Rainbow Bowls with Green Tahini Dressing

These delicious bowls are brimming with so much goodness they'll make you feel amazing. But it’s the dressing that will capture your heart! Full of herbs and flavour, you’ll be drizzling it over everything.
Prep Time 15 minutes
These delicious rainbow bowls are brimming with goodness, but it’s the dressing that will capture your heart! Full of herbs, flavour, and oh so rich and creamy, you’ll be drizzling it over everything. Vegan, dairy, egg and gluten free.
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These colourful yet simple rainbow bowls are the perfect thing to eat when you’re feeling like you’ve overindulged a little over the weekend. Perhaps it was a few too many cupcakes, chippies, or cookies at that birthday party, or maybe just a few extra drinks on Friday night. Either way, fuelling your cells with a tonne of vegetable goodness is guaranteed to make you feel energised and alive again in no time.

These delicious rainbow bowls are brimming with goodness, but it’s the dressing that will capture your heart! Full of herbs, flavour, and oh so rich and creamy, you’ll be drizzling it over everything. Vegan, dairy, egg and gluten free.

The key to making a simple salad taste good is the dressing! This dressing is my favourite yet – if you love tahini, you will adore this refreshing, herbaceous, greens-filled creation. This recipe makes extras which you’ll be rather glad for, as it tastes amazing drizzled over anything from salads to roast vegetablesfritters, or as a dip for carrots, cucumbers, or corn chips.

These delicious rainbow bowls are brimming with goodness, but it’s the dressing that will capture your heart! Full of herbs, flavour, and oh so rich and creamy, you’ll be drizzling it over everything. Vegan, dairy, egg and gluten free.

Yes these light and luscious Rainbow Bowls with Green Tahini Dressing are…

  • Great for mid-week lunches,
  • Take only 15 minutes to make,
  • The perfect thing to cure a hangover or overindulgent few days,
  • Can be fleshed out to a more filling meal by simply adding half a cup of cooked quinoa or brown rice, and
  • Are covered in the most amazing antioxidant, iron and calcium rich dressing.

Book in a trip this weekend to your local farmers market (you may well spot Tony, Mila and I at the Grey Lynn markets), fill your fridge with a colourful rainbow of fresh vege, and get yourself a’ rainbow-bowl-making. Tell me what you think of the dressing too – I am in love! Read more below and try the recipe…

These delicious rainbow bowls are brimming with goodness, but it’s the dressing that will capture your heart! Full of herbs, flavour, and oh so rich and creamy, you’ll be drizzling it over everything. Vegan, dairy, egg and gluten free.

10 Top Things about Tahini
Tahini, or sesame seed butter, is one of my favourite ingredients to stock in your plant-based whole foods pantry. Here are just a few reasons why…

  1. It’s relatively affordable (I use this one from our store here as it tastes great, is organic, and is the best value for money of the ones you can find),
  2. It’s a great way to incorporate the goodness of more seeds in your diet,
  3. It’s packed full of calcium (for more information on my favourite calcium containing foods, read my Top 75 Sources of Calcium post here),
  4. It’s super high in protein at 18%, only just below animal protein sources (such as chicken, beef and fish) at ~20%,
  5. It’s a great source of iron with 15mg per 100g – five times that found in red meat at 2.9mg per 100g,
  6. It’s a wonderful place to get your magnesium, with a quarter cup (or 4 tablespoons) containing 30% of our daily requirements (126mg),
  7. The sesame seeds are ground, meaning you’re able to absorb a lot more of the nutrients (including that valuable calcium, iron, and magnesium) than from whole sesame seeds (which we don’t always chew that well),
  8. It’s nutty and creamy, adding a delicious creamy element to your sauces and dressings,
  9. It lends itself beautifully to sweet dishes, but is also fabulous in savoury as well, and
  10. It’s a nice alternative to cashews (and dairy) for creating that creaminess and richness we all love in food.

To read more about the benefits of sesame seeds, check out my Almond, Coconut and Sesame Milk post here. Meanwhile, let’s get onto this recipe!

These delicious rainbow bowls are brimming with goodness, but it’s the dressing that will capture your heart! Full of herbs, flavour, and oh so rich and creamy, you’ll be drizzling it over everything. Vegan, dairy, egg and gluten free.

In this dressing, not only do we have our lovely tahini, but I’ve also packed it full of herbs for flavour and goodness as well. Did you know herbs are one of the highest sources of antioxidants and iron around? Plus they add incredible flavour to your dishes. Here I’ve used a combination of parsley, chives and basil (as that’s what we had in our garden), but feel free to use whatever soft herbs you have available. Coriander would also work well, as would dill, spring onion, or the soft furry tops of a fennel bulb. You could also add a few tablespoons of harder herbs to the blend if you like – rosemary, thyme, or oregano would all add a earthier more wintery feel to this dish.

The dressing also firms up a lot in the fridge the next day. So when you first make it it’s great for on top of a rainbow salad like this one, while the next day it’s perfect for dipping carrot or cucumber sticks into, or even some natural whole grain corn chips (yum).

These delicious rainbow bowls are brimming with goodness, but it’s the dressing that will capture your heart! Full of herbs, flavour, and oh so rich and creamy, you’ll be drizzling it over everything. Vegan, dairy, egg and gluten free.

