Home/Blog/High-Protein Breakfast Bowl That's Loaded with Flavor and Nutrients

High-Protein Breakfast Bowl That's Loaded with Flavor and Nutrients

By Holly Darnell, RD

November 27, 2024

The one-bowl meal is a thing. It’s relatively easy to put together, colorful, can include many ingredients (and nutrients as a result) and tasty.

You could argue an entire restaurant chain (Chipotle) has succeeded because of this concept.

But while lunches and dinners often feature one-bowl meals, the breakfast bowl is more of a recent trend that shows no signs of slowing down. This egg-based bowl features many foods rather than the standard egg, bacon, toast routine. It’s more fun, healthier and yes, more delicious.

We’ve gone a step further and developed a high-protein breakfast bowl that is absolutely loaded with nutrition. In fact, it features a good amount of nearly every vitamin and mineral.

This breakfast bowl is so yummy that you may also want it for lunch on occasion.

How to make a breakfast bowl

Besides the eggs, which you prepare last, the base for this high-protein breakfast bowl are sweet potatoes. After washing and cubing the sweet potato, you will put the cubes in a bowl and toss with olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Then place in the oven at 425 degrees for nearly 30 minutes, until crispy and cooked through.

Next you will sauté the onions in a pan with a little avocado oil on the stovetop at medium heat for a few minutes, until golden brown. Then add the spinach and sauté for another couple of minutes, until wilted. Set aside.

At the same time the onions are cooking, you can prepare the turkey bacon with a frying pan. Typically it’s cooked four to five minutes per side. You may need to grease with a little avocado oil. You may choose to chop up the turkey bacon after removing it from the pan.

Rinse and drain the black beans. Prepare the tomatoes and avocado.

Then make up the eggs according to your preference. Scrambled is the most popular, but over easy or even jammy eggs also can work. To make jammy eggs, simply boil water in a pot, add the eggs and cook them uncovered for six to seven minutes. Remove, let them cool a bit, then carefully peel off the shells.

Lastly, assemble the two bowls. To make them look like a classic breakfast bowl, place each ingredient in separate parts of the bowl. To each bowl, add the ingredients in this order: sweet potatoes, wilted spinach, chopped tomatoes, black beans, turkey bacon, eggs and avocado. Add extra garnishes like feta cheese or cotija, salsa, cilantro, jalapenos or green chilis if you wish.

Nutrition facts

This high-protein breakfast bowl is one of the most nutrient-dense meals, let alone breakfast, that you can make or find. Because it includes multiple high-nutrient foods like sweet potatoes, spinach, black beans, tomatoes and avocados, it’s very high in key nutrients. It also features eggs and turkey, two high-protein foods.

One serving of this breakfast bowl is 467 calories and features ideal macronutrients: 32 grams of carbohydrates, 28 grams of fat and 23 grams of protein. Add some additional egg whites if you want it even higher in protein.

Among the 32 grams of carbs, 11 grams are fiber, making this a high-fiber recipe as well. Sugar accounts for only 6 grams.

Vitamin- and mineral-wise, nearly all are represented in this breakfast bowl. Each serving includes over six times the Daily Value* (DV) of vitamin A and nearly twice the DV of vitamin K.

Each serving also contains all B vitamins — riboflavin, pantothenic acid, B6, B12, folate, niacin and thiamin — including over 50 percent DV of the first three. It includes over 30 percent DV of vitamins C and E.

Over 50 percent DV of selenium, manganese and copper are featured. Over 25 percent DV of zinc, magnesium, iron and potassium are included.

It’s a veritable multivitamin breakfast bowl.

*Daily Value: Percentages are based on a diet of 2,000 calories a day.

How to customize your bowl

Another advantage of this recipe is how customizable it is, as swapping out ingredients won’t mess up the final result at all.

Here are some great options that you might consider:

• Potatoes: You may also choose to go with Yukon Gold potatoes or purple potatoes, both of which go well with eggs. Some like to add hash browns but they’re typically less nutritious.

• Eggs: As you read above, you can go with multiple different types. Nearly all work, with scrambled the easiest and most common.

• Egg whites: Speaking of eggs, if you want to make this breakfast bowl extra high-protein, add a few egg whites when you scramble your eggs.

• Meat: We go with turkey bacon but you can also go with regular bacon, beef bacon or a breakfast sausage.

• Greens: Spinach is the most common choice but kale, Swiss chard or arugula can also do the trick. Just remove the stalks from the kale or Swiss chard if you use that type of leafy green.

• Avocado: This recipe calls for cubed avocado but you can also simply use guacamole to make it even more Mexican.

• Cheese: Optional cheeses include feta or cojita. Cheddar can also work well. Want to go cheese-free? Add high-protein nutritional yeast for that great flavor.

• Herbs: Optional herbs include cilantro. Fresh basil can also work.

• Spices: Optional garnishes to spice up this bowl include salsa (which can include fresh salsa), green chilis and jalapenos.

More one-bowl options

• Quinoa bowl

• Winter sweet potato bowl

• Chia seed smoothie bowl

Recipe developed by Holly Darnell, RD. Holly is a registered dietitian nutritionist who unlocked self-love at the intersection of exceptional food and practical solutions for healthy living. She’s passionate about helping others make simple, positive lifestyle changes on their individual path to healing.