This vegan Buddha bowl features a variety of fresh and roasted vegetables, rice, and the best feature: a tangy lemon tahini sauce.
It’s the time of year for cleanses, nourishing juices and fresh salads. Much as we love salads, sometimes it seems a bit anticlimactic: What’s for dinner, honey? Salad. Here’s a salad that is anything but a let down: a vegan Buddha bowl. We realize that this concept might be overly “vegetarian / vegan / hippie” for some tastes, but we challenge you to give it a try! With all the flavors, textures, and colors, this vegan Buddha bowl is so satisfying it’s appealing even for meat lovers. Don’t believe us? Try it and let us know via comments or on Instagram – we would love to hear from taste testers!
Related: Best Vegan Dinner Recipes | Best Healthy Dinner Recipes
Vegan Buddha bowl ingredients
When creating this Buddha bowl recipe, it was very important to us that it’d be filling, nutritionally dense, and delicious. For this particular vegan Buddha bowl, we used sweet potatoes, cauliflower, rice, chickpeas, beets, red cabbage, sunflower seeds, and salad greens.
The secret to this Buddha bowl is the dressing. It’s zesty, creamy, and a bit addicting. We’ve made enough here so that you have more for later — because you’ll want it! This vegan Buddha bowl is also great if you’re dealing with dietary restrictions: it’s vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free. Serve it with bread or crackers for a filling meal.
Can I use different buddha bowl toppings?
Of course! If you’d like to create your own vegan buddha bowl, you should place the following components in a bowl, with the goal of making it as colorful and visually appealing as possible:
- Greens (salad greens, steamed or massaged kale)
- Raw or roasted veggies (any type)
- Cooked grain (rice, quinoa, farro)
- Protein (beans, chickpeas, tofu)
- Crunchies (nuts, seeds)
- Dressing
We’ve shared our favorite Buddha bowl toppings in the recipe card below, but nourish bowls like this are super flexible and can be tailored to fit your personal tastes!
Related: Veggie Burrito Bowls with Cauliflower Rice
How to make a Buddha bowl
Whether you choose to make this specific vegan Buddha bowl or put your own spin on this recipe, the instructions are basically the same. You’ll need to roast the veggies and cook the grain, then thinly slice the vegetables you’ll be eating raw (in this case, the beets and cabbage). Whisk together the dressing, and then you can assemble your Buddha bowl!
Buddha bowls can easily be meal prepped as well. Simply prepare and store the toppings in separate containers and throw together a Buddha bowl whenever you’re hungry.
Looking for more tahini recipes?
Outside of our Vegan Buddha Bowl recipe, here are a few other tahini recipes from A Couple Cooks:
- Dark Chocolate Tahini No-Bake Cookies
- Moroccan Sweet Potatoes with Tahini Dressing
- Spicy Tahini Corn on the Cob
- Roasted Nourish Bowl with Lemon Tahini Dressing
- Broccoli and Turmeric Yellow Rice Bowls
- Classic Homemade Hummus
Related: What is Tahini?
This vegan Buddha bowl recipe is…
Vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free, naturally sweet, and refined sugar-free.
Print
Vegan Buddha Bowl with Lemon Tahini Sauce
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
This vegan Buddha bowl features fresh and roasted vegetables, rice, and to tie it all together: a tangy lemon tahini sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes (2 medium)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- 1 head cauliflower
- Fresh ground pepper
- 1 to 1 ½ cups black rice or quinoa, uncooked
- 15-ounce can chickpeas (1 ½ cups cooked)
- 1 beet
- ¼ head red cabbage (we used a combination of savoy and red)
- 12 cups salad greens
- Best Lemon Tahini Sauce, to serve
- ⅓ cup sunflower seeds or pepitas
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- Dice the sweet potatoes; place them in a bowl and mix with 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil and ½ teaspoon kosher salt. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and pour the sweet potatoes onto half of the sheet. Cut the cauliflower into florets; place them in the same bowl and mix with 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil and ½ teaspoon kosher salt. Pour the cauliflower onto the other half of the baking sheet. Top the vegetables with fresh ground pepper and roast until tender, about 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare the rice or quinoa according to the package instructions or use our Instant Pot rice or Instant Pot quinoa methods.
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas; mix them with a drizzle of olive oil and a few pinches kosher salt.
- Peel and thinly slice the beet. Thinly slice the red cabbage.
- Make the Lemon Tahini Sauce.
- To make the vegan Buddha bowl: place the salad greens in a bowl. Arrange small piles of each component. Drizzle with the Lemon Tahini Sauce and top with sunflower seeds or peptias.
Notes
For easy prep, cook the rice, make the dressing, and chop the veggies in advance. The day of, roast the veggies and put together the salad.
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Roasted
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Buddha Bowl, Nourish Bowl, Vegan, Vegan Buddha Bowl, Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Tahini Sauce
I could eat salad for every meal – especially if it’s like this!! There is so much goodness in this bowl!
This looks so good!! I just had dinner, but I kind of wish I saw this earlier!
This is gorgeous you guys! Going right into a Real Food Meal Plan ASAP!
What a beautiful way to start the new year – such beautiful colors and that dressing sounds amazing! Glad you’re feeling a bit better Sonja – sending happy thoughts and prayers your way.
Thank you so much, Jess!
The flavours, colours and textures of this bowl of goodness are totally what I need right now, particularly when all of my resolutions to eat cleaner + happier this year are being sorely tested by the return to work this Monday morning…Thank you, as ever, for making it that much easier to make the good decisions and I’m glad you’re starting to feel a bit better Sonja. Sending lots of good thoughts your way xo
Thanks, Kathryn! The “back to reality” Monday is the worst, isn’t it? :)
I’m so down with this recipe . Bowl food is the best! I love all of these colors too! Pinning!
What a delicious looking salad. We all need to get back to eating healthy. This one is a great start. Thanks for sharing!
This is totally my kind of meal. I like the combo of cauliflower, beet, and sweet potato here. And very glad to hear you’re doing better, Sonja! Thanks for the update.
You’re welcome — and thanks for your kind thoughts about my health!
You really nailed the visually appealing part- the colors are fantastic (and obviously, compliments to the photographer)! Thanks for giving me some new ideas- I get stuck in a rut eating the same vegetables. And I love lemon tahini dressing but I haven’t made it in AGES- thanks for reminding me!
You’re so welcome! The dressing really makes the salad – I could eat it every day! (Or at least, feel like I could…!)
I think I came across a nourish bowl recipe like this a long time ago and did nothing with it. However, after reading your recipe I think I’m going to have to try it. And I’m glad to know that you are doing better. I hope your health continues to improve.
Thank you, Susan! Let us know if you try it out and what you think!