Summer Harvest Veggie and Avocado Quinoa Bowl.

This summer harvest veggie and avocado quinoa bowl is totally my kind of food.

I’m currently working on a FAQ for the site (new fun changes coming very soon!) and one of the questions I get asked all time is, what are my favorite foods. The answer? It’s honestly so incredibly boring, but I LOVE fruits and vegetables…and cheese…okok and carbs…like no other.

I know, I know, I am so boring.

Of course I LOVE all the recipes I share with you guys, but when I simply need a quick dinner, I’ll roast up some veggies, add quinoa and an avocado, and DONE. It’s my fall back when I don’t have leftovers in the fridge or when I just want a meal that I know is going to be semi cozy..ish (you guys know I love all the cozy foods) and will leave me full and feeling good.

Today’s recipe is an amplified version of my roasted veggie bowls, and it’s inspired by all the summer produce that is finally beginning to pop up out of the ground…aka all the zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, and fresh herbs. This bowl is loaded with all of my favorites of the moment, and I’m in love with it…times like 5.

Alight, so here’s the deal. I’ve known all summer long that I needed to create a new bowl recipe with all the produce that’s thriving right now. Last year I made this summer abundance salad (a reader favorite!) and the year before that, I made this herb farmers market veggies over polenta (YUMMMM, I need to make this again soon).

This year I wanted something totally different. I still wanted to include a healthy grain (hello quinoa…or actually mine was a mix of brown rice, wild rice, and quinoa, but I think I would prefer just quinoa) and loads of veggies, but I wanted the flavors to really stand out and pop.

Enter my glowing avocado basil vinaigrette/sauce situation. Oh my gosh, I could eat this with everything. It is so delicious, and so different from any other avocado based sauce. I used a combo of avocado, basil, apple cider vinegar, ginger, garlic, and plenty of hemp seeds. I know it may sound like a really odd combo, but trust me, this sauce is incredible. It’s creamy, basily, and has just the right amounts of ginger and garlic.

The rest of the bowl is made up of the following…

…a layer of hummus

…a hefty scoop of quinoa

…a spoonful of green lentils

…tons of grilled veggies (I used summer squash, zucchini, thinly sliced beets, and bell peppers, but use your favorites!)

…all the fresh heirloom cherry tomatoes I could get my hands on

…sliced avocado (you know for good measure)

…shredded carrots

…goat cheese (and lots of it)

Then just add the vinaigrette over top and DONE.

While the prep time for this bowl recipe is a little time intensive, none of it is hard, and if you prep everything on a Sunday night, this will make the perfect easy lunch or dinner for just about any day of the week. What’s great about this particular bowl recipe is that you can really adapt it to the seasons. In the summer use summer squash, tomatoes, berries, and stone fruits. In the fall and winter, go for roasted squash, apples, and pomegranates. And in the spring, use asparagus, peas, and strawberries.

If you wanted to bulk up the yum factor I’d highly recommend adding an egg…hard boiled, poached, fried, whatever way you like, but an egg would be extra delicious.

Oh and one last thing, while my photos don’t show a ton of goat cheese, I do highly recommend you be very generous with it. Goat cheese isn’t the most colorful thing to photograph, so I had to use it sparingly for the photos…but don’t worry, plenty was added after that last shot was taken.

Double also? If you don’t like goat cheese, any cheese you love will be still be amazing…burrata, mozzarella, a funky blue cheese…it all works.

Final also, I LOVE summer food so much and this bowl makes me so happy! Just sayin’.