Broccoli, Chickpea and Brown Rice Bowl with Mustard-Soy Dressing Recipe
This simple dish, roasted broccoli, chickpea and brown rice bowl gets a major flavor boost from a tangy five minute mustard-soy dressing. It’s budget friendly, and perfect for meal prepping lunch! Vegan and gluten free!
Continuing the theme of simple recipes, today's recipe for broccoli, chickpea and brown rice bowl is a dish literally anyone can make. It's just three basic ingredients drizzled with a quick, flavorful sauce. Although it takes a little bit of time for the broccoli and brown rice to cook, this vegan rice bowl requires no more than fifteen minutes of actual hands-on prep time. Considering the source, someone who takes a good hour and a half to cook a "thirty minute meal", I bet you can do it even faster.
How to Make the BEST Roasted Broccoli
I'd like to dedicate this post to broccoli, a food most people either love, or absolutely hate. I'm guessing how it was prepared for you as a child determines what category you fall under. Soggy, overcooked, sulfurous smelling broccoli drenched in a watery fake cheese sauce is about the least appetizing thing I can think of. But tender, caramelized roasted broccoli...well, that's another story.
To the broccoli haters out there, I am determined to convert you with this recipe! If you prepare broccoli right, it's actually delicious! Roasting is definitely the trick, as it brings out broccolis nutty flavor and makes the trees nice and crispy. If you made it through childhood feeding your broccoli to the dog, I think this may be the recipe to convert you.
To make perfect roasted broccoli, I start with the oven at 400 degrees. That’s my magic number for roasting vegetables. Tougher vegetables like broccoli take longer to roast, while more tender vegetables like zucchini take less time. Toss with about a tablespoon of olive oil and be sure to season with salt and pepper for flavor. Then roast until the stems are tender and the leaves are crispy and browned.
Recipe Adaptions
To make this broccoli, chickpea and brown rice bowl, simply toss together roasted broccoli florets, canned chickpeas and brown rice, then drizzle with the super easy mustard-soy dressing in this recipe. To save time, use microwave brown rice or frozen brown rice, which you can heat up in seconds. For an even more filling meal, add additional protein from baked tofu or seasoned tempeh, or leftover diced chicken. I’ve added the sesame tempeh from this recipe to this bowl and it was SO good. You could also bulk it up with more vegetables, like roasted red peppers or halved cherry tomatoes.
Broccoli, Chickpea and Brown Rice Bowl with Mustard-Soy Dressing Recipe
Serves 3-4ish
Adapted from The New York Times.
Ingredients
1 cup short-grain brown rice
1 head broccoli, cut into florets
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 14-ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Dijon-Soy Sauce:
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon hot sauce
Pinch of sugar
Instructions
Place brown rice and 2 1/4 cups water in a medium pot. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer, and cook for 45 minutes until rice is tender and water is absorbed.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Toss broccoli with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and spread evenly on a large baking sheet. Place in the oven and roast for about 25 minutes until tender and browned in spots.
While rice and broccoli are cooking, whisk together the sauce ingredients and set aside until ready to use.
When rice and broccoli are finished cooking, toss in a large bowl with chickpeas. Serve with dijon-soy sauce for drizzling. Can be served warm, at room temperature, or cold.
More Broccoli Recipes:
Creamy Lentils and Mushrooms with Roasted Broccolini
Portobello Bulgogi Bowl with Roasted Broccoli
Pasta with Tempeh Sausage, Mushrooms and Roasted Broccolini
