These whole grain pesto bowls are made with any cooked whole grain of your choice, white beans, and vegetables. Top them with your favorite batch of bright green, herby, lemony vegan pesto, mix, and dig in! The bowls are nutritious, simple, and so easy to customize.

There’s nothing like a simple, nutritious vegan bowl recipe. I love grain bowls and nourish bowls because they’re colorful and full of veggies, yet a little more substantial and satisfying than salads.

Plus, grain bowls are so easy to adapt. The vegan whole grain pesto bowls that I’m sharing in this post can be made with your favorite whole grain.

Originally, I made them with cooked millet, but over time I’ve come to love them with so many types of cooked grains, including barley (pictured here), farro, quinoa, rice, and wheat berries.

Likewise, you can swap the suggested white beans for chickpeas, butter beans, or cooked lentils.

And while I love to make the pesto bowls with summery roasted peppers, eggplant, and zucchini, you can also add or subtract from the veggies that are listed in the recipe. If you’ve got some broccoli or cauliflower to roast, add it. If you don’t like eggplant, try roasted cherry tomatoes instead,

Basically, it’s hard to go wrong with the components of this very simple, nutrient-dense meal. Just don’t skimp on the pesto sauce!

Pick your (vegan) pesto

Do you love pesto? Have you feared that it won’t be the same without the traditional addition of parmesan cheese?

You’re in luck. Over the years, I’ve developed multiple vegan pesto recipes. Each of them trades parmesan for nutritional yeast, which is similarly savory and “cheesy” in flavor.

I have a few of my own pesto preferences. I tend to prefer cashew nuts to traditional pine nuts; I think the create a creamier pesto. I’m also a fan of using seeds, such as shelled hemp seeds, as a base.

Speaking of that, I like for my pesto to have a richer and thicker texture than some. My favorite pestos are practically spreadable; they don’t look like oily sauces.

To that end, I tend to use a modest amount of olive oil, relative to other recipes. I also have an oil-free tahini pesto that I really love.

I’ll give you the option of using any one of the vegan pesto recipes from my blog in order to make these whole grain pesto bowls. Here they are:

• Hemp seed pesto
• Vegan pesto with basil and cashews (traditional/classic)
• Creamy tahini pesto
• Arugula pesto
• Sun-dried tomato pesto (red/no basil)

To blanch or not to blanch?

If you make a lot of pesto already, then you know that the sauce tends to turn a bit brown as you store it.

This is a normal process, which is known as oxidation. It happens when the basil leaves are exposed to oxygen through storage.

You can slow the oxidation (and subsequent browning) down a little by placing a thin layer of Saran wrap or very thinly sliced lemon pieces over your pesto as you store it.

However, the most effective method I’ve found for brighter, greener stored pesto is to blanch your basil leaves before blending.

Essentially, this means that you’ll boil your basil for about thirty seconds, then “shock” the leaves in an ice bath.

Drain them, squeeze them well to remove moisture, and the leaves will be ready for blending.

While this may feel like an unnecessary step, I truly love how blanching basil will preserve the bright green color of your pesto for days of storage.

As someone who lives alone and loves to meal prep, it’s really important to me that my sauces have a long shelf life.

You can use blanched basil leaves for any of my vegan pesto recipes. And of course, if you’d like to skip blanching, your basil will still taste delicious.

Building a power plate (or bowl)

The whole grain pesto bowls feature not only pesto and your cooked whole grain, but also white beans.

White beans are rich in dietary fiber, folate, and iron.

More importantly, they’re a good source of plant protein.

A cornerstone of my nutrition practice as a vegan dietitian is to help my clients find balance. This means plates of foods that offer well-rounded nutrition.

The way I conceptualized a balanced meal is that it contains a source of protein, a source of energizing complex carbs, a source of healthful fat, and plenty of veggies.

I call this a power plate. I wrote a whole cookbook about the principle! And these pesto bowls are definitely a power plate.

The cooked whole grain provides carbs, the pesto adds healthy fats, there are roasted veggies and chopped tomato present, and the white beans count as your plant protein.

If you’re interested, you can check out some more of my favorite vegan white bean recipes. And if you’d like to replace white beans in the pesto bowl recipe with another favorite cooked bean, that’s also fine!

How to make nourishing whole grain pesto bowls

I love how simple these bowls are to make. And one of the upsides of making them is that you can do it in stages.

Step 1: Prep your components

You’ll need already made pesto and cooked whole grains in order to make the pesto bowls, so plan accordingly.

You can make the pesto a day or two in advance. Better yet, make it well ahead of schedule, freeze it, and use it when you’re ready.

Cooked whole grains can usually be stored in the fridge for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 8 weeks. Prepare them as directed by the package, or use whatever your normal cooking methods are.

The white beans that you use can be canned or cooked from scratch: it’s up to you.

My brothy white beans will certainly give these bowls some extra flavor, if you’d like to make a batch of those. Yet I often make this recipe with canned white beans, and those are perfectly fine.

Canned/cooked beans also freeze exceedingly well. So, you can prepare the beans and freeze them for up to 8 weeks before making these bowls and defrost as ready.

The rest of your bowl preparation is easy.

Step 2: Roast your vegetables

I recommend roasted zucchini and eggplant for this recipe, simply to keep up with the summery ingredients and theme. You can certainly choose another veggie or two, if you like.

Roast the vegetables for about 30 minutes, or until they’re tender and just starting to brown.

Step 3: Assemble your pesto bowls

To assemble the pesto bowls, simply divide the roasted veggies, cooked whole grains, chopped tomato, and cooked white beans into four bowls.

Alternatively, for meal prep, you can place them into four divided storage containers.

Top each bowl with a nice scoop of pesto and some fresh basil leaves, if you like.

And then, the most important step: enjoy.

The next time you have a big batch of basil on your hands, and you’d like to make something special with it, perhaps these easy vegan grain bowls will call out to you.

I hope you come to enjoy them and will find many fun ways to modify them over time.

xo