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Bowling all over the world

Pokē bowls, curry bowls, pasta bowls, soup bowls, sushi bowls, breakfast bowls and bliss bowls: every single one of them delivers a hug along with your meal.

Salmon salad bowl

Salmon salad bowl Source: Simon & Schuster Australia

--- See Donna Hay make her cauliflower rice bowl, along with other recipes using her tips and tricks to make everyday meals easier and tastier in Donna Hay Everyday Fresh, Thursdays 7.30pm from 16 September on SBS Food Channel 33. Episodes will be available at SBS n Demand for 30 days after they air. ---

 

It's little wonder that cuisines across the globe have their own version of 'the bowl'. You can cuddle up to a bowl of food. Eschew the table and nurse it gently in your lap while you chat or tend the fire, read or watch the telly. Bowls are nourishing and comforting and generally filled with good-for-you fare.

Take a trip with us across meal times and timelines to celebrate the simple joy that is bowl food.

Australian cauliflower rice bowl

Cauliflower rice bowls with crispy chilli eggs
Source: Donna Hay Everyday Fresh
This quick bowl - ready in about 15 minutes! - comes from Donna Hay. "My favourite new way to make cauliflower rice is to simply grate it on a trusty box grater. No need to drag out the food processor every time. It’s one of those things I wish I’d discovered sooner. So easy that I now make it much more often," she says. Here, panfried rice flavoured with garlic and oregano is matched with baby spinach and crispy eggs with chilli.

Palestinian soup

Chicken soup is an international language.
Chicken soup is an international language. Hanan's mum's Palestinian version speaks the language of love as well. Source: The Chicken Soup Manifesto
Soup is surely the original bowl food and is still the best way to eat a meal sans table. There's a soup for every season and occasion, but start with perfecting a few chicken soup recipes and you'll be most of the way there. Try
this Palestinian soup
first.
READ MORE

Around the world in chicken soup

Mexican quinoa

Turns out there is a downside to liking this superfood.
A pea guacamole adds creamy to this crunchy and chewy bowl. Source: Sharyn Cairns
The best bowls mix the crunch of raw ingredients with the flavour of cooked.
This Aztec-inspired quinoa bowl
does this so well - raw sugar snaps, zucchini, avocado and corn contrast with the chewy grains of quinoa. It's all smothered in a zesty chipotle in adobo and lime dressing.
Grainy bowling

Mexican quinoa bowl

Bhel puri freekeh bowl

Korean rice

Mixed rice bowl with beef (bibimbap)
Rather than make small bowls, this bibimbap recipe sensibly makes one giant bowl to share. Source: Murdoch Books
If soup was the first, then rice was surely the second of the bowl foods. As proved by dishes such as
this bibimbap
, it just works. Like many of the bowl recipes, bibimbap has a long list of ingredients but is quite straightforward to pull together.
Ricey does it

Creamy Middle Eastern rice bowl

Poached chicken and brown rice bowl

Chicken rice bowl (soboro don)

American pokē

Tuna pokē bowl
Customise your pokē bowl to your stomach's content. Source: Mark Roper
The bowl-de-jour, pokē is a traditional Hawaiian raw fish. When served with rice and vegetables, you've got yourself a
pokē bowl
. It's the darling of the hipster set simply because the flavour just begs to cross-cultures and pair with pickled or fermented things like
kimchi
,
seaweed
and
sauerkraut
.
READ MORE

The Aloha Way poké bowl

Indian curry

Bengali barramundi curry
This Australian-influenced Bengali curry showcases great seafood like barramundi, prawns and mussels. Source: China Squirrel
Millions of people across the world sit down to bowl food every night. In India, it's called dinner. Now, you could easily drown in all the amazing curry recipes available, but a
fish curry like this one
is a lifesaver.
Curry on bowling

Grandma's lamb curry

Noor’s Rohingyan beef curry

Vietnamese goat curry

Japanese chirashi

Wild rice chirashi bowl
A bowl like this is the ideal pick-me-up when you need a boost of vitamins and protein. Source: Sharyn Cairns
Bowls are fantastic for packing in plenty of nutrition, as t
his wild rice and wakame bowl
proves. The thing about a bowl is that you can stuff it full of whatever you like then pour a specialist dressing over the lot. Here it's a sour umeboshi dressing that makes this entire bowl ping with life.
Bowled up

Chicken rice bowl (soboro don)

Katsu-don

Italian pasta

Spaghetti alla carbonara
This classic combination of pork, egg and cheese is thought to have been created by the miners of the Apennine mountains. Source: John Laurie
Pasta has to fall under the "bowl food" banner, surely? Serving one big bowl of pasta for everyone to construct their own little bowls of pasta is the
easiest entertaining solution
around. You can't beat
spaghetti alla carbonara
 for smashing in front of the box, but any of these pasta option would make perfect bowl food:
Fasta bowls

'Green bits' pasta

Pasta and chickpeas with Tuscan cabbage (pasta e ceci con cavolo nero)

One pot penne with tuna, olives and capers

Thai breakfast

Brown rice larb congee
Congee is Thailand's beloved king of breakfasts. Source: Sharyn Cairns
Every culture has some kind of bowl option for breakfast, including Thai khao tom gung, or 
rice congee
.  Congee is
eaten for breakfast
across Asia, as both a sweet or savoury dish. Another recent addition to the breakfast bowl phenomenon is the smoothie bowl, which is worth experimenting with:
Smooth delivery

Carrot cake smoothie bowl

Avocado & matcha smoothie bowl

Acai smoothie bowl with crunchy granola

Australian salad

Salmon salad bowl
Serve it hot or cold and for breakfast, lunch or dinner; the salmon salad bowl is a nutritious all-rounder. Source: Simon & Schuster Australia
Borrowing from every bowl recipe ever created, the ubiquitous '
salad bowl
' is basically just a deconstructed sushi-pokē-pasta-rice mash-up. And it's pretty darn perfect.
Keep on bowling

5 lunches that will bowl you right over

Lentil breakfast bowl

Mini falafel bowl

Stir-fried lettuce bowl with ginger fried rice and fried egg

Nacho bowls

Chia and oat breakfast bowl

Creamy Middle Eastern rice bowl

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SBS Food is a 24/7 foodie channel for all Australians, with a focus on simple, authentic and everyday food inspiration from cultures everywhere. NSW stream only. Read more about SBS Food
Watch nowOn Demand
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SBS Food is a 24/7 foodie channel for all Australians, with a focus on simple, authentic and everyday food inspiration from cultures everywhere. NSW stream only.
Watch nowOn Demand
Follow SBS Food
facebook
twitter
instagram
tiktok
4 min read
Published 29 September 2021 10:38am
By SBS Food bite-sized
Source: SBS

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