The ultimate nutrient-packed vegan buddha bowl! Fresh veggies, beans, sauerkraut, and a vibrant turmeric tahini sauce make it hearty and flavorful.
Where did the name ‘Buddha Bowl’ come from, anyway? If you’ve been on Instagram in the last 5 years, chances are you’ve seen these colorful bowls, packed with plant-based goodness like grains, legumes, steamed and raw veggies, and flavorful sauces. According to a 2017 Epicurious article by Katherine Sacks, the name could come from how Buddha collected alms, using a large bowl to gather small bits of food that the residents of whatever village he was staying in could afford to share.
Before we started calling these colorful bowls “Buddha Bowls,” I knew them as macro bowls. When we lived in Austin, I headed to a macrobiotic restaurant called Casa de Luz whenever I needed a bit of a recharge. Instead of having a fixed menu, Casa de Luz offered one rotating meal per day. It would always be some type of buddha bowl, with a grain, a legume, blanched leafy greens, steamed vegetables, a pickled vegetable, and a delicious sauce. It may sound limiting, but I’ve honestly had some of the best sauce and vegetable pairings of my life there. Since I can’t visit Casa de Luz regularly now that we live in Chicago, I used their basic template to build my own buddha bowl recipe.
My Buddha Bowl Recipe Ingredients
To make a homemade version of a Caza de Luz macro bowl, I used one item from each of these categories:
- A delicious sauce – I made a vibrant turmeric tahini sauce. It’s my favorite type of creamy sauce in that it doesn’t require a blender, so you can stir it together in no time. And if you have leftovers, you’re in luck! This colorful sauce tastes great on everything.
- Cooked vegetables – Roasted sweet potatoes were my pick.
- Raw vegetables – Watermelon radish, rainbow carrots, and red cabbage give this buddha bowl recipe a huge pop of color!
- Leafy greens – Bring on the kale.
- A legume – I chose my go-to plant-based protein: chickpeas!
- A grain – I used brown rice, but if you don’t have any on hand, feel free to substitute white rice.
- A pickled vegetable – Sauerkraut! I love Bubbies.
These components all keep nicely in the fridge if you want to meal prep this recipe for lunch during the week. Find my best meal prep tips here and more of my favorite healthy lunch recipes here!
Vegan Buddha Bowl Recipe Variations
I love this recipe as written, but feel free to customize your buddha bowl. Here are a few of my favorite variations:
- Vary the veggies. Replace the sweet potato with roasted butternut squash or regular potatoes, or try a different kind of roasted veggie. Roasted Brussels sprouts, roasted broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, or beets would all be great. You could also try cooking them in different ways. Steam or sauté the kale instead of leaving it raw, steam or roast the carrots, or boil the sweet potatoes. In the summer, grilled veggies would be great here too!
- Swap in a different protein. Try edamame, lentils, black beans (or any kind of beans), or top your grain bowls with cubes of crispy tofu or tempeh. For extra crunch, you could even use roasted chickpeas!
- Change up the grain. Replace the rice with quinoa, farro, or couscous. For extra veggie power, skip the grain, and swap in cauliflower rice or broccoli rice.
- Switch the sauce. Make a different variation of my basic tahini sauce recipe, or use a different sauce entirely! I love finishing a buddha bowl with peanut sauce, lemon vinaigrette, green goddess dressing, cilantro lime dressing, hummus, or drizzles of sesame oil and soy sauce or tamari.
- Try a different pickle. Don’t have sauerkraut on hand? Use pickled red onion or jalapeños instead!
Let me know what variations you try!
More Favorite Plant-Based Recipes
If you love this buddha bowl recipe, find 85 more delicious vegan recipes here, or try one of these healthy bowls next:
- Rainbow Kale Salad
- Sesame Soba Noodles
- Roasted Veggie Grain Bowl
- Sweet Potato Quinoa Bowl
- Or any of these 15 Best Rice Bowl Recipes!
Best Buddha Bowl
Ingredients
- 1 large sweet potato, cubed
- Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
- 1 watermelon radish or 2 red radishes
- 2 medium carrots
- 1 cup shredded red cabbage
- Squeeze of lemon
- 8 kale leaves, chopped
- 2 cups cooked brown rice or quinoa
- 1 cup cooked chickpeas or cooked lentils
- ¾ cup sauerkraut or other fermented veggie
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds or hemp seeds
- Turmeric Tahini Sauce, for serving
- Microgreens, optional
- Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Toss the sweet potatoes with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and spread onto the baking sheet. Roast for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Thinly slice the radish into rounds (this is best done on a mandoline), and use a vegetable peeler to peel the carrots into ribbons.
- Toss the radish slices, carrots, and shredded cabbage with a squeeze of lemon. Set aside.
- Place the kale leaves into a large bowl and toss with a squeeze of lemon and a few pinches of salt. Use your hands to massage the leaves until they become soft and wilted and reduce in the bowl by about half.
