Eating healthy during this holiday season can be really hard. I’ve recently started adding more vegan/vegetarian meals into my daily routine. The recipes are easy and pretty quick to make for a weeknight meal or for a healthy lunch. For my Meatless Monday lunches I enjoy a nice Buddha bowl!
A Buddha Bowl usually has some sort of grain (rice, quinoa, bulgur) topped with sautéed or roasted veggies and a tasty sauce. This Buddha Bowl is a little different with sweet potatoes, rainbow chard and a tahini and maple syrup dressing. Tahini is ground sesame seeds and is used in a lot of Mediterranean cooking, most popularly in hummus! Here’s a go-to Buddha Bowl recipe that I enjoy.
1 sweet potato (sliced in ½ inch rounds)
1 bunch rainbow chard (stems removed and leaves sliced in ½ inch ribbons)
½ yellow onion (sliced ½ inch thick)
1 bunch broccolini (Long stems cut short)
Olive Oil
Quinoa
½ cup quinoa
1 cup water
Maple Tahini Dressing
¼ cup tahini
1 Tablespoon maple syrup
Lime Juice
Water
Cilantro (rough chopped)
Toasted chopped cashews (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. In a medium saucepan, heat the water and quinoa until it comes to a boil. Once the quinoa has come to a boil cover with a lid and turn the heat to simmer. Cook for 17 minutes or until the quinoa is done. Turn off the heat and let the quinoa steam. When ready to serve, give your quinoa a drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper.
3. On a sheet tray, drizzle the sweet potato rounds with olive oil and salt and pepper. Make sure to season both sides! Spread them out on the sheet for even cooking. Bake for 8-10 minutes.
4. Flip the sweet potatoes and add the broccolini. Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Cook in the oven for 8-10 minutes. The broccolini should have nice charred bits.
5. Heat a medium sauté pan on medium heat. Add olive oil and sauté the onions until translucent 4-6 minutes. Add the rainbow chard and sauté for 4-6 minutes until the rainbow chard is wilted.
6. In a medium bowl, combine the tahini, maple syrup and lime juice. Stir with a whisk. Thin the dressing out with water if it is too thick. The dressing should coat the back of a spoon and not run off. Add the cilantro and season with salt and pepper.
7. Time to assemble your Buddha Bowl. Use the quinoa as a bed for all of your veggies. Drizzle your sauce over the whole bowl and top with the cashews.
For more healthy and vegan/vegetarian recipes try The Chopping Block's Clean Eating classes with Wellness Chef Alia Dalal or our upcoming Vegan Desserts or Vegan Voyage: Italian Trattoria hands-on cooking classes.
In the meantime, download our free Clean Eating: Get Started guide which contains the core principles of a clean eating diet as well as recipes to help get you started. If you want the ultimate Clean Eating education, join us for Clean Eating Boot Camp coming up in January at Lincoln Square.