So far, we’ve had mixed feelings about Evol’s line of themed bowls. While we called the Boost Bowl (Be Well) “simple, nutritious, vegetarian-friendly, and absolutely delicious,” we said the “Evol Balance Bowl is decent, but it’s nothing special.”
So when we picked up the Vitalize Bowl (Be Energized), we weren’t sure what to expect. We were hoping for something more like the Boost Bowl, but the Vitalize Bowl does seem closer in concept to the Balance Bowl.
Now, this actually does come out of the microwave smelling quite good. That’s due to the feta and tahini sauce, which combine to give this a Mediterranean vibe. Those two ingredients are hands-down the best part of this meal, as they taste as incredible as they smell.
The problem is that everything else is just so-so.
Evol typically uses some pretty high-quality chicken. That’s true here, yet there’s not very much of it. In the image below, you can see a bunch of it clustered at the edge of the bowl, but what you see there is really all of the chicken in the entire bowl.
The bulk of this dish is brown rice and lentils, and those are both incredibly bland. On top of that, this dish ends up with a lot of juices in it. We’re not sure where they come from — perhaps from the veggies or the chicken, or maybe even the tahini sauce — but they give the rice a soggy consistency that makes it even less appealing.
Then there are a few veggies, such as red bell peppers, carrots, and spinach. All of these are fine, but none of them will make up for the over-reliance on grains.
This is no low-calorie meal, which would have been one of the major benefits of a meal like this. (Even the Boost Bowl only has 250 calories). The Vitalize Bowl contains 410 calories (200 from fat), which is more than we would have expected. The sodium is a bit more manageable, at 530 mg.
We love a lot of Evol’s foods, but the Evol Vitalize Bowl just doesn’t do it for us. It’s a little bland, and it’s not very filling. With more chicken and less brown rice, we think this meal could have really been great. Unfortunately, we probably won’t ever get to try that alternate universe version of this meal.
To learn more about the nutrition content or ingredients in this Evol bowl, check out our package scan below.
