By: Juliana Pires Johnson
There’s nothing more satisfying than easy and healthy dinner hacks to completely transform your weekday meals with minimal effort and maximum flavor.
We like to pre-grill out meats and veggies, sauté some ground meet with marinara sauce or make a roasted chicken on Sundays and then make it all about that base during the week.
Here are our favorite healthy, vegetable bowl bases to spice up those meals. We love stocking up on Primal Kitchen sauces + marinades when we’re pressed for time to make our own, to give each dish a completely different flavor profile.
Top any with veggies, meats, sauces….!
1 – Miracle Noodles/ Shirataki Noodles
The closest to a pasta consistency and VERY easy to make. You can find them at more specialized health stores such as Whole Foods or online shops as Thrive. They come in many forms – spaghetti, fettuccini, angel hair (even rice!)… and just run them thru cold water for a few seconds and then dry in a non-oiled pan and voila.
Beware that shirataki noodles are slippery and don’t absorb the dressing as well but also make for a mean stir-fry Thai base… as long as you are ok with that, you’ll get that true noodly texture. They typically retail at around $3.49 a bag but with a Thrive Market subscription you can get each pack for around $2.29-2.50 depending on type of pasta.
2 – Cauliflower Rice
Who would have thought that Cauliflower would be such a superstar, here to stay? At this point, you can buy riced Cauliflower at almost any supermarket and we particularly love grabbing Trader Joes’ organic frozen riced cauliflower packs. Just add some ghee or olive oil to a non-stick pan and toss in the cauliflower until your desired consistency is reached (3-5 minutes under medium heat in our kitchen). You can play around SO much with the flavor profiles. We love a ghee + tamari mix for stir-fry or just ghee and salt for a classic base with some dried parsley on top.
3 – Cauliflower Mash
Probably the most loved and decadent bowl base in my home… super easy to make and insanely yummy. Steam the cauliflower florets until just tender. Add to a Vitamix/ food processor with 2 – 4 tablespoons of ghee or butter (depending on the size of the cauliflower head and how buttery you like it). You can also sub butter for olive oil. I like to add ½ tsp of sea salt and ½ tsp. of garlic powder (adjust to taste). Once blended, you can serve right away OR our pro tip is to transfer to an oven-safe baking dish, top with your cheese of choice (we like a cheddar blend) and some bacon bits (if you’re not vegetarian) and broil for 2-3 for it to melt on top! This makes it more of a side dish than a base but it’s the BOMB!
4 – Zucchini Noodles (aka zoodles)
You can also find these pre-spiralized pretty easily at grocery stores or just look for a zucchini spiralizer at your favorite home store/ amazon… they are pretty inexpensive and easy to use. Also, these take about 2 minutes to sauté and be ready as a base!
5 – Spaghetti Squash
Super easy to make… pre-heat your oven to 400 F, slice your squash in half (top to bottom) and clean out all the seeds. Drizzle the inside with olive oil and sea salt and place, cut side down, onto a baking dish into the re-heated oven. Bake for about 40 minutes and remove. Wait until the squash cools down so you can safely handle. You should be able to run a fork through the inside and have them come out as noodle strings and transfer to a plate/ bowl. You can then add ground meat, marinara sauce, olive oil + salt or anything you want and treat it as a pasta base!
6 – Sweet Potato Ribbons
Pretty similarly in preparation as the zoodles, just a more unexpected version if you’re trying to impress! You can spiralize them as you do with zoodles or use a knife lengthwise to create strips. We typically just grab them pre-made at Trader Joes!