Macro Bowls
The macro bowls featured in Joe Yonan's Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking - nutty brown rice, a rainbow of vegetables, and a miso-tahini dressing you'll want to put on everything.
If you want to know what is on delicious repeat over here, this is it. I’ve been making the macro bowls featured in Joe Yonan’s encyclopedic Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking. In the book he shares Diana Yen’s Steamed Veggie Macro Bowls - nutty brown rice topped with a rainbow of steamed veggies, drizzled with an incredible, creamy miso-tahini sauce. Diana does a five-spice tempeh component and finishes the bowls with furikake. I do tofu and finish with whatever sprinkle is at hand. Double, or triple the dressing, you’re set for life, or at least the rest of the week.
Macro Bowls: The Inspiration
Mastering The Art of Plant-Based Cooking is a 484 page beast of a book. Joe Yonan has authored a wonderfully comprehensive (globally inspired) cookbook and included an all-star list of contributors. If you’re the kind of person who owns just a dozen cookbooks and are plant-curious related to cooking, this book should be one of them. I've spent a lot of time with it in the past few months and kept finding my way back to the Macro Bowls. No stranger to macro bowls, these are special! I really love Diana’s tahini-miso finishing sauce here. So simple, so good! The five spice wink added to the protein component - genius.
What is a macro bowl?
Macro bowls are the ultimate feel-good food. They check the boxes next to important macronutrients like carbs, fat, fiber, and protein in a single bowl. They’re also endlessly adaptable, making them a great go-to all year.
Details: Brown Rice
The foundation of these macro bowls is good, well-cooked brown rice. I like the boil and drain method of cooking the recipe guides you through. It works brilliantly every time. So, if cooking rice makes you nervous, give it a try. For these bowls, a few of my favorite brown rices are: Koda Farms Organic Whole Grain Brown Kokuho Rose, Lundberg Organic Short Grain Brown Rice, and Massa Organics Medium-Grain Brown Rice.
Macro Bowls: Variations
Use what’s in season - I used in-season vegetables from the farmers’ market for the bowls you see pictured here - broccoli, delicata squash, and yellow beans. For reference, it’s December here in California. Other bowls recently have included cauliflower florets, small cabbage wedges, beets, and ribbons of carrot. When we make our way into spring, asparagus, fava beans, will be in the mix. And you can expand beyond steaming as a cooking method if you like. During colder winter months I sometimes integrate roasted ingredients (375°F tossed with a bit of olive oil), or do a combination of roasted and steamed. For this bowl I had roasted delicata on hand.
The Recipe:
The recipe below reflects all the tweaks and personal preferences I’ve come to make. I always make double dressing, sometimes more. This makes for easy leftover meals and drizzles. I also tend to use tofu and do a quick pan-fry to get it golden and hot while my steamer is heating up, and sprinkle the tofu generously with five spice when done cooking - this is the one I tend to keep on hand. And, per my comments above, I grab for whatever veggies I have on hand, a rotating cast. The nature of macro bowls is flexibility, so have fun with them.
More Rice Recipes
- Green Rice
- Citrus Rice
- Kale Rice Bowl
- Sesame Coconut Rice
- Sushi Bowl
- Vegetarian Paella
- Rice Salad
- all rice recipes
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Macro Bowls
I like to use short brown rice for these bowls, but if you have medium or long grain rice by all means use it. To make this recipe gluten-free use tamari (not soy suace), all traditional tamari is GF.
- 1 1/2 cups brown rice, rinsed
- 12 ounces extra firm tofu, sliced 1/4-inch thick
- Bit of oil
- Five spice powder
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) well-stirred tahini
- 2 tablespoons white miso
- 4 medium garlic cloves, grated
- 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce or tamari
- 2 teaspoons agave or maple syrup
- 1/2 head of broccoli, cut into 1-inch florets
- 1/2 kabocha, red kuri, or delicata squash, stemmed, seeded, cut into 1/4-inch slices or wedges
- Yellow beans or green beans, trimmed
- Salt, to taste
- For serving: toasted sesame seeds, furikake, or shichimi-togarashi and fermented vegetables like sauerkraut or kimchi
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Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add the rice to the boiling water, reduce the heat to a simmer, partially cover, and cook until the rice is tender, about 30 minutes. Drain off the remaining water and return the rice to the pot. Cover tightly and let the rice sit for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving.
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In a bowl or jar whisk together the tahini, miso, garlic, ginger, lemon juice, soy sauce, syrup. Whisk in warm water 2 tablespoons at a time until the dressing is thick but able to be drizzled. Set aside.
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Heat a splash of oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the tofu in a single layer until the bottoms are golden. I tend to cook just one side. Remove from the pan, transfer to a plate, and season with salt and a generous sprinkling of five spice. Set aside.
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In a large pot fitted with a steamer basket or insert, bring 1-inch of water to a boil. Arrange the vegetables in the basket. Cover and steam until the vegetables are tender but with some bite remaining, this typically takes just a few minutes. If you are using thinner or smaller vegetables, add them to the steamer a couple minutes after the more substantial vegetables go in.
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Divide the rice among serving bowls. Top each bowl with vegetables, tofu, and a generous drizzle of the sauce. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds, and add a bit of kimchi (or other fermented vegetables). Enjoy warm.
Serves 4.
Adapted from Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking by Joe Yonan (Ten Speed Press, 2024)
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