Seattle Sunshine Bowl is a bowl of goodness – quinoa, grilled chicken, white beans, chopped veggies, pumpkin seeds, feta, and scallions, all topped with a yellow Sunshine Sauce.
Seattle Sunshine Bowl
I love bowls! Grain bowls, fajita bowls, sushi bowls, Buddha bowls, smoothie bowls, burrito bowls, poke bowls—we’re eating more food than ever out of bowls. This healthy bowl combines a mix of quinoa, grilled chicken, white beans, chopped veggies, pumpkin seeds, feta, and scallions.
Hey there, I’m Heather K. Jones. I’m a registered dietitian, a nutrition consultant for Skinnytaste, and the founder of Feel Better Eat Better, an online coaching program for women who struggle with emotional eating, binge eating, overeating, or body image issues. I’m so excited to guest post on Skinnytaste today (thank you, Gina!), because I’m sharing a recipe from the streets of Seattle… literally!
My two sisters and I live in the Seattle neighborhood of Queen Anne, and every Thursday we meet at the local Farmers Market. It’s the best place to get the freshest organic produce, as well as local meat, cheese, honey, flowers and more.
The market is also a Seattle street-food dream – tons of local food trucks and carts gather at the market each week, and it’s so much fun sampling all of the wonderful dishes. One of our favorite food carts, I Love My GFF, also happens to be the healthiest.
Their signature Sunshine Bowl is a delicious (and nutritious!) mix of quinoa, grilled chicken, white beans, chopped veggies, pumpkin seeds, feta, and scallions, all topped with a yellow Sunshine Sauce.
The secret to this bowl is definitely in the sauce—a yummy combo of almonds, lemon, honey, and basil. It took my sister Lori (she’s a wiz in the kitchen) and I a while to re-create the Sunshine Sauce at home, but after a few tries I think we finally nailed it. I hope you enjoy this Sunshine Bowl as much as we do!
Variations
- Swap the quinoa for your favorite grains. Try farro or barley.
- Swap white beans for chickpeas or black beans.
- Keep it meatless and omit the chicken, add more grains.
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Seattle Sunshine Bowl
Ingredients
For the bowl:
- 1 1/3 cup cooked quinoa
- 2 cups diced grilled chicken breast
- 1 1/3 cup finely chopped broccoli heads
- 1 1/3 cup finely diced red peppers
- 1 1/3 cup shredded carrots
- ½ cup cannellini beans
- ¼ cup hulled pumpkin seeds
- ¼ cup chopped green onions
- ¼ cup crumbled feta cheese
For the sauce:
- ½ cup whole raw almonds
- 2 cups water, divided
- Juice from 3 lemons
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
- 10 basil leaves
Instructions
For sauce:
- Soak almonds in 1 cup of water for 2 hours.
- Drain and discard water.
- In a blender or Vitamix, combine almonds, 1 cup (fresh) water, lemon juice, garlic, honey, turmeric, salt and basil and blend until completely smooth.
- Put the sauce in a squeeze bottle. (Note: you will only use ½ the sauce.)
Assembly:
- Put the sauce in a squeeze bottle.
- In 4 bowls, evenly distribute the quinoa, chicken, veggies (broccoli, peppers and carrots), and beans.
- In between layers, squeeze in 2 tablespoons of sauce.
- Top each with 1 tbsp each pumpkin seeds, green onions, feta and drizzle with remaining 1 tablespoon of sauce. (Each bowl gets about 3 tablespoons of sauce.)
- Refrigerate extra sauce for up to 5 days—it’s great as a salad dressing or drizzled over meat, poultry or fish.
This is a perfect copycat recipe! I always ordered their vegan sunshine bowl. I subbed out the honey for date syrup to keep it vegan and reduced the salt to 1 tsp. Thanks for hacking the sauce; I’ve been craving it for ages since they closed!
My daughters and I loved it! We used rotisserie chicken breast to save time. Filling, crunchy, delicious!
Made this for an outdoor picnic/concert with friends yesterday. Amazing! I grilled the chicken with teriyaki sauce, refrigerated overnight, and then diced into the salad. I swapped summer squash for the red pepper (have a friend who can’t eat peppers) and used pistachios instead of pumpkin seeds because that’s what I had on hand. I also chose to buy salted almonds….the salt comes off in the water, and then I’ll eat the rest! Wouldn’t be as inclined if they were unsalted. Super fantastic salad…the dressing is definitely the key. You can use this as palette for many veggies….think zucchini, fresh sweet corn, grilled asparagus, etc. Also would be good with black beans instead of cannelini beans. It’s a good “clear out the fridge” salad!