Mediterranean Bowls – Slender Kitchen

When it comes to easy healthy meals, grain bowls are one of the best options. These Mediterranean Bowls are packed with fresh and healthy ingredients including the tastiest lemon chicken, fluffy quinoa, and tons of veggies. 

Ingredients to Make Mediterranean Bowls

Here’s everything you need to make these tasty bowls.

• Chicken: Boneless chicken breast or chicken thighs are best for this recipe. Swap in rotisserie chicken or leftover cooked chicken if you prefer. Cut the chicken thinly so they soak up lots of the marinade and cook quickly. Alternate and vegetarian protein options can be found below.
• Mediterranean marinade: The chicken marinade has lemon juice, olive oil, parsley, dill, cumin, garlic powder, paprika, thyme, and coriander. Switch up the spices if you like different herbs. Swap in dried dill or parsley if that’s all you have.
• Quinoa: This bowl recipe uses cooked quinoa as the base, but you could swap in rice, greens, cauliflower rice, barley, farro, or chickpeas.
• Vegetables: Any raw or roasted vegetables work in this bowl. Classic options (inspired by Mediterranean and Greek recipes) include lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, parsley, and dill. We also love this with roasted sweet potatoes, green beans, and cabbage.
• Tahini dressing: To drizzle on top, make a quick tahini dressing with tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, dill, and garlic. Find more dressing ideas below.

Assembling the Perfect Bowl

Any good grain bowl or buddha bowl is built around 4 key components. It starts with a base to which you add protein, veggies, and dressing.

• Protein: Although this recipe is made with chicken, you could swap in salmon, shrimp, canned tuna, ground turkey, or meatballs for a lean protein source. You could also use falafel, tofu, lentils, chickpeas, or vegetarian meat.
• Vegetables: Any good rice bowl has lots of vegetables. Choose a variety of fresh vegetables and cooked vegetables for different textures. Tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, red onions, bell peppers, and parsley.
• Base: Start with a base of cooked white rice, brown rice, quinoa, farro, barley, cauliflower rice, or greens.
• Make it special: Get creative with additional toppings like kalamata olives, feta cheese, hummus, capers, roasted red peppers, pepperoncini, or pita chips.
• Dressing: Use the tahini dressing in the recipe or swap in hummus, tzatziki, green goddess dressing, or Greek salad dressing.

Tips for Making Mediterranean Bowls

• Shortcuts: Save time and use rotisserie chicken. Toss with some lemon juice, olive oil, parsley, and dill to add more flavor.
• Fewer spices: Speed up the prep work with a store-bought Mediterranean or Greek spice rub for the chicken.
• Use precooked rice or grains: To save time, swap in frozen or precooked grains so you aren’t making the quinoa or rice from scratch.
• Be creative: This recipe should be treated like a blueprint! Bowls are meant to be customized. Add all your favorite ingredients.

Variations and Recipe Ideas

• Vegetarian: This recipe easily becomes vegetarian, just make sure to include a protein source like chickpeas, hummus, lentils, or tofu.
• Hummus bows: Instead of making the tahini dressing, just add a few spoonfuls of your favorite hummus as the dressing.
• Spicy: Add red pepper flakes to the chicken marinade or add some Calabrian chilies or pepperoncini to the bowls.
• Low carb: Leave out the quinoa and use a base of greens or cauliflower rice.

Meal Prep and Storing Leftovers

These bowls are great for meal prep and keep well in the fridge. For best results, do not add the dressing to the bowls until it is ready to serve. Keep the cherry tomatoes whole if prepping in advance so they don’t get soggy.

Store leftovers in an airtight container once they are fully cooled. If planning on hating up the chicken and quinoa, store the raw vegetables separately.

What else can you add to Mediterranean bowls?

Almost anything can be added to these Mediterranean bowls including different proteins, vegetables, and additions. Consider trying them with zucchini, avocado, bell peppers, tabouleh, or a spicy sauce like zhoug or harissa.