A month ago my husband and I went on a trip to Portland & Seattle (click here or here for pics) where we had so much good food! In Portland, there are entire city blocks with Food Trucks lined around them, and on one of these blocks, we came across a Food Cart that was called and served only one dish, called The Whole Bowl. Here is a picture of the food truck (note the pretty picture), and then us holding the whole bowl itself (so good!)
The bowl itself is said from their website to be “like eating a hug” and is “a comforting and healthy medley of brown rice, red and black beans, fresh avocado, salsa, black olives, sour cream, cheddar, cilantro, Tali Sauce and trace amounts of attitude.” With the Tali Sauce being the secret ingredient and is referred to many as “crack-sauce” and I can see why!
When we got home, I immediately set out making this dish, and came pretty close with my adaptation of a recipe of ‘Oh So Close Tali Sauce’ I found from Zeste blog which I adapted to form the recipe below. Surprisingly, one of the key ingredients is Nutitional Yeast (it can be found in the spice bins at natural foods stores or can be purchased online here).
Below is the recipe – I’ve gotten such great feedback that I did another post on this Tali sauce with some more pictures here!
After making this sauce numerous times, I have found that it is best when made in a food processor – like this one (<–is the one I use).
The Whole Bowl - Tali Sauce Recipe - Vegetarian & Gluten Free
Ingredients
Instructions
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If you make this recipe, I’d love to know! Leave a comment below or take a photo and tag me on Instagram orFacebook with #sweetphiblog or email me at sweetphiblog@gmail.com, I always love featuring your pictures on my Reader Recreations page!
Katey Bisso says
Did anyone else notice that the sauce tastes way different on its own compared to in the bowl? I was super disappointed when I first finished it and tasted it straight out of the food processor but with rice and beans it tastes JUST like at the whole bowl! I’m so confused and pleasantly surprised
Sweetphi says
Hi Katey,
I have noticed that the sauce definitely tastes better on the bowl vs. by itself lol, so glad you were pleasantly surprised 🙂
Marian Jones says
I haven’t used your recipe for quite some time. I decided to make it today, but noticed a difference. Didn’t you use to put 1/4 cup of almonds in it? I may be wrong, but that’s what I have written down from your site along time ago.
Thanks Marian
Sweetphi says
Hi Marian, thank you for the comment. You are absolutely right, I did used to have 1/4 cup almonds in the recipe. Someone wrote me that there were no nuts in the recipe, so I retested the recipe again with and without, it didn’t make all that much of a difference flavor wise, so I just omitted them. Feel free to include them though 🙂
Emily says
I thought the recipe required almonds? I swear your recipe used to. Did I make this up?
Sweetphi says
Hi Emily, you are absolutely right, I did used to have 1/4 cup almonds in the recipe. Someone wrote me that there were no nuts in the “real” recipe, so I retested the recipe again with and without, it didn’t make all that much of a difference flavor wise, so I just omitted them. Feel free to include them though for extra protein.
Natasha says
I tried this recipe today and it was perfect.. I’m not a huge fan of sour cream so I used yogurt and it was just as good as the actual whole bowl!! I also adjusted the amount of yeast and used half of what was recommended and it turned out amazing!! Can’t wait to try it again, thanks for posting this ?
Sweetphi says
I’m so glad to hear you loved the recipe, thank you for leaving the feedback and changes you made 🙂
Dana says
I live in Portland and work just down the street from the downtown Whole Bowl. I’m really excited to try this recipe. I’m unfortunately sensitive to yeast – would you recommend a good substitute to retain the same umami flavor?
Thank you!
Dana
Sweetphi says
Hi Dana, thank you for your comment. What a great question! So, nutritional yeast is used usually as a ‘cheese’ substitute. If you’re not vegan, I would highly recommend using parmesan cheese in place of nutritional yeast 🙂
cam says
this is so good! thank you!
Sweetphi says
You’re welcome, so glad you like it 🙂
Lisa says
I recently visited portland and had the immense pleasure of trying the “whole bowl” as recommended by my friends at “floaton” just a few doors up the road. I loved it so much I came home and tried to make it for my kids.. I look forward to trying your version of tali sauce bc mine wasnt quite like this.. thanks for posting..
Sweetphi says
I think you’ll love this Lisa, I just made this again last night and my husband said it’s still one of his all time favorite meals!
Kathy Wheat says
Hi Sweetphi! I just came across your website and signed right up for your newsletter. I am excited to try many of your recipes. While I am not a vegetarian-I do enjoy vegetarian dishes. I recently lost almost 200 pounds and I’m just making sure That I don’t find them. Lol. And some of those veggie recipes sound great and should help. I’m in my 50s and looking to stay healthy now. So here’s to good health and good eating. kAthy
Sweetphi says
Hi Kathy, welcome to the SweetPhi community, so happy to have you! Congrats on the incredible weight loss! I think you’ll love this vegetarian dish 🙂
Megan says
I used to live in Portland and ate Whole Bowl almost weekly (if not more). So I was thrilled to find this recipe online a few months ago. I think I’ve probably made this recipe over 20 times since I’ve found it and it’s good! We usually double the recipe (so that we have enough sauce for the whole week) and use an entire can of chickpeas (it helps the consistency of the sauce) and use a few additional shakes of garlic salt/onion powder instead of onion salt. Overall though, this recipe is AMAZING!
Sweetphi says
Thank you so much for letting me know how much you like this dish, I too am so in love with it – I make it all the time!!