I love nourish bowls- they’re epic fancy pants salad bowls and you can go crazy and get so creative with them, there are no set rules so I just chuck in anything and you get this amazing festival of flavours with every bite you take. I’m not going to provide an exact recipe for this because I literally just free styled it, as that’s my way to do things in the kitchen but I just wanted to give some inspo and give you some ideas as to what to include in yours! What I will do, however is give you the formula for the perfect nourish bowl every time- so this will be the epic guide to nourish bowls; everything you need to know.

This particular creation one I wanted the focus to be on gut health so that’s why I added the sauerkraut (great for the gut because it packs a punch of probiotics) and lots of veggies to increase the fibre which also maintains a healthy digestive system.

So- here’s the formula:

• The base of your bowl- choose your preferred greens; here I used kale and spinach (rare for me because too much raw spinach and kale is not ideal as they are goitrogenic, meaning they can disrupt thyriod function, but occasionally it’s fine and I just fancied it today so listened to my cravings). I massaged the kale (sounds weird, i know) but it just helps to break down the cell walls, giving our good old digestive system a helping hand. Usually I use iceberg lettuce, rocket, mixed lettuce- any type of greens is perfecto.
• The carb- in this instance I had my brown and red rice in my soup which I had on the side but usually I would put my quinoa or rice in the bowl with the greens. It’s really important to include a complex carb to ensure steady release of energy in the hours after you eat it. You could even include cold potatoes (as they have more resistant starch therefore are slower to digest then hot ones!) or sweet potatoes, whatever tickles your fancy!
• The protein- I had some poached chicken in the fridge which i made yesterday so popped a bit of that in there for my lean protein source. I also made some spiced chickpeas because I had a pack in the cupboard which needed using up so I just popped them in a pan with some coconut oil, cumin, salt, pepper and smoked paprika. You can add whatever protein source you fancy- salmon, quinoa (also a carb), tofu, tuna etc etc..
• The veggies- I try to get lots of colour in my nourish bowls because variety in the diet is so important and we eat with our eyes- there is nothing less appetising than a bowl of green salad leaves, we need to juj it up (not sure if thats how you spell it) by adding at least 2 other colours. I’m loving red cabbage at the mo, so I put a little bit of that in and then some peppers and tomatoes for vit c and lycopenes (lycopenes can help reduce sun damage to the skin and as we are coming into summer this is quite important!)
• The dressing- I’m loving my tahini, ACV, olive oil and smoked paprika dressing right now; it’s so creamy and I love the flavour smoked paprika gives. But equally you could just use a store bought dressing, oil and vinegar, or oil and lemon juice is really nice, too.

So there we have it- the default formula for the perfect nourish bowl. What’s great about these is you can prep the carbs and proteins on a Sunday night to last you most of the week then you can just make slightly different variations throughout the week so you don’t end up eating the same brown rice broccoli and chicken everyday for lunch, which is the most boring and bland meal ever. Eating healthy should be really enjoyable, fun and make you feel fantastic! So try this out and go get creative!!