Dr. B’s “Fiber Fueled Cookbook”

SWEET POTATO SHAWARMA BOWLS

Serves 4 | 8 Plant Points

It’s the spices that matter. The Arabic name shawarma refers to the turning action of a vertical spit that was developed in Turkey several hundred years ago to roast meat. But when most of us think of shawarma, we think about the explosion of complex flavor from the spices. Turkey was once the bridge between East and West, and so the spice trade flowed through it. It’s no wonder that this melting pot country produced this incredible multicultural spice bomb.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 small head cauliflower, chopped into bite- size pieces
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into bite-size pieces
• ½ teaspoon salt, plus a pinch for the dressing
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1½ teaspoons ground cumin
• 1½ teaspoons sweet paprika
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• ¾ teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
• Pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
• Drizzle of olive oil or water
• ½ cup quinoa or other gluten- free short grain
• 4 cups shredded lettuce
• 1 cup thinly sliced cucumber
• ½ cup thinly sliced red onion
• ⅓ cup tahini paste
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

INSTRUCTIONS  

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.  Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick silicone baking mats and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, place the cauliflower, sweet potato, salt, black pepper, garlic, cumin, paprika, cinnamon, if  using, ginger, oregano, turmeric, and cayenne, if using. Add a drizzle of olive oil or water to loosen the mixture, then toss together to combine.
3. Spread in a single layer on the prepared baking sheets and roast for 25 minutes, or until the veggies are tender.
4. While the veggies are cooking, make the quinoa. Rinse and place the quinoa in a medium saucepan over medium heat along with 1½ cups of  water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Let cook for 12 minutes, then remove from the heat and let sit for another 2 to 3 minutes to set. Fluff with a fork, then set aside to cool.
5. Divide the lettuce, cucumber, and red onion among four bowls.
6. In a small bowl, whisk together the tahini and vinegar song with a pinch of salt. Keep whisking, drizzling in water, a tablespoon at a time, until a creamy dressing forms. It’s normal for the tahini to become hard before it thins out.
7. Add the shawarma veggies to the prepared bowls and drizzle with tahini dressing.

My good friend and award-winning gastroenterologist, Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (you may know him as @theguthealthmd or simply “Dr. B”), has just published a new book that I believe will become the new guide of Fiber-Rich, Gut Healthy Cookbooks.

It’s called The Fiber Fueled Cookbook: Inspiring Plant-Based Recipes to Turbocharge Your Health, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Today’s recipe, Sweet Potato Shawarma Bowls is one of the mouthwatering meals from his book.

Dr. B’s first book, Fiber Fueled, was an instant New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Amazon bestseller:

This new plant-based cookbook picks up where Fiber Fueled left off, diving deeper into FODMAPS, histamine intolerance, and other common (but hard-to-identify) causes of food intolerances.

It’s perfect if you have digestive issues, if you’re following (or interested in) a plant-based diet, or even if you’re just looking for an easy and delicious way to get more healthy fiber into your diet and level up your gut health.

The Fiber Fueled Cookbook will show you how to…

• Make your (new) fiber-fueled lifestyle as delicious as possible with 125 drool-worthy plant-based recipes…
• Overcome your food intolerances with Dr. B’s ingenious low FODMAP and low histamine protocols…
• Identify the foods that are causing your digestive issues—and heal the root cause—with Dr. B’s GROWTH strategy…
• Avoid the “Big 3” food sensitivity issues and optimize your gut and microbiome for better health and well-being…
• Learn to sprout, ferment and bake sourdough and other gut-healthy foods…And more!

I’m putting it out there: everybody should have this cookbook. 

Keep it in plain sight in the kitchen. Before you know it, the pages will be folded-over and marked with so many Post-Its that you’ll have half the recipes memorized. They’re that good.

If that piques your interest, you can learn more about it here.