Heaven in a bowl: The couple bringing wholefood cuisine to festivalgoers

Charlotte and David Bailey have found their niche – bringing their wholesome Buddha bowls to the festival scene

Wholefood Heaven van serves up award-winning Buddha Bowls at various festivals in UK

Charlotte and David Bailey knew two things for certain when they decided to set up their own food business: it had to be vegetarian and it had to it had to fit inside the back of their 1973 Citroën H van.

Wholefood Heaven – their thriving enterprise – ticks both those boxes. They’ve got a pitch at buzzy Whitecross Street in London two days a week and are regulars at festivals like Wilderness and Glastonbury (where last year they were named favourite food stall).

Not bad when you consider they’ve based a business largely on one dish: their signature Buddha bowl. They easy sell 100 plus of them a day at Whitecross Street and into the thousands during a day at Glastonbury.

What’s a Buddha bowl? The Bailey’s version of the bowls contains a moreish mix of massaman-style curry with new potatoes, pineapple and soya chunks; carrot and kimchi pickle; flash-steamed seasonal greens; omega seed sprinkle and short-grain brown rice. Grilled halloumi is an optional extra.

While all that may scream healthy with a capital “H” it also tastes amazing whether you’re a vegetarian or a committed omnivore. “There’s so much you can do with wholegrains and vegetables that you don’t need to be thinking about trying to mimic meat in any way,” Charlotte says. “And that’s why bowl food is so fantastic for vegetarian and vegan cookery because it gets you away from that meat and two veg thing.”

Whether it’s in a bowl or a box, these dishes are both filling and flavourful

Now they’re sharing the recipe for their signature dish in their new cookbook – their second – called Wholefood Heaven in a Bowl. Yes, there’s bowl food – the term that thrills some and send shudders through others – but the real common denominator of the dishes is that they’re packed full of flavour, texture, crunch and colour. It’s a reflection of what they love to cook and eat, says Bailey. “Everything we do is massively influenced by travel. Definitely the number one perk of having a fairly seasonal food business is being able to go on trips. We tried to bring the colour and flavour from those trips to this book.”

For Charlotte, vegetarian cooking is a natural, in large part due to her Mum. “She decided to become vegetarian when she was six years old and had to hide her meat under the table and then dispose of it subtly later for the first ten years of her vegetarianism as it certainly wasn’t approved of by her parents. It was anathema to be vegetarian. No one could make head nor tail of it.”

What was the turning point for her Mum? “The memory that is vivid with her is going to a farm with her father and he pointed to a lamb that they were petting and said, ‘That would be delicious on Sunday.” She made the strong connection and she was horrified, ‘Surely that’s not what we eat on Sunday.’ She’s not been able to eat it since.”

Charlotte and David Bailey have built a business around their healthy lifestyle

Nor has Charlotte. She was raised vegetarian and has never eaten meat. “Maybe it’s strange because I love to try new things. But for me it was really a strong early connection between the fact that the meat was an animal and I love animals. My desire to try something has never been stronger than that feeling.”

For her husband David, it was an entirely different story. David was raised in South Africa in a house full of boys where beef and braais were on the menu. A classically trained chef, David and Charlotte met when they worked at the same restaurant. “I used to see him carrying trays of Peking duck up and down the stairs so I certainly was under no illusions whatsoever that he would become a vegetarian.”

But a few months into their relationship David decided to give it a try. It stuck and he’s had a meat-free diet ever since. Once they started their business they thought the festival scene would be a natural place to progress to. There was only one problem. “Neither of us had ever been to a festival,” she laughs. “We just didn’t know what they were really but it seemed the obvious thing to do once we were in possession of this mobile kitchen.”

They started out with a couple of small ones then decided to give Glastonbury a go. “The first year was a real learning curve. We’d never been and we were both utterly overawed by the scale and size of it and what we’d bitten off. Yes, it wasn’t our best ever year that first one, but we gave it another go and I think that’s the best training.”

With their spot near the Pyramid stage, the pace of serving up Buddha bowls is relentless. They’re open from 11am to 2am and can serve over 1,000 per day – all from their vintage Citroën van. Edith – as they’ve named her – is a workhorse and just fits Charlotte and David inside with cooking equipment and food. It gives cozy a whole new meaning. But Charlotte admits it’s probably better once it’s parked since it’s hardly going to break any land speed records.

She tells of driving it to festivals and being passed by every other car on the road. “We’ve got the slowest one on the block. 35 miles per hour! Happily, we just had a new engine and now we’re pushing fifty. There’s no stopping us!” One glance at the cue snaking around the corner at Whitecross Street on a Thursday afternoon and there’s no doubt that she’s right.

Gallo pinto bowl with sweet plantain, avocado, grilled halloumi and a fried egg

We were lucky enough to travel through Nicaragua and Costa Rica recently and one of our most abiding memories has to be of gallo pinto. The national dish of Costa Rica, served with every single meal, gallo pinto – or rice and beans – is truly ubiquitous, but it’s so hearty and delicious you somehow never get tired of it. This bowl is inspired by our daily Nicaraguan breakfast. It’s a true breakfast of champions but it works at any time of the day. When shopping for plantains, remember that the blacker the skin, the sweeter the taste. You can substitute bananas if plantains are hard to come by.

Serves 4

3 tbsp olive oil
1½ onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
​500g long-grain brown rice
1.5 litres vegetable stock
​400g (1 can) black beans, drained
handful coriander, chopped
salt and cracked black pepper

For the plantains

1 tbsp lightly salted butter
2 plantains, peeled and cut into diagonal slices

To serve

250g halloumi, cut into 8 slices
4 eggs
2 avocados, sliced
1 lime, cut into 4 wedges

Heat the olive oil in a large pan, add the onions and sauté for a couple of minutes until translucent. Add the garlic and the rice and sauté for another couple of minutes, stirring constantly.

Add the stock, cover the pan with a lid and bring to the boil. Boil for 25–30 minutes or until you can’t see any stock. Mix in the beans, turn down the heat and simmer gently until the rice is fully cooked; this should take a further 10–15 minutes.

Stir through the coriander, season with salt and pepper to taste and place to one side. For the plantains, melt the butter in a skillet or frying pan and add the plantain slices. Cook over a medium heat until they’re golden on the first side, then flip them over to brown the other side. Remove from the pan and place to one side.

In the same skillet or pan, melt a touch more butter if needed and cook the halloumi slices until they’re golden on the first side, flip them over and cook the other side. Remove from the pan and place to one side. Finally, in the same skillet or pan, melt a touch more butter if needed and fry the eggs. To serve, scoop a generous amount of the rice and beans into each bowl and place the plantain, halloumi and avocado slices around the sides. Top with a fried egg and garnish with a wedge of lime.

Wholefood Heaven in a Bowl by David and Charlotte Bailey. Published by Pavilion, £16.99