The one and only Martha Stewart, maven of DIY, recipes, home décor and holiday event-planning tips, might be cited for her early reference to a culinary phenomenon known as the “power bowl.”

Stewart had written about a bowl of food – carefully “curated” and artfully constructed and presented in a large open bowl packed with many fresh and novel ingredients – as early as 2013.

The bowls had an impressive moment of fame about a decade or so ago and reached virtually every menu across the restaurant spectrum: you could find them at upscale bistros at the same time they were part of the Taco Bell fast-food canon.

Variously called macro bowls, “Buddha bowls” or nourish bowls (and even “hippie bowls”), the foodstuff certainly wasn’t a new thing – just an item that had taken off due to social media influence: you could always head into a restaurant of Thai, Japanese or Chinese orientation and find a delicious bowl of food.

But a larger scan across the culinary landscape will reveal delicious bowls of food that might pop up in the form of Korean bibimbap; Andalucian salmorejo of ham, tomato, garlic and egg; Portuguese arroz de marisco seafood rice; Hawaiian poke or a Vietnamese bun cha gio noodle bowl.

While their presence may have slipped somewhat on Instagram and Tik Tok feeds, the so-called power bowl remains an interesting dish to enjoy at a restaurant – or make at home.

                                                                                        Range of ingredients in one comfort-food dish
It seems to me that the thing about a meal in a bowl is that it suddenly becomes comfort food, no matter what the ingredients. It’s almost like when you are eating a bowl of breakfast cereal as you wake up in the morning.

Whether conventional proteins and vegetables or straight-up vegetarian or vegan, the bowls combine several ingredients and seem to encourage balanced and healthy eating. And they can also be made gluten-free and vegan, too.

Often a nutrient-dense concoction of protein (animal or not), vegetables, a grain and a sauce of some sort, power bowls are composed in their presentation and often artful in their design.

The bowls can be for breakfast, lunch or dinner; they can be served as appetizers, salads or main courses.

Whatever time of day they appear on your table, power bowls can offer a terrific blend of textures and colours. When you make them at home, they are ideal for taking leftovers from the fridge and ensuring you protect your grocery-bill investment and at the same time reduce food waste that might be going to the landfill unnecessarily.

                                                                                                       Multicultural and plant-based eating
One of the great things about such bowls is their multicultural inclusivity: there can be grilled pork, poached salmon, barbecued beef or duck confit seasoned with a host of international flavours.

To that, lettuce, nuts, raisins and noodles might be added before a drizzling of sesame oil or a reduction of balsamic vinegar. There can be both enchilada bowls and bowls with raw fish.

When they move into the realm of the Buddha bowl, they can become part and parcel of a plant-based diet.

While there might be a myth of Buddha walking around and carrying his bowl of food, the term may also refer to the wide bowl and mound of ingredients that make up a Buddha bowl, and an apparent mimicking of his chubby belly.

At the same time, power bowls can play a role in helping people become familiar with less well-known ingredients such as quinoa, freekeh (roasted green wheat), buckwheat and spices such as cardamom, za’atar and sumac.

                                                                                                                             Local bowls
As for area restaurants, Boston Pizza has a power bowl and a barbacoa burrito bowl: the former is salmon or chicken with brown rice, quinoa, spinach, guacamole, beets and roasted red peppers; the latter, barbecued beef, “fire-roasted” corn, onions, peppers, cherry tomatoes, jalapeños, Cheddar cheese and sour cream. It’s served with ancho-chipotle sauce, guacamole and tops either quinoa or brown rice.

Of course, a visit to Vijittra Thai will reveal various curries and Thai dishes and their multiplicity of ingredients – from cashews to scallions – along with the national pad Thai chock full of your choice of chicken, beef, tofu plus delectable rice noodles, egg, bean sprouts, green onion and ground roasted peanuts.

Malai Kofta at Himalayan Indian Cuisine could also be construed as a bowl: spices and minced vegetables and cheese balls are intermingled in a cream sauce, while Friendly’s prepares a chicken stir fry with seasonal vegetables mixed with teriyaki sauce served on a bed of rice or noodles.

It’s the same with Chinese restaurants:  Maison di Xin has a Buddha’s Delight that is stir-fried tofu with mixed vegetables among other dishes that, for all intents and purposes, are essentially bowls. New Ruby House has a bowl of Singapore vermicelli noodles with shrimp, BBQ pork and bean sprouts with curry.

Further out of town, a venue such as OCCO in Orleans prepares tuna poke bowls packed with basmati rice, pickled ginger, edamame, a nori wonton and zesty jalapeño-lime mayonnaise.

They also serve their signature bowls with a choice of protein and a heaping helping of a wide range of ingredients from pickled onions and Asian cucumbers that embellish chicken teriyaki, honey-soy salmon or sesame tofu.

Whether you gobble them down at a restaurant or put them together in your own kitchen, power bowls are a satisfying and often healthy way to enjoy unique combinations of ingredients that comfort and nourish.

Food writer Andrew Coppolino lives in Rockland. He is the author of “Farm to Table” and co-author of “Cooking with Shakespeare.” Follow him on Instagram @andrewcoppolino.