This nutritious spring-inspired quinoa bowl with a surprisingly dairy-free and vegan healthy hollandaise sauce is a culmination of inspirations.

First, today is the official launch of the BIG 140 Difference Contest, which is easy to enter via the #WorldsShortestGrant. I gave you a heads up in this post, but the basic guidelines are to share your bright ideas for environmental sustainability, plant-based eating, animal welfare or food allergies on Twitter (140 characters or less – get it?) for the chance to win funding for your idea. So Delicious will be giving away a total of $100,000, ranging from $140 to $10,000 per winner!

The event got me thinking about incorporating more plant-based meals into our daily diets, and the first thing that came to mind was a boisterous quinoa bowl (since quinoa is a good plant-based source of natural protein). But to keep with the idea of environmental sustainability, I wanted to make this quinoa bowl with seasonal produce that is accessible in most grocers. Queue the asparagus and organic carrots! I also added mushrooms, which are a pretty good option year round, but morels are a special spring delight if easy to locate and within your budget.

The second inspiration was my #365dairyfree pledge – to trial 365 new-to-me dairy-free recipes this year. While I could easily whip up an old stand-by dairy-free cream or Asian-inspired sauce, I wanted to push outside of my usual repertoire and try something that was not only a little different, but a perfect fit for this seasonal quinoa bowl.

Which brings me to the third inspiration: the new So Delicious Thrive Blog! Leading up to the 140 Difference Contest, I’ve been oohing and ahhing over their gorgeous new blog, which shares the popular brand’s events, fun posts, and recipes.

Most recently, I was enticed by a recipe for Vegan Benedict over Spiced Sweet Polenta. It’s topped with an intriguing healthy hollandaise sauce that is not only egg-free and vegan, but also completely oil-free! Consequently, it’s relatively low in fat and extremely versatile. Even if I’m only making one spring quinoa bowl, I make a full batch of the healthy hollandaise sauce in the recipe below and store the leftovers in a squeeze bottle. And I usually use more than one serving of it – in the name of nutrition, of course. Don’t you just love guilt-free sauces?

This post is sponsored by So Delicious Dairy Free, but the inspirations are genuine and all of the opinions here are my own. I honestly love the opportunity to share new events, recipes and resources!

Special Diet Notes: Spring Quinoa Bowl w/ Healthy Hollandaise

By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, gluten-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan / plant-based, and vegetarian.

For paleo vegan hollandaise, you can substitute the coconut milk beverage with 2 tablespoons good quality, full-fat coconut milk and 3/8 cup water. To make the whole spring quinoa bowl paleo and grain-free, chop a large head of cauliflower florets and steam until tender. Mince for healthy, steamed bowls of cauli-rice to use in place of the quinoa.

