Pineapple Rice Bowl with Sweet and Sour Sauce is a high-protein vegan meal. Filled with sweet potatoes, cashews, and hemp seeds, it will remind you of the tastes of the tropics.
I received a complimentary copy of The High-Protein Vegan Cookbook to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.
I've always loved eating rice, and it's a staple ingredient in my house.
It goes with just about everything, plus there are so many delicious varieties.
But people often wonder how they will get enough protein on a vegan diet.
The answer is simple.
Just about every plant food contains some amount of protein.
And if you eat a variety of different plant-based foods and take in enough calories each day, there's no need to worry about getting enough protein.
In fact, I don't recall ever meeting a person who is protein deficient.
However, it's very common to hear people say they need to eat meat, eggs, and dairy in order to get enough protein.
Ginny Kay McMeans dispels this myth in her latest book The High-Protein Vegan Cookbook: 125+ Hearty Plant-Based Recipes.
Pineapple Rice Bowl with Sweet and Sour Sauce is one of many easy and flavorful recipes in The High-Protein Vegan Cookbook.
The recipes are divided into six chapters:
- Power-Up Appetizers
- Breakfast Power
- Lunch Bowls, Chilies, and Sandwiches
- Portable Snacks
- Protein-Packed Dinners
- Let's Make Seitan
Some of the recipes I'm interested in trying are the Three-Layer Tacos with Kale Slaw, Chickpea Salad Crostini, and Buckwheat Coconut Porridge.
I also have my eye on the Caribbean Chili, Stacked Enchilada Casserole, and No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies.
And of course, there's the Pineapple Rice Bowl!
The rice is topped with roasted sweet potato, fresh pineapple chunks, cashews, hemp seeds, and a tangy sweet and sour sauce.
I had leftover sauce when I made it, so I saved it to use on tofu.
I recommend preparing some tofu according to the directions in the recipe for Air Fryer Lemon Tofu, and use the Sweet and Sour Sauce instead of the lemon sauce.
And if you have any leftover pineapple, it would be a great addition.
This Pineapple Rice Bowl can be made on its own or served with other Asian-inspired dishes.
When it comes to flavors, I tend to be drawn more towards savory dishes.
I found the Pineapple Rice Bowl to be rather sweet, but I really enjoyed it as part of a meal with Chickpea Stir Fry.
So instead of serving the stir fry with plain rice, I mixed up the contents of the Pineapple Rice Bowl, and served it on the side.
And if you want extra veggies, Sugar Snap Peas or Air Fryer Green Beans are great choices.
Making a Pineapple Rice Bowl is really easy.
Start with some cooked jasmine rice.
Then roast a peeled and diced sweet potato in the oven.
Meanwhile, prepare the Sweet and Sour Sauce in a small sauce pan.
When everything is ready, fill your bowls with rice, sweet potato, pineapple, cashews, and hemp seeds.
Drizzle on a little sauce, and you're ready to eat!
A Touch of the Tropics Rice Bowl
Ingredients
For the Bowl:
- 1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped into bite-size pieces
- 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cups jasmine rice, cooked
- 1 pineapple, peeled, cored, and chopped into bite-size pieces
- ¼ cup cashews
- 4 Tablespoons hemp seeds
For the Sweet and Sour Sauce:
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- ½ cup chopped pineapple
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar
- 3 tablespoons ketchup
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce, (I used tamari to make it gluten-free)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF.
- Toss the sweet potato with the oil. Place on a baking sheet and roast for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.
- To prepare the Sweet and Sour Sauce, whisk together cornstarch and 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Add the pineapple and ¼ cup water to a blender. Blend until the mixture is as smooth as possible.
- Add the pineapple mixture, rice vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup, and soy sauce to a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Stir in the cornstarch mixture and cook until thickened, about a minute. Remove from the heat and set aside while assembling bowls.
- To assemble the bowls, place rice in the bottom of each bowl. Add rows of pineapple, cashews, hemp seeds, and sweet potato. Top with the sweet and sour sauce.
Cassandra D
My favorite source of vegan protein is soybean.
Molly
This looks so good! I can’t wait to try it
aastha
Chickpeas and lentils are my favorite!
Graeme
I can't get enough lentils
Karen D
Tempeh is my favorite.
Amanda
This looks delicious! Do most of the recipes in the book contain oil? This one looks like it would be fairly simple to just leave the oil out, but some recipes can be a bit trickier!
Amy
I think most would be easy to adapt to make without oil.