Roots Southern Bowl

When I was little, I loved pulled pork sandwiches. As in, ate them for birthday dinner and for breakfast the next morning, loved them. When I stopped eating pork, I never missed bacon or sausage, but occasionally I really craved barbeque. Then I moved to Athens, where vegetarians are so spoiled that pretty much every barbeque place has veggie options, and I realized it wasn't even the pork I missed... It was just the barbeque sauce! 

A few months after getting on the BBQ tofu train, I tried these bowls at Roots Natural Kitchen when I was visiting my sister in Charlottesville. Here's how they describe the Southern bowl on their menu:

The Southern is all about balancing flavors. Sweetness and depth from BBQ tofu. Smokiness and char from the chickpeas, broccoli, and corn. Bitterness from the kale. Acidity from the pickled onions... The tahini dressing ties everything together with nuttiness and lemon.

YUM.

We can't live in Charlottesville though... Partly because it gets cold there, and Adam's weather preferences just barely allow us to live in north Georgia. Partly because everyone who lives there seems to be gorgeous and very pulled together. They have a Clinique counter in their university bookstore, and I spill coffee on myself at least once a day. I hope my readers will understand how those two facts are related and utterly incongruous. So I had to try my hand making these at home.

Additional instructions:

• The only hard part of making this meal is that you have to decide a day or so in advance, so you'll have time to make Southern Bite's pickled onions. I solve this problem by keeping a jar made up in my fridge all the time. They're good on every sandwich and salad and by themselves as a snack and just generally make life better. Trust me.
• For more details on how to bake the tofu, I'd refer you to a recipe from Oh My Veggies. I only picked this recipe because it was the simplest one I saw on Pinterest, but it seems to work just fine. 
• After draining the corn and chickpeas and letting them dry a bit, I roast them with the broccoli the same way I always roast vegetables.
• I use bottled (not from concentrate) lemon juice in the dressing, because patience to manually squeeze juice from a lemon isn't one of my spiritual gifts. Thanks in advance for your prayers.

I'm a big fan of veggie bowls all around, but these are a standout favorite. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!