the glory/glorious bowl

The first time I tasted "Glorious Bowl" was at the Pedal and Tap Restaurant in Kimberley, BC. We were in Kimberley to visit Fiona while she worked for the summer at Kimberley Summer Theatre. We sat outside on the patio, overlooking the Platzl. (I love to say Platzl.) Fiona and I shared this delicious bowl, and loved it. The waiter told us that the recipe was from the Whitewater Cookbook. So of course I bought myself a copy of the Whitewater Cookbook at the Lotus Bookstore in Cranbrook. If I loved the Glorious Bowl at Pedal and Tap, I adore the Whitewater Cookbook.

In the cookbook, it's call "Glory Bowl." The Restaurant has made a few changes from the original recipe, but this is the kind of recipe you like to tinker with: It starts out lovely and simply delicious, and invites you to find what other veggies or nuts/seeds or base grain/legume might be good. In the picture, I have made it pretty much exactly as the cookbook specifies.

Except that I used quinoa instead of brown rice. This yummy bowl has quinoa and fresh greens, shredded beet and carrot, crispy sauteed tofu, chopped roasted almonds and a gorgeous salad dressing that is flavoured with nutritional yeast and tahini.

Whoa, I just read that description, and decided I could use it as a test to discern who is a fellow whole food enthusiast, and who thinks that I am a crazy person who eats twigs and leaves.

Doesn't it look great in my big bowl though? This was, I think, about the second-to-last time that I used my bowl to share a meal with Fiona before she returned to university after winter break. Keeping this blog up will help me to share my cooking with Fiona while she is at school. If she can't taste it, at least she can see it and enjoy it vicariously. I will think of her whenever I enjoy the beautiful handcrafted bowl that she made for me. There's also a secret message that she wrote for me, on the outside bottom of the bowl, so when I wash it after the meal, I will think of her some more.

Glory or glorious, I am certain that this bowl of twigs and sticks is one of my favourite meals ever. Enjoy something nourishing today, with someone who nourishes you, even if that person is not with you at the moment.