken, aber ein Hinweis: Das Buch ist in englischer Sprache. Obwohl ich schon hunderte Kochbücher habe, kommt dieses mit Sicherheit noch hinzu!

I am impressed with this book, gorgeous pictures and so very tasty recipes that actually can be replicated without having a chef background. I have sent pics of my meals to friends and family and got them drooling. There are ample breakfast, lunch, supper and dessert recipes along with glazes, sauces and instructional info on how to create whole bowls, different grains, roasting nuts, pressing tofu and so on. I have already started mixing and matching all to my delight, as Allison Day has gratefully included what can be made in advance and how long things can last. A super book and a must in your library if healthy, interesting and delicious eating is important to you.

Perfect book for simple healthy meals to add to your weekly repertoire. Enjoyed everything I have made so far. voila.

Good