Up Your "Bowl Game" With These Delicious Buddha Bowl Recipes

Buddha bowls just might be summer's most perfect dinner: They're easy to prep, delicious with hot ingredients or cold ones, and a tasty way to showcase all the best finds from your local farmers' market. If this kind of bowl game is new to you, follow these recipes to get the hang of putting together a Buddha bowl -- but the basic lineup is the same: Plenty of nutrient-rich vegetables, a meatless protein (like chickpeas or tofu), often a whole grain, and nuts, seeds, or dressing to taste. Include leftover roasted veggies, a scoop of hummus, sesame seeds, quinoa, or anything else that strikes your fancy.

1. Sweet Potato Chickpea Buddha Bowl

The Minimalist Baker created a sweet potato and chickpea Buddha bowl that gets its flavor from roasted sweet potatoes, broccolini, and kale topped with chickpeas tossed in a blend of spices that includes cumin, chili powder, turmeric, and oregano. Finish it with her homemade maple tahini sauce for a sweet and savory meal.

2. Peanut Tofu Buddha Bowl

This vegan peanut tofu bowl from Delish Knowledge will satisfy your craving for takeout peanut noodles -- without the fat, sodium, or noodles. Fill the bowl with brown rice, shredded carrots, spinach, roasted broccoli, and chickpeas; then top it with tofu marinated in a sauce made from soy sauce, maple syrup, garlic sauce, and peanut butter.

3. The Ultimate Buddha Bowl

For another take on a Buddha bowl topped with peanut sauce -- this one inspired by Toronto's Fresh Restaurants -- try this combo from The Healthy Maven: brown rice, kale, broccoli, tofu, and tomatoes, topped with a mixture of garlic, onion, tamari, ginger, and peanut butter.

4. Spicy Buddha Bowl

Prefer a dish with a little more heat? Crazy Vegan Kitchen uses chickpeas, red cabbage, baby spinach, avocado, sweet potato, and brown rice as the base for a Buddha bowl, but spices it up by roasting the chickpeas with Sriracha, maple syrup, and paprika, and adding cayenne pepper and Sriracha to homemade turmeric tahini dressing.

5. Roasted Vegetable Buddha Bowl

Rich, roasted vegetables are the star of this bowl from Life Made Sweeter which gets its bulk from butternut squash, broccoli, brussels sprouts, chickpeas, and edamame. The roasted vegetables are topped with spinach, cabbage, carrots, and sesame seeds, while a drizzle of avocado dressing (made with coconut milk, avocado, and lime juice) offers a creamy counterpoint.