photo by Lea Kriesberg
This is probably my favorite thing to make at school. It’s so easy to make any cooked components ahead of time, it keeps well throughout the week, requires no cooking or even reheating when you’re ready to eat, and most importantly, it tastes good. Recipes like this let you prepare dinner for the week in just an hour. People call this type of meal a “buddha bowl” because make you can serve it in a big round bowl and all of the different parts make for a perfectly balanced meal (protein, carbohydrates, healthy fats, and micronutrients). Buddha bowls are great because the ingredients do the work for you. The different flavors from roasting the vegetables and the simple dressing come together to make it delicious without any effort. If you’re feeling adventurous you can throw any spices you like on the vegetables before your roast them; even just some salt and pepper does wonders. Try adding avocado, lemon, sesame seeds, or a fried egg for even more fun.
You can modify this to use any vegetables, grain, or protein you like. Roast or chop a pan of vegetables, cook a big pot of brown rice or quinoa, and prepare a source of protein (beans, hardboiled egg, chicken) and store it in the fridge to assemble your bowl whenever you want it.
It’s also great to have your own salad dressing. Premade dressings can have lots of sugar and chemicals. It’s easy to make dressing yourself in minutes with just a few ingredients. This tahini-miso dressing is flavorful and creamy, which makes the bowl even more satisfying (and only requires three ingredients). The “recipe” below is just one example of how to make a buddha bowl.
Prep time: 20 mins
Ready in: 40 mins
Serves: 6
Ingredients:
- sweet potato
- broccoli
- cauliflower
- kale
- quinoa*
- water
- purple cabbage
- spices (salt, pepper, curry powder, cumin)
- olive oil
for the dressing
- miso
- tahini
- water
supplies
- sheet pan
- knife
- small pot
- cutting board
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
- Bring two cups of water to a boil.
- Wash, peel, and chop the sweet potatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower.
- Place the chopped vegetables on the pan.
- Generously toss and coat the vegetables with olive oil.
- Add salt, pepper, curry powder, and cumin to vegetables.
- Roast the vegetables in the preheated oven for around 40 minutes. Keep checking on them and flipping them as necessary, as some vegetables take long than others. Once they get a little browned on all sides, take them out. The sweet potatoes need more time than the broccoli and cauliflower.
- Add one cup of quinoa to the boiling water and turn the heat to low to bring the quinoa to a simmer (you should see lots of little bubbles). Loosely cover the pot and simmer the quinoa for around 15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed, stirring occasionally.
- Wash and chop cabbage.
- Wash and chop kale.
- For the dressing, mix equal parts miso and tahini and add around a tablespoon of water at a time until it gets to the consistency you like.
- When everything is ready, throw everything in a bowl. Store leftovers in the fridge for the week.
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Notes: One cup of dry quinoa is usually enough for me for 5-7 days of bowls. The ratio I use is always 2 cups of water for 1 cup of quinoa.
recipe by Lea Kriesberg
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