As for the salad – the world is your oyster! The key here is to pick as many colours of the rainbow as you can (ROYGBIV remember) – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Granted, I’m not 100% sure how many veges are blue, but you get the picture! I often use this combo of carrots, beetroot, radish and cabbage, as they’re available almost year round, are cheap, and add lots of crunch. But feel free to branch out and pick whatever seasonal vegetables you can find. Then all you need to do is…

  • Select your rainbow,
  • Add half an avocado,
  • Dollop on a few tablespoons of sauerkraut (for some fermented vegetable action, great for you populating your gastrointestinal tract with beneficial bacteria),
  • Sprinkle over a few tablespoons of seeds, and
  • Go crazy with your dressing (okay, don’t go crazy, but 4 tablespoons is a good starting point).

Note our salad on its own isn’t dressed at all, it’s just plain raw crunchy veges. So in this instance we want to use a bit more dressing than you might otherwise use (again, 4 tablespoons per bowl is pretty much perfect).

These delicious rainbow bowls are brimming with goodness, but it’s the dressing that will capture your heart! Full of herbs, flavour, and oh so rich and creamy, you’ll be drizzling it over everything. Vegan, dairy, egg and gluten free.

These rainbow bowls are part of a collaboration I’m doing with a great friend of mine, Danijela Unkovich, who also happens to be a fabulous nutritionist. You might be following her already on Instagram as @healthyalways (if not, check her out!). I had the pleasure of crossing paths with Danijela a few years back, and am so incredibly grateful that I did. Not only is she a gorgeous girl, she’s also incredibly kind, intelligent, and is just as passionate (read super-nerd) about nutrition as I am. We’re both really keen to encourage you to incorporate more vegetables in your life, so these Rainbow Bowls with Green Tahini Sauce are one way for you to do that! Stay tuned to both our Instagram accounts (you can find me here at @begoodorganics) for a few more rainbow bowl ideas over the next few weeks.

Danijela and I would love to see your Rainbow Bowls on Instagram, so if you make one of these let us know! Share your shots and tag us @begoodorganics and @healthyalways, and use the hashtag #showusyourvege so everyone else can see your beauties too. You can also post your pics over on my Facebook page here, or leave me a comment below.

Enjoy the rest of your Friday, have a fabulous weekend, and til next week, stay happy and well.

PS If you like this recipe, pin it on Pinterest, share it on Facebook or Twitter, or post a pic of your recreation on on Instagram. As you know, I share all my recipes here on the blog for free, so if you could share them with your loved ones, I would be forever grateful! Also, if you’re not already subscribed to my weekly recipe emails, be sure to do that here, and don’t miss my next video by subscribing to my YouTube channel here.

These delicious rainbow bowls are brimming with goodness, but it’s the dressing that will capture your heart! Full of herbs, flavour, and oh so rich and creamy, you’ll be drizzling it over everything. Vegan, dairy, egg and gluten free.


Please note – if you are wanting to meet any of the specific dietary requirements below, please read my recipe notes.

These delicious rainbow bowls are brimming with goodness, but it’s the dressing that will capture your heart! Full of herbs, flavour, and oh so rich and creamy, you’ll be drizzling it over everything. Vegan, dairy, egg and gluten free.

Rainbow Bowls with Green Tahini Dressing

Makes 1 bowl and 2 cups dressing
No ratings yet
Prep Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

Green Tahini Dressing

  • 1 c parsley/chives/basil mix of 2-3
  • 1/3 c tahini
  • 3 tbsp sesame seeds
  • 1/2 c water
  • 1/4 c lemon flesh ~1/2 lemon or 4 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tbsp tamari
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1/4 c olive oil
  • Black pepper to taste

Rainbow Bowls

  • Mixed green leaves mesclun, lemon sorrel, parsley, cos, rocket, baby spinach
  • Beetroot finely sliced – I use this Benriner Mandoline here
  • Carrot shred into ribbons with a spiraliser – I love this one here
  • Cabbage
  • Radish
  • 2 tbsp activated seeds sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, watermelon
  • 1/2 avocado sprinkled with sesame seeds black and white
  • 2 tbsp sauerkraut
  • 1/2 cup cooked quinoa or brown rice optional
  • 4 tbsp Green Tahini Dressing

Instructions

  • Blend all the dressing ingredients, except the olive oil, together in a blender.
  • Slowly add the olive oil to the blender while it’s on low to help it emulsify (thicken).
  • Create your own rainbow bowl however you like (use the formula above, or get creative), drizzle the dressing on top, and sprinkle with seeds. Enjoy and feel reinvigorated!

Recipe Notes

  • The dressing firms up overnight, so is perfect as a dip the next day. Or if you prefer it to be more liquid, you can add a bit more water or olive oil the next day to thin it out to your liking.
  • You can use any combo of soft herbs that you like. My favourites are listed above but you could also use coriander, dill, spring onion, or fennel fronds.
  • The dressing will keep in the fridge for up to two weeks – but I reckon you’ll use it before then, it’s so good.
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These delicious rainbow bowls are brimming with goodness, but it’s the dressing that will capture your heart! Full of herbs, flavour, and oh so rich and creamy, you’ll be drizzling it over everything. Vegan, dairy, egg and gluten free.