Mel’s Buddha Bowls {With Super Tasty Peanut Sauce}
This easy Buddha bowl recipe with creamy peanut sauce is, whoa, SO good! Plus it’s one of those fabulous recipes that is super customizable to your taste buds and/or what you have on hand!
Have you gotten on the Buddha bowl train yet? They are certainly nothing new (began trending years ago), and the name origin is a little muddy with lots of strong opinions about what a Buddha bowl is and isn’t.
But to me, it’s simple: fill up a bowl with flavorful, good-for-you ingredients, smother with a tasty sauce (or two), and dig in. We have variations of Buddha bowls quite frequently for dinner because it’s a fantastic way for my kids to customize their own dinner adventure.
Spoiler alert: to avoid the anti-vegetablers in my crowd just spooning peanut sauce over chicken and calling it good, our rule is you have to choose at least four of the available options and that seems to make everyone *mostly* happy. With enough of that delectable creamy peanut sauce poured on, they’ve learned even spinach is palatable.
Buddha Bowls are crazy customizable
Because there are endless variations of these types of Buddha bowl recipes out there, it’s taken me a while to get a real, live recipe written up. I would say this Buddha bowl recipe with peanut sauce is always our go-to starting place.
But there are so, so many ways you could change this up:
- Use brown rice or other grain instead of quinoa
- Add or take away from the vegetables and roast your own assortment (broccoli, squash, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, etc) – let me just say, though, there is something about the roasted sweet potato + red onion combo that is magical
- Make it easily meatless by leaving out the chicken
- OR, instead of cooking the chicken in the skillet, grill the chicken (yum!) or use leftover chicken from another meal or a rotisserie chicken – additionally, you could change up the meat protein and use shrimp, fish, pork or beef
- Add a million different fresh garnishes (chopped fresh herbs, tomatoes, other types of greens, chopped peanuts, sesame seeds, etc)
The non optionables
Crunch factor. It’s super important to me to have some crunch action in a good Buddha bowl. Why? Because a little crunch makes the world go round. Fresh cucumbers are my choice, but you could sub in any other fresh veggie you love.
Let’s talk sauce. It is peanut sauce all the way for me and my Buddha bowl. The peanut sauce version in this recipe is creamy with a pop of sesame flavor and a fresh zing from the lime juice. In other words, it’s drinkably good.
However, because I make this easy 5-minute Thai peanut sauce recipe all the time and usually have it in the fridge, we often sub it for our Buddha bowl drizzle. And sometimes we go crazy and add two different sauces. I know. Livin’ life on the edge over here.
This yum sauce and/or this cilantro lime dressing are worthy companions to the creamy peanut sauce (and both of these are usually on hand in the refrigerator, too). Seriously, my mouth is watering just thinking about the yumminess all those sauces add to the heaping goodness of a Buddha bowl.
Don’t let the prep of this recipe scare you off. Almost everything can be made ahead of time (especially the roasted vegetables, quinoa and sauces), which actually makes this a super yummy and quick lunch option to throw together.
We headed out on a little road trip this last weekend, and I had a little dish (ok, big dish) of this Buddha bowl goodness to ride along with me (full disclosure: totally packed PB&J for everyone else).
I can’t wait to see how you change up this recipe to make it your own! You guys always amaze me with your creativity (even when it doesn’t quite work out, haha!).
Sidenote: the shallow bowl-plate dishes in the pictures are these Sweese bowls {aff. link} I bought last year. We use them constantly for salad and stand alone pasta meals…and also for ice cream and brownies. 🙂
One Year Ago: Mississippi Mud Bars
Two Years Ago: The Best Blackberry Crisp {Can Use Other Berries, Too!}
Three Years Ago: Divine Tres Leches Cupcakes
Four Years Ago: Sweet and Spicy Pork and Pineapple Tacos
Five Years Ago: Whole Wheat Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Mel’s Buddha Bowls {With Super Tasty Peanut Sauce}
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups quinoa (see note)
- Chicken broth or water
- 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 red onion, peeled and diced
- 1 to 2 tablespoons oil
- Salt and black pepper, I use coarse for both
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 tablespoon finely minced fresh ginger or ginger paste (see note)
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 seedless/English cucumber, peeled and diced
- 2 to 3 cups baby spinach
- Diced avocado
- Chopped, fresh cilantro
Peanut Sauce:
- ⅓ cup fresh lime juice
- ¼ cup creamy peanut butter or tahini
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil or toasted sesame oil
- 1 to 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 teaspoon chili-garlic sauce, optional, but adds great flavor and a little kick
- 1 clove garlic, finely minced
Instructions
- Cook the quinoa according to package directions, substituting chicken broth for water. (Here is how I cook quinoa in the Instant Pot)
- While the quinoa cooks, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Toss the sweet potatoes and onion on a large sheet pan with a tablespoon of oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Roast in the oven until tender, 20 minutes or so, flipping once or twice.
- Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat with 1 tablespoon oil. Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring constantly, for about 30 seconds until sizzling (don’t let the garlic burn). Pat the chicken pieces dry and add them to the skillet, seasoning with salt and pepper. Cook the chicken, stirring occasionally, until cooked through 5-6 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat.
- For the dressing, whisk or blend all the ingredients together until smooth (this can be done several days in advance; refrigerate the dressing).
- Add a scoop of cooked quinoa to serving bowls. Add roasted sweet potatoes, onions, chicken, handful of spinach, diced avocado, chopped cucumbers, and a sprinkle of cilantro. Drizzle dressing over the top and dig in.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: adapted from this recipe at Allrecipes
78 Comments on “Mel’s Buddha Bowls {With Super Tasty Peanut Sauce}”
looks tasty
Are the roasted veggies warm or cold when you add them to the bowl?
Either warm or room temperature.
Love this recipe. Great, colorful way to get your veggies and use up any extra veggies on hand.
Today, I substituted the lime for rice vinegar, since I didn’t have any limes on hand. Worked great! Changed the flavor. Instead of the brightness the lime juice adds, the rice vinegar gave the sauce had a warmer acidity. Worked in a pinch!
Thanks for the awesome recipes! They’re on my menus at LEAST once a week (if not 7 times…)
This was really yummy! Thank you Mel! I loved the quinoa option and love how versatile it is! The sauces were fun for everyone except my anti-peanut girl. Thank goodness you have two sauces going on here! I felt like a super mom feeding my kids a delightfully healthy dinner. A win win!
YUM! This was something a little different than our usual fare and it was a hit with the whole fam! I altered a bit for what I had on hand (I had already roasted sweet potatoes left over from last night, so I sauteed some onions with the garlic and added the chicken to that skillet (I used ginger powder on the chicken); I didn’t have any cucumbers, so I diced up a zucchini and added it to the pan with the rest of the ingredients for a few minutes to start to soften, etc). We also didn’t have any cilantro, but didn’t even miss it since the sauce was so flavorful. (I was actually planning to use leftover peanut sauce from your 5 minute thai peanut sauce recipe, but that had gone moldy so I whipped up this version and it was so good I was actually glad the other had gone moldy and I had to try it!) Thanks for introducing some new flavors and texture combos! We loved this one.
I’ve made it a couple times and it’s definitely a keeper!
Hello! I made this last night and my husband said he could eat it all day long! I but I would love to know where in the store I can find chili garlic sauce please! 🙂 thank you Mel!!
Hi Jamie, I usually find it in the Asian foods aisle.
This was soooo yummy! I’ve made it more than once. We make it vegan by leaving out the chicken, just saute the onion in big chunks till softened and add that to the bowl. It took like, 5 or 6 limes to get enough juice, just make sure you add enough to your shopping list.
This was a winner! Tried it out tonight and everyone loved it. We love all your recipes!!!
This was so good! For the crunchy part I roasted chick peas with a little garlic and sesame oil. Everyone loved this dinner.
I made a vegan, gluten-free Buddha Bowl using wild rice as a base and your sauce recipe with Tahini. The tofu and veggies were braised and we were ready to serve when we found the avocado to be overripe and too soft to cube. On inspiration, I mashed the avocado into the sauce and OMG – it was fantastic! Thanks for getting me to stop relying on purchased sauces and make my own.
I have had this recipe for some time on my Pinterest board and finally tried it today. Why did I wait so long? This bowl is more than the sum of its parts, the dressing just ties it all together. I made the dressing with tahini but I can see it tasting good with peanut butter as well. The only thing I added was some edamame as I had it on hand. Delicious! Thank Mel, it is a winner.
Mel! Just made this for our Stake Women’s Conference luncheon and it was a hit. Best part was getting to meet your Aunt Marilyn! Also made a bunch of your cookies and brownies too.
How fun is that?? And seriously, that is a pretty amazing women’s conference luncheon! You’re amazing!
Haven’t tried yet looks good though. Could one substitute sunflower butter for the peanut butter? Thanks for your awesome recipes.
I think you could try that (I haven’t tried it myself, but if you like the taste of sunflower butter, it should be fine)
Ummmmm, this looks amazing! How did I miss this?! This will definitely be a staple in my house! I’ll let you know what I think after making it.
Thanks, Bri!
Delicious and healthy and surprisingly filling! Used a brown rice and quinoa mix. This was a great meal for my runner son.