- Assemble individual bowls with the brown rice, chickpeas, kale, carrots, radishes, cabbage, sweet potatoes, sauerkraut, sesame seeds, and microgreens, if using. Season with salt and pepper and serve with the Turmeric Tahini Sauce.
Okay so a while back I made this and everyone loved it although the sauce seized up in the food processor – it was so thick but still really good. Fast forward to now and I went back up in your site and you seemed to have modified it a bit – HOLY MOLY!!! The absolute best sauce ever!!!! And by not making it in a bowl instead of food processor means no seizing….10 plus stars
***I made it with a whisk
Hi Jessie, I’m so glad you loved the new version!
I am learning to eat way more veggies, was diagnosed with heart disease. I have always ate healthy but have to make changes. I am allergic to tumeric and cannot eat the anything fermented. What do you suggest for substitutes? Everything I eat has to be low sodium and low fat. Thank you
Hi Tracy, you could make the regular tahini sauce recipe (no turmeric) and skip the sauerkraut!
Lovely recipe ! Everyone at home enjoyed it!
As a long-time Austinite I can vouch for the deliciousness of Casa de luc. It is a great place for inspiration. I became obsessed with sauces after the first time I dined there. So good.
They’re sauces are the best!
Can’t figure out if this is served hot or cold with the mixture of ingredients it has. No direction as to keep precooked things warm and add them with cold veggies… help!
Hi Carmen, you can serve the bowls fully cold or use a mix of warm and cold/room temp ingredients. We actually love the mix of temperatures! Hope this helps.
how many calories it contains?
Hey, I am doing to know what that twisty garnish is on top of the bowl! Looks tasty and interesting . Like a substitute for bacon lol.
-Jess
I’m pretty sure those are the rainbow carrots, sliced lengthwise.
Its a watermelon radish.
Excellent. For the most part I followed the recipe, but used some veggies that were already in my refrigerator. Delicious and the dressing made it! I’ve made other buddha bowls, but this was the best. I’ll definitely make this often. Highly recommend you try it!
I’m so glad you loved it!
This was delicious and made enough for my husband and I for two nights, so we’re having leftovers tomorrow! It’s sa bit of prep work, but worth it. I used the turmeric tahini dressing and my husband and I really liked it!
I’m so glad you both enjoyed it!
Would you have a calorie count for this recipe?
Thanks!
Hi Janice, I’m sorry, we don’t calculate nutrition info but you can plug the ingredients into a site like my fitness pal.
Hi. This looks delicious and filling. I don’t like fermented veggies (except beets and pickles). Can you suggest a substitute?
Thanks. Joan
Hi Joan, pickled onions would be great here: https://www.loveandlemons.com/pickled-red-onions/
Or pickled ginger.
This was quite yummy. I made it to prep for lunch since I work long days the next two days, and since it serves four I prepped two lunches and then used the other two portions for myself and my partner for dinner. For extra protein I made a jammy egg to go with it. Very good!
Very delicious and healthy
Made this incredible bowl last night for dinner and it was exactly what I needed! Such a perfect Springtime bowl, the whole family loved it. I used regular radishes instead of watermelon (cause my grocery store never has them… sad). Super easy to make and the turmeric tahini dressing was delicious! Highly recommend!
I loved this! I meal prepped it for lunches too. Do you or others here reheat the roast vegetables and quinoa or do you just eat the whole thing cold? Thanks!
Hi Erin, I’m so glad you loved it! I just eat the whole thing cold!
Something like this is already on the menu once a week in my house (grain + bean + greens + assorted other sauteed vegetables), but I never really thought of adding raw or pickled vegetables to the mix. I don’t think I want sauerkraut on the chickpea/barley thing I’m eating now with a dollop of tzatziki, though, haha! – maybe pickled turnips like they put on shawarmas…
Hi! Love all of your beautiful recipes! Can you please share a link to a couple of your favorite bowls to serve in and/or could recommend a size? Thank you! I understand if you’re not able to share that.
Hi Katie, here are a few of my favorite ceramicists with great bowls:
https://www.colleenhennessey.net/
https://www.sarahkersten.com/
and this is the one in the picture:
https://herriottgrace.com/collections/all/products/stoneware-porcelain-pasta-bowl
Hi Jeanine,
I loved the original sauce recipe you had here. Any chance you would share it? I know you have the link to a new version but I would prefer the old version.
Thanks,
Lily
Hey! Do you have any recommendations of what to add to this if it gets too watery? I want it to be more of a dip and less of a dressing,…I think the tahini I used may have been too liquidy. Thanks in advance!
Hi Emily, this one is definitely more of a dressing than a dip. To thicken it, you could add chickpeas and blend it into a food processor so that it’s thicker, more like hummus. I hope that helps!
Hi Sara, I’m so glad you loved the bowls!