A Cookable Feast

I’m so, so excited by today’s recipe because it is inspired by a bomb meal I had this summer at KouZina, a restaurant here in the Detroit area. Say hello to Greek Bowls with Chicken and Spicy Roasted Red Pepper Feta Sauce!

I liken KouZina to a Greek Chipotle: you order at the counter, and one of the options is to create your own bowl. You select your rice (white or brown), your meat (chicken, gyro beef, or gyro lamb – or all three), your veggies, cheese, and sauce and plop down to eat the hell out of that glorious goodness! Visiting KouZina for the first time was a magical day for me (one that I highlighted on my other blog, 100 Places in the D).

After that day, as I was pleasantly haunted by the memory of how frickin’ delicious that meal was, I became intrigued with the idea of attempting to recreate the spicy feta sauce that my Greek bowl was doused with at Kouzina. For me it was the crowning jewel of the whole thing. I mean, what was not to like about all of that creamy, garlicky, savory, spicy goodness? If I could come close to replicating it, I mean, that would be my Marie Curie-level achievement to the food-blogging world – or at least, to my lil’ baby blog. So I set about on my experimentation – and after two attempts, I arrived on a spicy roasted red pepper feta sauce that while not an exact replication of KouZina’s delectable brand, is still – in my humble opinion – pretty damn good.

What else is amazing about these Greek Bowls with Chicken and Spicy Roasted Red Pepper Feta Sauce besides the saucy part? Well, they’re loaded with healthful and flavorful veggies – spinach, beets, onion, cucumbers, banana peppers. They’ve got protein for days, coming from the chicken, chickpeas, and quinoa (which I’ve substituted for the rice that was in my KouZina bowl). And they’re SUPER filling – said protein and fiber will keep your stomach satisfied for a sustained amount of time. Plus, SPICY ROASTED RED PEPPER FETA SAUCE – I cannot reiterate that enough!

There’s a fair amount of prep for this recipe: roasting the red bell peppers and beets; cooking the quinoa; roasting the chicken and boiling the chickpeas if you decide not to go the store-bought-and-already-cooked route for those (which is a totally viable and time-saving option – grab a whole roasted chicken from the supermarket and canned rather than dried chickpeas) – but once it’s done, putting the bowls together is a snap. You can do the prep-work ahead of time and store the readied ingredients in the fridge until you are ready to whip together the bowls and voilá! have them ready to go on a crazy-busy weeknight.

I’m going to keep this one short and sweet so you can get on to the Greek Bowls with Chicken and Spicy Roasted Red Pepper Feta Sauce-making and enjoy the zesty, spicy, wholesome, hearty magic. On to the recipe!

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Greek Bowls with Chicken and Spicy Roasted Red Pepper Feta Sauce

Filling quinoa bowls loaded with flavorful veggies, hearty chicken, and a spicy roasted red pepper feta sauce that is oh-so-good! The components may yield more than four servings depending on how much of each ingredient you prefer to use in each bowl you assemble.

Servings 4 servings

Author A Cookable Feast

Ingredients

Red Pepper Feta Sauce:

• 2 red bell peppers
• 1 8-ounce block (1 cup) feta cheese
• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 + 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tsp. raw minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/4 tsp. dried oregano

Bowl Components:

• 4 beets
• 1 1/2 cups quinoa
• 3 cups water or stock
• 2 cups cooked pulled chicken
• 2 cups cooked chickpeas
• 2 tightly-packed cups fresh spinach
• 2 cups peeled and chopped cucumber (I chopped mine into wedges, then cut those wedges into quarters.)
• 1/2 cup banana-pepper rings
• 1/2 cup diced red onion

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut stems off of bell peppers, remove seed core, and slice lengthwise into quarters. Place cut-side-down in an oven-safe baking dish and let roast until soft and skin starts to get blistery and slightly charred, about 35-45 minutes.
3. Cut tops off of beets and wrap individually in tin foil. Add to an oven-safe baking dish and roast in oven until soft when pierced with a fork, about 50-60 minutes. Let cool and then remove skins; you should be able to rub them off easily with your hands. Chop per your preference and set aside.
4. Rinse the quinoa in a fine-mesh strainer. Add with the water or stock to a medium-sized pot. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 15 minutes, or until all of the water has been absorbed. Remove from heat and set aside.
5. Add all sauce ingredients to a food processor or blender and process until smooth, pausing to scrape the sides of the mixing container as needed.
6. Now it's time for the fun part: assembling the bowls! Line the bottom of each individual serving bowl with a layer of quinoa, then add your desired amounts of beets, chicken, chickpeas, spinach, cucumber, banana-pepper rings, and red onion. Top with generous dollops of red pepper feta sauce. And you're done! You have a spicy, flavorful, filling Greek-inspired quinoa bowl to enjoy.