Some weeks the Sunday-night batch cook happens. Other weeks it doesn’t, and I’ve made my peace with that. This is the dish I lean on when I’ve had neither the time nor the inclination to be organised, because it forgives me for it.
What I notice most about this bowl is how it sits afterwards. The spices are toasted and freshly ground, the protein is properly marinated, and the whole thing feels steadying rather than heavy. There’s a real link between eating slowly cooked, gently spiced food and the way your energy holds through the afternoon, and this one keeps me even. I’ve stopped thinking of dinner as the thing I have to get through before I can rest, and started treating it as part of how I wind down. The smell of cloves and cinnamon toasting in a dry pan does most of that work for me.
You can build it around baked marinated tofu, chicken or fish. I usually go tofu on a quiet week and chicken when I want something more substantial. Either way it packs down into a lunchbox without complaint, and there’s a quiet reassurance in opening the fridge on a Tuesday and finding tomorrow already half sorted.
The other thing I’ll say up front is that none of this is fussy once you’ve done it once. The list of spices looks long, but you toast them all together in one pan for about half a minute. The rice and quinoa can be last night’s leftovers. If you can marinate something and stir a wok, you can make this, and it will taste like you tried much harder than you did.
Ingredients
500 grams marinated tofu cut into strips (or 500 grams of chicken or fish)
Marinade ingredients
- 1 ½ tsp chopped lemongrass
- 1 tsp chopped garlic
- 1 ½ tsp fresh ginger
- ½ tsp chopped kaffier lime leaves
- 150 mls organic tamari
Spice mix
- 3 teaspoons ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
- 6 cloves
- 3 cardamom pods, cracked
- 1 cinnamon stick
Brown rice and quinoa
- 1 red onion, diced
- 1/4 cup roughly chopped combined organic dried apricots and cranberries (soaked in 2 tablespoons hot water and 1 tablespoon apple juice concentrate)
- 2 tablespoons ground spices from above
- 2 cups cooked brown rice
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- 1 tablespoon tamari
- 1/3 cup roasted cashew nuts or almonds
- 1 tablespoon shredded coconut
- 3 spring onions, green and white parts, sliced
- Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lime
Method
Tofu (or chicken or fish)
- To make the marinade, blend all marinade ingredients together until smooth. Marinate the tofu for at least 30 minutes. Place on lined baking tray and bake in a preheated 180°C oven for 30 minutes, turn frequently to ensure tofu is crisp on all sides.
Spiced rice and quinoa
- Roast all the spices together in a hot dry frying pan, shaking the pan regularly, for about 30 seconds or until you hear the spices pop. Do not overheat as they will go bitter. Grind to a fine powder in a spice grinder.
- Preheated a wok over medium heat. Add onion to the dry wok and cook for 1 minute. If it starts to stick, add a teaspoon of water. Add dried fruit and soaking liquid. Remove from heat. Stir in ground spices, then add the cooked rice and quinoa and stir to combine. Add tamari, nuts, coconut, spring onions, lime zest and juice.
Serves 8.
Serving, make-ahead and swaps
This is a bowl that likes to be made in stages. I’ll cook the brown rice and quinoa the night before, keep them in the fridge, then toast and grind the spice mix fresh on the day. Grinding your own is the step people skip, and it’s the one that changes everything, so I’d gently nudge you not to reach for the pre-ground jar. Warm spices lose their edge quickly once powdered.
For the protein, tofu is my default, though chicken makes it more of a proper dinner and firm white fish keeps it light. If you’re leaning on plants more often, my mushroom, chicken and quinoa skillet and this chicken with mushroom quinoa work the same way, and the feta, sweet potato and eggplant frittata is a good one to have alongside for the days you want something without grains.
The leftovers are the point. It reheats without going claggy, and a squeeze of extra lime brings it back to life at your desk. I tend to eat it warm for dinner and cool the next day, and honestly the cold version, with the dried fruit gone soft and the spices settled in, might be the one I prefer. A handful of fresh coriander or a spoon of plain yoghurt on top is nice if you have them, though it holds its own with nothing added at all.
If you want to keep building steady, whole-food meals into your week, the gut health challenge is a calm place to start, and there’s more on the everyday side of it in nailing nutrition. On the weeks where dinner feels like one more thing to manage, I find it helps to have one or two of these low-effort, high-return meals on rotation rather than a long list of ambitious plans I won’t follow through on. For a simple grounding in what balance actually looks like on a plate, both Eat for Health and Better Health Channel are sensible, plain-spoken references.
As for swaps, they’re generous. Use almonds instead of cashews, lean on cranberries alone if apricots aren’t around, and don’t stress the exact ratio of rice to quinoa. Fish works if you’d rather something lighter than chicken, and if you’re cooking for a full week you can happily double the rice base and freeze half. It’s a forgiving dish, which is rather the whole appeal.
– Tanya Pryce, Golden Door Living
