My brand new cookbook is out on Amazon! It’s called “30-Minute Plant-Based Recipes” and it’s perfect for busy vegans. Grab it now!
This healthy and clean Buddha Bowl recipe with an appetizing pesto sauce is so delicious! It’s optimized for vegan nutrition needs and will keep you full all day!
Buddha Bowls are my all-time favorite way to meal prep for the week! They are such a great way to combine various ingredients to create a delicious, nutritious, and satisfying bowl.
The Buddha Bowl we’ll be making today is one of my true favorites! Not only it is delicious but it also follows the Vegan Food Plate Method which I extensively described in my earlier post on What Vegans Should Eat Every Day To Get All The Nutrients.
First, let’s start with grains. We will be using a mix of two grains in this recipe: barley and quinoa. In What Vegans Should Eat Every Day To Get All The Nutrients, I emphasize the importance of varying up the foods we eat. That is how this grain mix came about! I find that many people do not consume barley all that much apart from maybe soups. So why not combine this amazing “forgotten” grain with quinoa?
We will cook both grains at the same time to maximize our efficiency in da kitchen.
While the grains are cooking, we will cook the veggies. First, sweet ‘tators will go into the oven to roast. Roasting is honestly the best hands-off cooking method! Just pop the veggies in the oven and 30 mins later you’re done.
While the ‘tators are roasting and the grains are cooking, we will sauté onions and mushrooms. I reserved the sautéing as the last step because it is the quickest. Sauté onions in some oil. Then sauté shiitake mushrooms in sesame oil and soy sauce. Yum yum!
To make the Earth Goddess Buddha Bowl, combine the following: barley and quinoa grain mix, chopped kale, roasted sweet potatoes, sautéed mushrooms and onions, chopped fresh cucumber, cubed avocado, and pistachio pesto.
Pistachio Pesto binds all the ingredients in our buddha bowl together and adds cohesive flow to the dish. If you don’t have any pistachios on hand you can also make pesto out of almonds or hemp seeds.
Each ingredient in this Earth Goddess Buddha Bowl provides the necessary daily dose of nutrition while creating a cohesive flavor profile across the entire dish.
Okie dok, you ready make this Buddha Bowl thing happen? Let’s do this!
This healthy and clean Buddha Bowl recipe with a delicious pesto sauce is optimized for vegan nutrition needs. It is yummy and will keep you full all day!
- 1/2 cup pearled barley
- 1/2 cup quinoa
- 2.5 cups water
- 2 medium sweet potatoes, cut in one-inch squares
- 2 tbsp olive oil or oil of choice
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1 cup chopped shiitake mushrooms
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 cups kale, chopped
- 1 medium cucumber
- 1 avocado
- 4 tbsp Pistachio Pesto
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Combine 1.5 cups of water and 1/2 cup barley in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 40 minutes until barley is cooked all the way through.
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Cook quinoa at the same time as barley. Combine 1 cup of water and 1/2 cup of quinoa in a pot and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 15-20 minutes until quinoa absorbs all the water.
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Mix the two grains in one bowl.
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Heat oven at 400F. Toss sweet potatoes in 1 tbsp olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Arrange on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes tossing them half-way.
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Cook the rest of the vegetables while both grains are steaming and potatoes are roasting in the oven. Heat up a medium sized non-stick pan over medium heat. Add olive oil (or oil of choice) and caramelize the onions, about 5-7 minutes. Transfer to another dish.
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Using the same non-stick pan, heat 1 tbsp of sesame oil. Add shiitake mushrooms and soy sauce. Stir and cook until mushrooms are cooked fully, about 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and add onions back to the pan to combine with mushrooms.
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Combine 1/3 cup of barley and quinoa grain mixture, 1 cup of chopped kale, 1/3 cup of roasted sweet potatoes, 1/4 cup of sautéed mushrooms and onions, 2 tbsp of chopped cucumber, 1/4 of avocado (cubed), and 1 tbsp of pistachio pesto (see recipe link for Pistachio Pesto in the post or notes below).
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Store ingredients in air tight containers in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Nutritional Information (with pistachio pesto): Calories: 404 Fat: 17.5 g Saturated fat: 3.0 g Carbohydrates: 57.7 g Dietary Fiber: 10.3 g Sugar: 3.0 g Sodium: 605 mg Protein: 8.1 g
My brand new cookbook is out on Amazon! It’s called “30-Minute Plant-Based Recipes” and it’s perfect for busy vegans. Grab it now!
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