Sunday Supper: Slow Down, Look Back, and Build Your Bowl
August Table | Build Your Own Bowl Series
There is something about a Sunday that invites you to breathe a little differently. The week that has just passed deserves a quiet moment of acknowledgment. What was hard, what was good, what surprised you. And the week ahead deserves a little intention before it arrives in a rush on Monday morning. Sunday supper, for me, is that ritual. It doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, the simpler it is, the more room there is for the things that actually matter: sitting down, looking at each other, and being present over a bowl of something warm and nourishing.
This is the first installment of what I’m calling Build Your Own Bowl with Ease, a new theme here at August Table rooted in the idea that beautiful, wholesome meals don’t require hours in the kitchen. They require a little intention, a good pantry, and the wisdom to let a few trustworthy shortcuts do their job while you rest.
This Week’s Bowl: Turkey Meatballs with Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges & a Greek Spinach Bowl
Outside, the peonies are absolutely bursting, deep pink and ruffled, exactly the way they get in that fleeting window before they open too wide. The pale peach roses in the courtyard are blooming too, soft and just-washed looking, and I’ve cut a few stems of both for the table. Sometimes the most beautiful thing you can do for a Sunday supper is bring in what the garden is offering. It costs nothing and changes everything.
Now. To the bowl.
The Turkey Meatballs: Let the Slow Cooker Do the Work
This is the most liberating part of the whole recipe: frozen store-bought turkey meatballs in the slow cooker. I mean it. Sundays can be a day of rest and reset, and there is no prize for making everything from scratch. (You can absolutely make homemade turkey meatballs if you love that project, but today is not the day we are requiring it of ourselves.)
The sauce is where you get to play, and this is the part I want you to make your own. The classic formula most people know, ketchup and grape jelly, is genuinely delicious in its simplicity. But the fridge is always telling you something about what you’re in the mood for. This week, mine told me: Japanese BBQ sauce, a spoonful of cherry jam I put up last summer, a touch of red pepper jelly for heat, and a drizzle of maple syrup to round it all out. It worked beautifully. Sweet, tangy, a little smoky, just enough warmth.
The method is almost embarrassingly easy:
Slow Cooker Turkey Meatballs
- 1 bag frozen turkey meatballs (about 24 oz)
- ½ cup ketchup
- ¼ cup Japanese BBQ sauce (or your favorite BBQ sauce)
- 2 tablespoons cherry jam (or grape jelly, the classic)
- 1 tablespoon red pepper jelly
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
Combine all the sauce ingredients in the slow cooker and stir to blend. Add the frozen meatballs and toss to coat. Cook on LOW for 4–5 hours or HIGH for 2–3 hours. That’s it. Turn it on and walk away.
The beauty of this sauce formula is that it is endlessly adaptable. Open your fridge. See what jams, jellies, condiments, and sauces are speaking to you. Peach preserves and sriracha. Blueberry jam and hoisin. Apricot jam and dijon mustard. The base ratio stays roughly the same, equal parts something tangy and something sweet, and the slow cooker does the rest.
The Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges
These are crispy, caramelized, and completely irresistible. I started with a technique from Two Spoons for oven-baked sweet potato wedges. The method is solid and the high heat is the key to getting them properly golden rather than soft and steamy. I adapted it to what I had and what felt right: olive oil in place of avocado oil, and onion powder added in alongside the garlic powder. I left out the chili flakes since the meatball sauce already had some heat.
Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges
Serves 4
- 2 large sweet potatoes, scrubbed
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- Fresh thyme (optional but lovely) – I used 1/ teaspoon dried thyme today
Preheat your oven to 450°F. Cut the sweet potatoes in half lengthwise, then cut each half into 3–4 long wedges, keeping the skin on.
In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt. Add the wedges and toss with your hands until every surface is coated.
Lay the wedges flat on a parchment-lined baking sheet in a single layer. Don’t crowd them or they’ll steam instead of roast. Bake for 15 minutes, flip each wedge, and continue baking for another 15–20 minutes until the edges are deeply caramelized and a little charred. That char is flavor. Don’t be afraid of it.
Building the Bowl
This is where it becomes yours. Lay out the components and let everyone assemble their own, or build it yourself with care and intention, which is its own small act of love.
Start with a generous bed of fresh organic baby spinach. Pile on the warm turkey meatballs straight from the slow cooker. Tuck in several roasted sweet potato wedges. Scatter halved cherry tomatoes in whatever colors are prettiest. Add a handful of kalamata olives. A spoonful of pickled red onion (the pink jewels of any bowl, make a jar on Sunday and use them all week). Finish with crumbled feta cheese over the top.
Dress the whole thing with your favorite Greek dressing or a generous spoonful of tzatziki. Or both.
Simple Greek Dressing
This comes together in under two minutes and keeps in the fridge for the week.
- 3 tablespoons good olive oil
- 1½ tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 small garlic clove, finely grated or pressed
- Salt and black pepper to taste
Whisk everything together in a small jar or bowl. Taste and adjust. More vinegar if you want it brighter, a pinch more salt if something feels flat. Shake before using. Makes enough for 2–3 bowls.
A Note on Sunday Suppers
The best Sunday suppers I can remember weren’t about the food being complicated. They were about the table being set, the flowers being cut, the slow cooker humming, and the feeling that someone had thought about you, had wanted to sit down with you and eat something warm before the week came rushing back.
That’s what this series is about. Build the bowl. Cut the peonies. Sit down together.
The week ahead will take care of itself.
Next week in Build Your Own Bowl with Ease: coming soon.
August Table is a space for seasonal cooking, slow living, and the table as a gathering place.