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A super easy Japanese inspired donburi bowl recipe with BBQ pulled jackfruit. A nutritious and quick to prepare rice bowl topped with a variety of rainbow vegetables and protein – perfect for using leftovers and as a lazy-night meal
Is it just me or is everything just better when it’s served in a bowl. Smoothie bowls are what started Alphafoodie, after all. However, a meal in a bowl definitely doesn’t have to be sweet – in fact, some of the best ones aren’t – buddha bowls, burrito bowls, veggie bowls, and now this brown rice bowl with BBQ jackfruit.
In a similar way to my rainbow vegetarian bibimbap recipe, I’ve used a delicious combination of rainbow vegetables, a protein and a Clarence Court Old Cotswold Legbar egg * (for additional protein) as the topping for this donburi bowl. However, the wonderful thing about donburi is that you can experiment with toppings.
A donburi bowl is pretty much great any day, but I love to have it as an ‘end of the week’ meal, as a great way to use up leftovers. Any leftover veggies and protein from the week can simply get chopped up and chucked into a bowl with some rice and you have yourself a simple, nutritious meal.
While the protein source is interchangeable, for this particular donburi bowl I turned to my easy jackfruit recipe of BBQ Pulled Jackfruit – which emanates pulled pork but 100% meat-free. And is super flavourful and wonderful when combined with rice.
I also topped with donburi bowl with a fried egg, for extra protein. While soft boiled or fried eggs work amazingly for a donburi recipe, I’ve included a fried egg here so I could season it but still be able to cut my knife into the yolk and allow it to spill over the other toppings and onto the rice. The egg yolk makes for a wonderfully creamy addition to any rice bowl.
What Is Donburi?
Donburi (or don) actually translates to ‘bowl’ and is essentially a rice bowl. The bowl is put together with a layer of cooked rice topped with a combination of cooked and uncooked toppings.
The rice bowl recipe can also be served with a simmering sauce. However, that isn’t the case for this particular donburi recipe.
The donburi names are then changed depending on the toppings, which determines the type of donburi. I’m not entirely sure what that would make this BBQ jackfruit-topped donburi – apart from delicious that is.
I originally struggled with what to call this dish as it is a twist on the classic donburi bowl in a number of ways. For instance, classic donburi is usually served with white rice. There is also some debate about whether donburi only refers to a rice bowl that has been simmered with a sauce/glaze for the rice and toppings.
This Donburi recipe doesn’t have the simmering sauce because the BBQ jackfruit is very flavourful and I really like quite simple flavour combinations. However, feel free to add a simmering sauce if you’d like – this is usually made up of dashi ( Japanese stock) with some soy sauce and sometimes mirin ( as far as I’m aware).
How to make this Japanese Donburi bowl with BBQ pulled jackfruit
Ingredients for the donburi dish
The first step to making your own donburi bowl is figuring out exactly what ingredients you want to use. As I stated above, this rice bowl is a great way to use up leftover veggies and protein from the week so all the toppings are interchangeable with your own favourites. However, this is the general gist of what I chose:
- Rice – Typically white rice is used. however, I used brown for additional nutrients
- veggies of your choice – You need to include around 1 Cup of vegetables per serving and these are interchangeable. I used carrot, cucumber, cabbage, radish and beetroot etc.
- Protein – For this recipe I used homemade BBQ pulled jackfruit I then combined this with a Clarence Court Old Cotswold Legbars egg – for additional protein
Donburi Recipe Variations
As I said above, with a donburi bowl you can easily swap out the vegetable toppings for you own favourites and these can be left raw or steamed/cooked depending on what you prefer.
This easy donburi recipe can also easily become a vegan rice bowl by omitting the egg. All the other ingredients are plant-based anyway so no tricky swaps are needed.
The How-To
The first thing you want to do is to prepare the rice for cooking.
Begin by rinsing the rice to get rid of the excess starch. The best way to do this is to rinse it until the water becomes clear. You can do this in a bowl or through a colander.
Leave the rice to soak in water for 30 mins ( then rinse again and drain after that time).
Meanwhile, as the rice soaks you can prepare the BBQ pulled jackfruit according to its recipe post if it’s not already ready. I’ve included two variations in the recipe; one which is more ‘saucy’ and one that is drier and more crispy so you can choose your favourite.
