{"id":21086,"date":"2018-02-23T00:04:23","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T05:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slimmingeats.com\/blog\/?p=21086"},"modified":"2023-06-02T10:45:14","modified_gmt":"2023-06-02T15:45:14","slug":"chicken-quinoa-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slimmingeats.com\/blog\/chicken-quinoa-bowl","title":{"rendered":"Healthy Chicken Quinoa Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Give me this Chicken Quinoa Bowl for lunch any day - EVERY day. It's heavenly!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of my favourite places to go for a quick lunch when out is Panera Bread. They always have something I can choose or adapt that I know won't be too bad. Some even have handy little self-order counters, where you can use a little tablet to select your order to your specification without having to explain to the server what you do or don't want in your salad etc<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usually, I go for one of their salads, the Fuji Apple Chicken Salad is my favourite, but this time I fancied something a little different, and spotted the Chicken Quinoa Bowl and just knew that was what I wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It sounded perfect - Chicken, quinoa, rice and lentil blend with fresh kale and spinach with a lemon wheel in a beautiful umami soy-miso broth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The umami sold me. I mean I love chicken, quinoa and kale, but when a description mentions umami, I know I am on to a good thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Umami is not a well-known word but is slowly becoming more popular. It basically is known as the fifth taste and is a word used to describe a pleasant savoury taste which is common in Japanese cooking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chicken Quinoa Bowl was delicious - such beautiful flavours and the kind of food I really enjoy. I love fresh ingredients, ones I can identify and as I tasted every spoonful, I found myself trying to decipher all the ingredients, keeping a mental note, so that I\u00a0could try and recreate it when I got home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next day for lunch, it was all I wanted, so I jotted down the ingredients I was going to combine, to get that delicious umami broth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn't have an miso on hand, but I knew with combining a few typical store cupboard ingredients I could get the flavour I wanted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In any type of soup or broth bowl, the first thing you would expect is broth, but surprisingly I don't use any stock in this recipe, the flavour comes purely from the delicious blend of ingredients I use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fish Sauce is a perfect ingredient for umami and you do not need a huge amount. Don't worry it isn't going to give an overpowering fishy taste like you might expect, it just gives a lovely savoury salty taste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As well as the fish sauce I also use some tomato paste (puree), balsamic vinegar instead of fresh lemons like in the Panera dish to give that slight acidity to the broth and soy sauce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, of course, you need fresh vegetables and additional flavour which comes from the onion, garlic, garlic, ginger and mushrooms which all help to the flavour that homemade broth in this Chicken Quinoa Bowl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quinoa and the chicken are cooked separately because this is a Chicken Quinoa Bowl, rather than a soup and you want those layers of different ingredients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn't add rice or lentils to my version. I love quinoa just as it is, for its delicious nutty flavour, and so saving time because I wanted this ready for lunch, felt there wasn't a need to over complicate the dish too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quinoa is a fantastic alternative to rice and pasta, it's high in protein, and is actually a seed rather than a grain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to try some other tasty quinoa recipes? Check out these:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n