This was amazing!! I love the Yumm Bowls and make them often, so I knew this was going to be a winner. Did not disappoint. I actually made all the sauces (2 peanut sauces, yum sauce and the cilantro ranch.) Then I cooked a double batch of quinoa, a batch of brown rice and a double batch of your cilantro lime rice. I also made the Instant pot honey cilantro chicken and the chicken with the ginger and garlic. I made Taco meat from the homemade taco seasoning recipe here and I added the seasonings for your sweet potato fries to the chopped sweet potatoes in this recipe. Then I chopped up and opened a big variety of veggies (cucumbers, peppers, edamame, olives, spinach, lettuce, corn, tomatoes, cilantro, black beans– you get the idea :-)) Set everything out with all the sauces, meats, veggies, rices, quinoa and even some taco shells and tortilla shells. It was awesome– everyone fixed whatever they wanted and I have fixings for bowls – tacos- wraps to last for a few days! Perfect way to eat for summer! And now I’m going eat an energy ball and take on the massive amount of dishes I created :-0. Thanks for all your wonderful recipes and Ideas. All the tummies at my house are happy tonight!
Haha, I think this is what is called a “Bowl Over Achiever!” and judging by those pictures on Instagram, you’re going to need a nap, too! 🙂
Actually I think I’m a bit of a crazy person.. but I like to think of it as ‘kitchen therapy’
This was excellent & worked great for my family of 6. One teenager is vegan and a couple others not so big on certain vegetables. Everyone was able to customize to their taste. Best part was the peanut sauce. I wish I’d doubled the recipe. Also, a sprinkle of peanuts added a great extra crunch.
This was delicious! We left out the chicken for our meatless Monday meal so we added the ginger and garlic to the sweet potato and onion as suggested. I did love the cucumber for crunch and we added grated carrot which goes with the flavors very well. The sauce is so good, too. Definitely will be repeated at our house!
We’ve never had anything like this. It was an interesting combination of flavors. I liked it, the kids thought the peanut sauce was too strong.
Hi Mel, I printed this out to make for company coming later this month. Their older children are a combination of vegetarians and picky eaters, and I thought this would work for an evening meal when we will be gone all day long. However, I was surprised at the title of this dish. My printer is down, so I printed to my husband’s computer. He’s not the most culturally sensitive man, but with absolutely no input from he, he commented that this recipe needed a new title. How about Thai Bowl. Or Asian bowl. Setting all of that aside, thanks for your efforts, which make my life immeasurably better.
Thanks for the input, Julie. I’m extremely sorry if the title of this dish caused any offense to you or your husband.
I made this recently and we LOVED it I’d like to make it on Memorial Day, but feel like I MUST serve something grilled on the holiday! How/which of your many great recipes for grilled chicken would you recommend for this? Thank you! Best company dish ever, especially with kids and people with various palates, etc.
Sorry for the delay in responding, Sarah! It’s too late now, but I would have suggested the lemon garlic grilled chicken. Yum!
Loved it! Made it with tahini – which was perfect.
Amazing! Can not say how much we loved these. Followed recipe exactly except added shredded carrots. Thank you!
Thank you so much!
I made this tonight and WOW! It was amazing!!! I pickled red onion instead of roasting it for some added crunch and zing. I also did 1/2 & 1/2 brown rice and quinoa. The kids loved it too. Can’t wait to have leftovers for lunch tomorrow!!!
Pickled red onion sounds AMAZING in this! Going to try that next time!
Hi Mel,
What kind of quinoa are you using in the picture? Looks delicious!
It’s a sprouted quinoa that I snag at Trader Joe’s.
This was so so yummy! I added a few peanuts on top for a little more crunch factor. Thanks for another winner Mel!
Love the additional crunch, Dani!
Made as written, and it was delicious.
Thanks, Jen!
This was YUMMY! The only change we made was to add to cook the sweet potato and onion for 10 minutes, and then we added chopped zucchini for the last 10. Gonna be a staple.
Thanks for the report, Barbara!
This was terrific. I made it for a group of adults and kids, and knew everyone would be happy, since it is so customizable. The peanut sauce was terrific. I offered it and the YUM sauce, which while good, wasn’t as popular. I put out a lot of fixings, including shelled pistachio nuts. One could add roasted chick peas for vegetarians. I made your Instant Pot quinoa, Mel, and also offered white rice. This will be my new company dish, when kids are involved and/or picky eaters. It was also a lot of fun. Thank you!
Sounds amazing, Sarah! Thanks for taking the time to let me know!
How much water/broth do you use with 1 1/2 cups quinoa, using the Instant Pot? Your linked recipe is 1 cup quinoa to 1 1/4 cups liquid.
I use between 1 3/4 cup and 2 cups liquid for 1 1/2 cups quinoa in the IP.