Once the rice has soaked then it’s time to cook it. To cook 1.5 cups of rice, add 3 cups of water in the saucepan. Bring to a boil.
As soon as it’s boiling, cover and leave to simmer until all the water absorbs. Keep an eye on it so that it doesn’t burn and stick to the bottom of the pan.
The rice is ready when all the water absorbs and it becomes fluffy.
While the rice and jackfruit are cooking, prep the veggies. You can use a veggie shredder or mandolin slicer or even just chop them by hand to thinly slice them. Feel free to use your favourite veggies in place of any of my suggestions.
I’ve also kept all the veggies raw for this rice bowl but feel free to steam/boil/ fry any veggies you’d like including sweet potato or mushrooms.
I find that if I use lots of cooked toppings then that is when I like to serve my donburi with more of a sauce. I’ll often cook my rice in my simple homemade stock and then season with a soy sauce/ maple syrup mix.
How to Assemble
Assembling your donburi bowl couldn’t be much simpler. Start with a layer of rice at the bottom of the bowl and then simply top this with about 1 cup of vegetables along with the jackfruit.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Add some coriander.
I also like adding a fried egg. F0r that, just add a bit of oil to a frying pan, crack an egg open and fry for 2-3 minutes.
I seasoned my fried egg with some chilli pepper flakes and black pepper. However, you can season yours however you’d prefer to.
You can always top it with extra BBQ sauce for even more flavour. Or even serve this donburi bowl with some soy sauce.
Other Recipes You May Like
*Clarence Court partner
For another Japanese-inspired dish then you might like this Japanese-inspired Ramen Noodle Soup. Alternatively, for some other ways to use your favourite rainbow veggies, how about this Sweet Potato Crust Rainbow Pizza and Rainbow Cucumber Sushi
If you try this Donburi Bowl Recipe then I’d really appreciate a rating. Also, what are your favourite topping choices? feel free to tag me in your recipe recreations on Instagram @AlphaFoodie.Â
Japanese Donburi bowl with BBQ pulled jackfruit
Ingredients
- 3 cups cooked rice
- 3 eggs I used Clarence Court Old Cotswold Legbar
- 2 cups jackfruit BBQ pulled recipe linked below in instructions
- 3 cups vegetables 1 Cup of vegetables, per portion. I used carrots, red cabbage, radish, cucumber and bean sprouts. However, you can swap these with any leftovers you have or your favourite veggies.
Instructions
- The first thing you want to do is to prepare the rice for cooking. Begin by rinsing the rice to get rid of the excess starch. The best way to do this is to rinse it until the water becomes clear. You can do this in a bowl or through a colander.Â
- Leave the rice to soak in water for 30 mins ( then rinse again and drain after that time).
- Meanwhile, as the rice soaks you can prepare the BBQ pulled jackfruit according to its recipe post if it's not already ready. I've included two variations in the recipe; one which is more 'saucy' and one that is drier and more crispy so you can choose your favourite. *
- Once the rice has soaked then it's time to cook it. To cook 1.5 cups of rice, add 3 cups of water in the saucepan. Bring to a boil. As soon as it's boiling, cover and leave to simmer until all the water absorbs. Keep an eye on it so that it doesn't burn and stick to the bottom of the pan. The rice is ready when all the water absorbs and it becomes fluffy.
- While the rice and jackfruit are cooking, prep the veggies. You can use a veggie shredder or mandoline slicer or even just chop them by hand to thinly slice them. Feel free to use your favourite veggies in place of any of my suggestions. I've kept all the veggies raw for this rice bowl but feel free to steam/boil/ fry any veggies you'd like including sweet potato or mushrooms.
- Assembling your donburi bowl couldn't be much simpler. Start with a layer of rice at the bottom of the bowl and then simply top this with about 1 cup of vegetables along with the jackfruit. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Add some coriander.Â
- I also like adding a fried egg. For that, just add a bit of oil to a frying pan, crack an egg open and fry for 2-3 minutes.
- You can always top it with extra BBQ sauce for even more flavour. Or even serve this donburi bowl with some soy sauce.Â
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
