Make delicious, healthy grain bowl

Grain bowls like the ones Jessica Koslow makes at Los Angeles’ Sqirl are incredibly adaptable. You can use almost anything you can find in your kitchen, if you apply a little good sense and keep in mind a few basic rules.

First, of course, comes the grain. Koslow prefers rice, specifically the brown rice grown in California by Koda Farms. “It’s so healthy and it tastes so good. It’s brown but not too brown.” You could also use any other cooked whole grain, such as farro, barley or quinoa.

The grain has to be well seasoned. Koslow dresses the rice in her bowls with both butter for body and an acid such as yuzu juice for tartness.

She also relies on what she calls a “schmear” — some kind of sauce spread in the bottom of the bowl — to give the rice some oomph. “Tahini is great for that, but yogurt or labneh with some hummus mixed into it would be great, too,” she said. For breakfast bowls, the ubiquitous “egg on top” serves the same purpose.

There needs to be a crunchy component. “That comes from raw vegetables, like watermelon radish, spinach, tomatoes, that kind of thing.” The crunch can also come from cooked vegetables.

You need a certain meaty quality as well, and that can come from cooked vegetables — roasted cauliflower or sauteed zucchini, for example.

To set off all those components, Koslow looks for some kind of pickle. “Bowls have to have a bit of acidity for freshness,” she said. “That can come from preserved lemons, pickled peppers, anything with brightness and zing.”

To make rice bowls yourself, it’s probably a good idea to have a rice cooker (Koslow uses a Zojirushi at her house) and to have an assortment of cooked vegetables and prepared condiments ready so you can mix and match.

When it’s done right, what looks simple turns out to be a thoughtfully composed combination.