Grain Bowl Recipe – 3 Ways
Updated Mar 04, 2026
Three healthy Grain Bowl ideas featuring quinoa, farro, and brown rice with colorful vegetables and a garlic cilantro dressing.
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Grain Bowls are one of my fave meal prep!
I’ve been making some version of a grain bowl for years, usually when I have leftover grains in the fridge and a bunch of vegetables that need to be used up. It’s one of those meals where you just start layering things in a bowl, and somehow it always works.
For this recipe, I put together three different grain bowl ideas using brown rice, farro, and quinoa. The toppings are a little different for each one, but the garlic cilantro sauce ties everything together. It’s creamy, herby, and makes the whole bowl work. And it wasn’t even intentional, but all three bowls ended up completely vegan!
Happy Cooking!
– Yumna
Grain Bowl Ingredients
- Grains: Options include rice, farro, quinoa, millet, or barley. Experiment and find your favorite! For this recipe, I’m using three kinds of popular grains: brown rice, farro, and quinoa. Brown rice is a little heartier and nuttier, farro has a chewy texture, and quinoa is lighter and cooks the fastest. I rinse the quinoa before cooking to remove bitterness, and if the farro has excess water after cooking, I just drain it. For help, read my tips on how to cook brown rice, how to cook farro, and on how to cook quinoa.
- Fresh vegetables: Cabbage, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots & red pepper. These make up most of the bowls and keep them fresh and crunchy. I slice everything fairly thin so it mixes easily with the grains. If you’re missing one of the vegetables, it’s easy to swap it with what you have in the fridge.
- Protein: Black beans, chickpeas & edamame. Each bowl has a different protein to make it more filling. Canned beans work great here, just rinse and drain them well. If you prefer, you could swap in cooked lentils or baked tofu. If you want to add meat to the bowl, try my air fryer salmon, yogurt marinated chicken, or grilled shrimp skewers.
- Crunchy toppings: Almonds & peanuts. These add texture and a little richness. If you want more flavor, you can toast the almonds briefly in a dry skillet. Any nut or seed works as a substitute. Sometimes I’ll use pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, or even toasted pecans.
- Creamy element: Avocado. The avocado adds richness and balances the crunchier vegetables. I slice it right before serving so it stays fresh.
- Garlic cilantro sauce: Cilantro, oat milk, olive oil, avocado, garlic, salt & pepper. This sauce is what ties all the bowls together. The avocado makes it creamy without needing dairy. If it’s too thick, I thin it with a splash of oat milk or water. It also works with almond milk or another neutral plant-based milk.
How to Make Grain Bowls
Below are my top 3 grain bowls that I like to make on rotation. They are really the starting point, grain bowl inspo if you will. The one thing that I pretty much always make consistently is the sauce… seriously, soo good!
Brown Rice Version
Farro Version
Quinoa Version
Make the Dressing
Grain Bowls – 3 Ways
Easy Grain Bowls made with quinoa, brown rice, or farro and loaded with fresh veggies, beans, and creamy cilantro sauce.
Video
Ingredients
With Brown Rice
- ½ cup uncooked brown rice
- 2 cups green cabbage thinly sliced
- ½ cup can black beans rinsed/drained
- 1 large tomato chopped
- ½ cup corn
- ½ avocado sliced
With Farro
- ½ cup uncooked farro
- 2 cups baby spinach
- ½ cup can chickpeas rinsed/drained
- ½ cup cherry tomatoes sliced
- 2 Persian cucumbers sliced
- ¼ cup blanched almonds
With Quinoa
- ½ cup uncooked quinoa
- 2 cups purple cabbage thinly sliced
- ½ cup shelled edamame
- 1 red pepper thinly sliced
- 2 carrot diced
- ½ cup salted peanuts
Garlic Cilantro Sauce
- 1 bunch cilantro about 1 cup packed
- ½ cup oat milk
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 small avocado
- 1 garlic clove
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- To cook the brown rice, add the brown rice, 1 ¼ cups water and salt to a pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 40 minutes until all the water is evaporated. Remove from heat, but keep the pot covered for 10 minutes. Fluff with fork and serve.
- To cook the farro, add the farro, ¾ cup water and salt to a pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes until all the water is evaporated. Remove from heat, but keep the pot covered for 5 minutes. Drain any excess water, if any, fluff with a fork and serve.
- To cook the quinoa, add the quinoa, ¾ cup water and salt to a pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes until all the water is evaporated. Remove from heat, but keep the pot covered for 5 minutes. Fluff with fork and serve.
- To make the dressing, combine all the ingredients except for the olive oil in a food processor. While the food processor is running, slowly drizzle the oil until completely emulsified and combined. Adjust the thickness by adding more oat milk or water. And taste to adjust for more salt.
- To assemble the grain bowls, place the desired ingredients together in a bowl, drizzle with the garlic cilantro sauce and enjoy at room temperature or cold.
Equipment
Notes
My Top Tip: Fluff the grains after cooking. Whether you’re making the grains from scratch or using the ready-to-heat kind, it’s important to fluff them after cooking by using a fork to separate the grains.
Storage: Store any leftovers in an airtight container. They will last about 5 days in the fridge. Store the dressing separately and add to the bowls before serving.
Nutrition
Calories: 652kcal, Carbohydrates: 63g, Protein: 25g, Fat: 38g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Sodium: 823mg, Potassium: 1758mg, Fiber: 20g, Sugar: 10g, Vitamin A: 13733IU, Vitamin C: 145mg, Calcium: 158mg, Iron: 5mg
Nutrition information provided is an estimate. It will vary based on cooking method and specific ingredients used.
Did You Make This Recipe?
Recipe Tips
- Cook the grains al dente. This is to ensure that the grains don’t get soggy in the grain bowl as you add the other ingredients and the sauce.
- Use warm grains. Even though we often think of salads as cold meals, there’s something very comforting about the rice being served warm. It keeps the grains moist and blends more equally into the salad. It will also better absorb whatever dressing you use.
Comments
Hello,
I have a question about your cilantro sauce recipe. I love cilantro and I want to make to make your cilantro sauce, but I don’t have a good processor. Is there some other way to make it ? Or do you have another cilantro sauce recipe that I can make that doesn’t require the use of a food processor ?
Thank you
If you have a blender, that will work as well. Having a good food processor on hand is always a plus, though – I highly recommend looking at getting one that has multiple functions, like dough making, grating cheese, and pureeing. I really like the Ninja for this reason. Hope you enjoy!
Lots of recipes I want to try
Hope you do!
I made 3 grain bowls: rice, farro and quinoa. Was excited to finally have a good recipe for farro.
The cilantro dressing is indeed the best complement for those 3 grains.
Thanks for all your inspiring recipes.