Vegan Spring Grain Bowl
This spring grain bowl celebrates the best of early spring produce like asparagus, radishes, snap peas and watercress. Wholesome barley, crispy tofu cubes and a creamy avocado tahini dressing make this buddha bowl irresistible!
Equipment
- food processor or blender
- pressure cooker (optional)
Ingredients
- 1 cup pearl barley
- 1 block extra firm tofu
- 2 tbsp avocado oil
- 1 lb bunch of asparagus
- 1 avocado
- 2 cups sugar snap peas
- 1/2 hothouse cucumber
- 2 radishes
- 1 bunch of watercress greens
Instructions
Barley
- If you're using the stovetop method to cook your barley, rinse and drain your barley thoroughly. Add 1 cup of barley, 3 cups of water or vegetable stock, and a pinch of salt to a sauce pot.
- Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to low so that it comes to a simmer. Cover with a lid and simmer for 40-45 minutes or until the barley is chewy but not mushy. If you notice the water has evaporated from the pan before it's done cooking, add more water 1/2 cup at a time so the barley doesn't burn to the bottom of the pot.
- If you're using the pressure cooker method to cook your barley, rinse and drain your barley thoroughly. Add 1 cup of barley, 2.5 cups of water or vegetable stock, and a pinch of salt to the pressure cooker. Seal and cook on high pressure for 20 minutes. Once the pressure has built and it's cooked for 20 minutes, do a quick pressure release.
- For either the stove top method or pressure cooker method, once done cooking spread the barley onto a cookie sheet in a thin layer until it's cooled.
Grain Bowl
- For the tofu, remove from package and drain well. Sandwich the tofu block between thick layers of paper towels on the top and bottom of the tofu. Weigh the top of the tofu down with a heavy skillet and some cans in order to help squeeze out any excess water.
- Replace the paper towels after 15 minutes with fresh towels and squish for another 15 minutes. Then cut into 1/2" cubes.
- Heat a skillet to medium heat and add 2 tbsp of avocado oil or any high heat oil. Once hot, add your cubed tofu along wtih a pinch of salt and pepper. Turn occassionally, until golden brown on 2-3 sides, then remove from the heat and place cubes on a paper towel to soak up any excess oil.
- For your asparagus, you can either roast in a 400 degree oven for roughly 8 minute, saute in the same pan as the tofu until crisp tender, or my preferred method: blanched.
- To blanch your asparagus, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add your asparagus spears to the boiling water for 3-4 minutes (depending on the thickness of your spears). In the meantime, prep a bowl of ice water. Once the asparagus is slightly tender but still has some crunch, remove it from the boiling water and immediately plunge it in the ice bath for 5 minutes to keep it from cooking any further. Then drain well.
- To prep your remaining veggies, slice the radishes as thinly as possible. Slice or dice your cucumber and halve your snap peas if you prefer.
- To assemble your grain bowl, layer with your cooked barley, watercress, blanched asparagus, snap peas, radishes and cucumber and top with crispy cubed tofu. Drizzle with the sauce of your choice but I highly recommend my avocado tahini sauce that you can find linked in the notes below.
Notes
- You can swap out the barley for any grain of your liking such as quinoa, farro, brown rice or couscous to name a few.
- You can also bake your tofu in a 400 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, rotating occasionally, and roast the asparagus on the same pan for the remaining 8-10 minutes of cook time to cut down on doing dishes!
- I highly recommend a healthy drizzle of this avocado tahini sauce on top!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!