Affordable Eats: Forget Dieting. This N.J spot promotes a healthy lifestyle

Affordable Eats: Forget Dieting. This N.J spot promotes a healthy lifestyle

This is a continuation of our healthy January Affordable Eats for all who resolved to eat better this new year. If you follow this series every Friday, you will have plenty of spots to feast all over New Jersey without expanding your waistline!

Welcome to Soul Bowls, which started as a food truck in 2017 and became a thriving plant-based eatery with two locations in Scotch Plains and Metuchen. Soul Bowls proves that healthy eating does not have to be boring. Their plant-based menu is packed with flavor, and the variety of offerings is worth exploring.

Sisters Alicia and Michelene Lambros, both in their 30s, are founders of Soul Bowls. The daughters of Italian and Greek immigrants have adjusted their serving size to be more reasonable than American eateries.

“Healthy eating can be delicious and satisfying,” Alicia Lambros said with a chuckle. “Everything we offer here at Soul Bowls is plant-based, which means no meat and no dairy. And we only use organic ingredients.”

Soul Bowls

Michelene Lambros poses with the Soul Bowls food truck in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, in July 2017.Alicia Lambros

Michelene Lambros agreed.

“I always say it’s the portions,” she added. “That’s what really speaks to our ethnic background — in a big, big, BIG way!”

The menu at Soul Bowls includes popular bowls like the pbnj ($13.50) with açai, Soulnola® (Instead of granola), banana, strawberries, raspberries, peanut butter and agave. Another best seller is the love butter ($14.00) with açai and pitaya base, bananas, raspberries, peanut butter, chocolate chips, Soultella® (Instead of Nutella), Soulnola® and agave.

These offerings may seem lavish, but they’re more than healthy.

“We focus on whole foods, which means raw with no additives and no preservatives,” Alicia Lambros said. “We don’t promote dieting. Instead, we advocate a healthy lifestyle. Diets are temporary. Lifestyle is forever.”

Soul Bowls

Soul Bowls in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, photographed Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025,
offers smoothies and healing shots without adding inches to your waistline.
Karim Shamsi-Basha

I tried the two bowls mentioned above and was surprised by their decadent and rich flavors. The pbnj did not taste like what I expected, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! It had depth and tang and was rich and very tasty. The love butter had all that, along with that decadent hazelnut flavor from the Soultella®.

With the temperature outside hovering around freezing, I tried the hot oatmeal bowl ($12.00), a homemade concoction of oats, groats (Whole grains), chia seeds, agave and lots of coconut.

I like oatmeal in the winter, but if you haven’t tried the oatmeal at Soul Bowls, you’ve missed a major event!! This oatmeal bowl was decadent with a hint of sweet and tremendous flavor from coconut and agave.

I should have stopped here, but I pressed on! I tried the detox juice ($9.00) with red apple, pineapple, jalapeno, ginger and lime. It was yummy, light and very refreshing.

Lastly, I ended my healthy taste journey with the healer shot ($4.00), which comes with turmeric, ginger, lemon and black pepper. It was quite strong but also tasty.

Alicia Lambros offered another juice, but I raised my hands in surrender! She laughed, saying, “We are what we eat, and food can be our medicine. We have developed recipes here at Soul Bowls that are conscious of those basic and healthy principles.”

If you resolved to eat better this year, head to Soul Bowls in Scotch Plains or Metuchen. Your heart, body, soul, and your waist, will thank you!

Karim Shamsi-Basha may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter & Instagram.

Follow Mosaic on Instagram at @MosaicNJcom and on Facebook at MosaicNJcom.

Karim Shamsi-Basha is a columnist with Mosaic and NJ Advance Media. He is an immigrant journalist from Damascus – Syria. In 2021, Karim won the Caldecott Honor for his children’s book: Cat Man of Aleppo, a true humanity story of a man who saved cats during the Syrian civil war. He moved from Alabama to the Garden State in 2022 and is loving his new home.

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