Loved the sauce!!
Thank you!
Holy Moly this was SO good! I could drink the dressing! I can also see making a big batch and portioning it out for lunches during the week!
I’ll make this over and over again!
Thanks for another winner!
Thanks so much, Becky! I’ve been keeping all the stuff in my fridge and eating it for lunch…and let me tell you, lunch has never been so good!
I found your blog by chance. It’s amazing great effort. Thank you so much.
This evening at our women’s ministry meeting we were planning a lunch meeting for 30-40 women in a couple of weeks. Maybe a salad bar, or variety of salads…WAIT…my favorite food blogger posted a recipe today for Buddha bowls! YES, awesome idea, let’s do it! What great timing! (Yes, you are my favorite and I trust you enough to feed 40 women without even trying it out myself first! ❤️)
You are so sweet, Sharri! I hope these worked out well for your lunch meeting!
This was AMAZING. I used cauliflower “rice” (don’t judge, I gotta work on the pounds), and customized the sauce just a bit (for what I had on hand – no honey, sadly), and it was so so so good. Thank you! Using leftovers for lunches this week… and maybe dinner… and breakfast… the occasional snack…
Def no judging on the cauliflower rice – such a good idea! I love cauliflower rice! Glad you loved this, Jana! Thanks for the comment.
I was excited to make this tonight and my daughter was excited to try it, unfortunately we couldn’t even finish it. I’ve used a lot of your recipes over the years and love so many of them!! This one took some prep work with cutting up things, which generally I truly don’t mind but I’m so sad that we didn’t like this. This one wasn’t a winner for us… the taste wasn’t quite right for us.
Sorry this one was a miss for you, Kathy!
Made this with my leftover chicken shawarma from last night, added red peppers and rice/quinoa mix from Costco. I shredded some carrots on top, and did cucumbers, tomatoes, cilantro, chopped peanuts and the sweet potato/red onion mix. I left out the chili garlic since I would be the only one to enjoy that. It was amazing, especially with that smoky shawarma flavor. So, so good.
Love, love reading your inspiration and variations on this recipe, Meg! Thank you! I bet the shawarma was AMAZING in this!
this looks like it will be good! I think I’ll try it!
We loved these when I made them recently. I left out the chicken and made it nearly oil free by water sauteeing and only added a teensy bit of sesame oil to the sauce. Thanks for a great adaptable-for-vegans recipe!
This is so DELICIOUS! I used zucchini instead of cucumbers because that’s what I had. It is filling and full of flavor! Thanks for a perfect lunch today!
Thanks for reporting back, Jenna!
We love that yum sauce as is, but I’ve also played with the flavors some. I sometimes add in cilantro and cumin for a different take on it. I’m excited to try this!
Can’t wait to try your version! I discovered meals such as this about 6 months ago. I’ve heard of them called “nourish bowls”, and that’s exactly what they do!! I easily make them meatless by adding chopped nuts and even pumpkin seeds – and often add a legume too like black beans. They fill me up for hours and definitely nourish! Shredded unsweetened coconut is also a favorite topping.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on these types of recipes, Allyson! I have some unsweetened coconut in my pantry and I’m going to try it next time!
Probably a dumb question, but do you eat it warm or cold?
This is my question, too! I bet you can do either?
Hey Shannon and Rachael – we usually serve these room temperature-ish (by the time everything gets prepped and set out) but it’s also super delicious chilled from the fridge.
Years ago before the whole Rice bowl fad , my youngest was taking social studies like every body else. When they got to the area around Okinawa, she learned how to make “Taco Rice (Okinawa style)” Katie “owns” this recipe even insisting on typing it up for our recipe binder. You can guess that for fourth graders the recipe had to be easy and it is. Basically it is a bowl of rice, topped by taco seasoned ground beef, then you get to pile on your favorite taco toppings, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, cheese, etc. Now she is in her last year of college and surrounded by restaurants selling Rice Bowls to the students. I’ve made half hearted attempt to duplicate her favorite and it was a disappointment. I’ll definitely pass what we’ll probably call Mel’s Rice bowl to her. I have faith in you so I’ll make a space in the book near “Mel’s soup”.
Loved this! Food trends are an interesting thing, but one thing is for sure, your daughter’s taco rice sounds delish!
Question for those with nut allergies… Mel, what are your thoughts about using sunbutter (sunflower seed butter) in this recipe?? Thank you!
I think if you are used to the flavor in other recipes it would work great!
I’m going to try this with Sunbutter too! I’ll report back 🙂
Sounds yummy! We’re a peanut free house. Would cashew butter be a decent substitute here or do you think that would taste weird? Thanks Mel!
Yes! I love cashew butter and think it would be tasty here!