What I love about my mostly plant-based diet is the variety of ingredients that feature across many recipes, and also the array of flavors you can create from those many ingredients. That’s my main focus in this Buddha bowl, a hearty lunch or dinner that you can truly look forward to devouring or busting out at dinner parties.
It’s a recipe that’s simple enough that almost anyone can make, but carries high nutritional value, enticing you to want to create this meal every week!
Legumes are a common feature throughout the vegan diet, that’s because they’re an excellent source of protein, vitamins and minerals. For this recipe I’ve used red kidney beans, which contain around 15g of protein per cup.
Of that cup, you’ll find 45% of your daily fiber needs, nearly 60% of folate and a whopping 295% of molybdenum. This is an essential mineral that helps to breakdown amino acids in the body.
Red quinoa is one of the healthiest foods you can add into your meals, as it’s a great source of manganese, copper, phosphorus and powerful antioxidants. Quinoa contains all nine essential amino acids, which is a great combination with the molybdenum found in the red beans, as those amino acids can be rapidly absorbed and put to use in the body!
If you’ve been looking for alternative sources of probiotics, then look no further as I’ve included one whole cup of red cabbage sauerkraut. You can easily make this on your own at home, or buy readily made jars at your local health food store, making sure it doesn’t contain any additives or preservatives.
Sauerkraut contains beneficial bacteria that help to balance out the good and bad bacteria in your gut. As 80% of our immune system is located in our gut, gut health is incredibly important for maintaining overall health and for disease prevention.
I’ve used many healing spices throughout the Buddha bowl, including paprika, turmeric and cayenne. Cayenne pepper in combination with other herbs and spices has been shown to increase their efficiency once consumed. Turmeric has to be one of the most powerful anti-inflammatory spices known to man.
As inflammation is the root of many modern-day diseases, consuming turmeric regularly will help to balance any acidity in the body. Particular compounds have even been found to be more powerful than man-made medication!
Buddha Bowl
Ingredients
- 1 can cooked red kidney beans drained
- 1/2 cup red quinoa cooked (about 1 cup cooked)
- 1 cup red cabbage sauerkraut
- 1 avocado peeled and cut into slices
- 1 cup fresh greens mix arugula, spinach, chard, fresh mint
- 2 medium sweet potatoes peeled and cut into small cubes
- 2 tsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp smoked paprika powder
- 2 tsp raw flax seeds
- 2 tbsp lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 1/2 pomegranate seeds only
- Sun-dried Tomato dressing
- 6 sun-dried tomatoes drained
- 5-6 fresh basil leaves
- 1 tsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 tsp grated ginger
- 1/2 small shallot diced
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp cayenne
- 1/2 cup purified water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 175C/346F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and add the sweet potato cubes.
- Drizzle with coconut oil, add smoked paprika powder and toss to coat evenly.
- Roast for 20 minutes, then remove and set aside.
- Add the dressing ingredients into the blender and process to obtain a smooth liquid.
- Divide the ingredients into the serving bowls, add with sun-dried tomatoes dressing, drizzle with lemon juice and serve.
Notes
Ultimate indeed, this bowl has it all! I already love it, can’t wait to prepare it!
Buddha bowl power! Let me know how it turned out 🙂
Do you not think it is slightly unrealistic to say there is a preparation time of 10 minutes? But included in that you have to peel and cut an avocado, have sweet potatoes cooked and peeled, have ginger grated, have a shallot diced, have quinoa cooked and make the dressing in a blender.
Actually the sweet potato cooking is included in the 20 mins of “Cooking”. And yes, I only need 10 mins to cut an avocado, slice an onion and add some ingredients into the blender, these are very, very easy operations that are definitely no time consuming. So I don’t think it’s unrealistic at all! 🙂
Hi, this looks amazing. Re the nutritional info – if prepared according to recipe and serving 2 the 604g serving cited is half finished dish yes? Thanks.
Hi Erika, yes you got it right. Let me know how it was! Thanks
Hi Ana, this looks amazing and I can’t wait to make it. Quick question though, I need to food prep my lunches for the week due to time constraints so I’m curious of how long you think this dish would last in the fridge. Thanks in advance.
Two options – you can prepare and refrigerate all the ingredients separately and assemble when ready to eat, or assemble everything except the greens, adding them just before eating. Both ways keep up to 5 days in the refrigerator if you use glass containers.