Well, I couldn’t resist trying to recreate The Whole Bowl. I had all the ingredients, so I made it for lunch today (though slightly adapted). It was quite good, but I think I might reduce the mustard in the Tali sauce in future. First, you arrange the following in a bowl (I just spread the rice on the bottom and then arranged the rest of the ingredients in segments on top of the rice):

1/2 c brown basmati rice

1/4 c sliced black olives

1/4 c black beans

a couple of big TBs salsa (recipe below)

1/4 avocado

1/4 c shredded cheddar

1/4 c lowfat plain yogurt or sour cream

a couple of big TBs of Tali sauce (recipe below).

Here’s the vegetarian (with dairy) version:

And here’s the vegan (no dairy) version that I ate:

The Tali sauce is less a of a sauce and more of a spread or dip–like hummus or tahini. The recipe from The Whole Bowl restaurant is apparently top secret, but the blog I linked to yesterday offers a version of it, as does LIVESTRONG:

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup almonds
• 3 lemons, juiced
• 6 clove garlic
• 1 cup chickpeas
• 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• 1/2 cup water

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Add additional spices, 1 tsp each (tumeric, curry powder, chili powder, cayenne, onion powder). Blend again until smooth. Keep refrigerated.

The only thing I changed was the 1/4 c olive oil, which seemed to add rather a lot of fat. In its place, I used 1/4 c vegannaise (I know, I know).

Now, the One-Minute Salsa is truly amazing: you won’t believe something that takes a minute can taste this good–so fresh! My sister has been making this for years. The original recipe is from Cooks Illustrated, but she just uses canned tomatoes, so I did too…which makes it even quicker. The original recipe calls for one jalapeno pepper, but I use a serrano pepper because it’s got a bit more of a bite to it:

Slice a serrano pepper in half and remove the seeds and centre; slice into strips and chop into little bits and place into food processor. Roughly chop 1/4 of a red onion and two TBs of fresh cilantro and place in food processor; add the juice of 1/2 a lime, 1/2 tsp salt and a pinch of pepper and pulse chop five times. Drain a 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes and add to the mixture. Pulse a few times until mixed, but not too smooth. So simple, but it tastes great!

For a mid-afternoon snack, I made a couple of bowls of this rather amazing Blueberry-Banana Ice Cream (adapted from an E2L recipe):

Blend in a high-powered blender, add banana, frozen blueberries, dates, almond milk and ice cubes. Blend using the until the mixture becomes somewhat creamy but still firm. Scoop out and top with Walnuts or Pecans. It’s delicious enough to serve to company. Oh, and I have no idea what “medjool” dates are, so I just used dates.

For dinner, I made my own version of Tita’s Cena Mexicana–it was very good, but I had to use white basmati rice for the Mexican rice recipe because I’d never made it before, and I suspect brown rice would have changed it considerably. I put a bit of cheese on J’s (because he loves his cheese):

Mine’s the same, but without cheese: refried black beans, salsa, guacamole, Mexican rice, and black olives. It’s really just another version of “the bowl”: a bean, a green, a grain, and a sauce. I was hoping that we had some Coronas or Dos Equis to go with our feast, but alas, we had to make do with a couple of bottles of Stella…though we did drink it with lime, so it seemed like Mexican beer.

Here’s my easy-peasy guacamole recipe:

2 ripe avocados mashed with a potato masher

1/4 c lemon or lime juice

1/2 an onion finely chopped

1/2 c salsa

salt to taste.

Mush it altogether and you’re good to go. It’s very good considering how easy it is to make!

And my bean are starting to sprout! I can hardly wait to try them: