Vegan Buddha Bowl With Tofu
Why is a vegan Buddha bowl with tofu the perfect choice for your weekly meal prep?
With a delicious base of grains or legumes, crunchy tofu, fresh and roasted vegetables, and a zesty sauce, you have the perfect bite.
Are Vegan Buddha Bowls With Tofu Healthy?
Yes, in general, buddha bowls are a healthy meal perfect for lunch and even dinner time.
They are a wonderful mix of grains, protein, vegetables, and healthy fats.
Buddha bowls initially made their appearance in 2013 when Martha Stewart’s featured them in her cookbook Meatless.
While Buddha bowls are inherently vegetarian, they are described in the book as “the ideal vegan one-bowl dish.” Turning a Buddha vegan is extremely easy, as we have done with our vegan Buddha bowl with tofu.
The options are limitless regarding how many healthy vegan Buddha bowl options you can put together.
5 Key Components of a Buddha Bowl
What makes up a Buddha bowl?
While the options are almost endless, Buddha Bowls tend to include elements from five-ingredient food groups.
Grains: Starting from the bottom, selecting your preferred grain will make up the base of your vegan Buddha bowl.
Popular choices include rice (brown, white), quinoa, and farro.
Protein: Generally, selecting your source of protein would be next, but with this recipe, the choice is made, Tofu Buddha Bowls it is.
But on weeks when alternating proteins, you can use other options like tempeh, lentils, edamame, black beans, or garbanzo beans.
Vegetables: Veggies are the perfect place to get creative.
Buddha bowls are incredibly delicious, with a combination of both roasted and fresh vegetables.
Today we are using roasted mushrooms, and Brussels sprouts with a side of cherry tomatoes and avocado.
Healthy fats: To add some healthy fats, you can add some seeds or even nuts.
Avocados are also extremely popular, which our bowl already contains.
Dressings: Your choice of sauce can also be a good source of healthy fats.
Our simple and easy tahini sauce adds a rich nutty creaminess and refreshing lemon to cut through.
Of course, in my opinion, no Buddha bowl is complete without some extra sriracha (optional).
How To Make Crispy Baked Tofu
For the tofu, we made our crispy tofu in a hoisin glaze (vegan sauce).
- This recipe uses extra firm tofu. Drain your tofu package of any liquids and pat dry your tofu block.
- Wrap your tofu block with a clean dishcloth or paper towel and place it underneath something heavy for 30 minutes. The goal is to draw out any excess liquid from the tofu.
- Cut your tofu into bite-size pieces and place them in a bowl. Add your cornstarch and toss until fully coated. Use a sieve to remove excess cornstarch.
- Place your tofu pieces onto a lined baking tray and drizzle with soy sauce and olive oil (or avocado oil).
- Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 200°C/400°F. Mix your tofu halfway.
- Remove your tofu from the oven and toss in a bowl with your hoisin sauce. Add roasted sesame seeds (optional).
Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Mushrooms
On a busy day, you can choose simply to clean and cut your Brussels Sprouts and mushrooms in half.
For the Brussels Sprouts, you want to additionally cut off the small stem and remove the first layer of leaves.
Then you toss each vegetable in a bowl with some olive oil, salt, and pepper.
But when your schedule allows for some extra prep work, why not turn these humble vegetables into maple-sriracha Brussels Sprouts?
For an easy mushroom upgrade, add 6-8 cloves of minced garlic (for a pound of mushrooms) when tossing with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
For the sprouts, there are a couple of extra details; you can view step-by-step instructions for our smashed maple sriracha Brussels Sprouts here.
Since the sprouts take a little longer to cook, you can either place them on a separate baking tray or use a spatula to remove your tofu and mushrooms when they are ready.
Turn your vegetables halfway.
Note: In the garlic mushroom and Brussels Sprouts recipes mentioned above, we have made half batches of each for our Buddha bowls and included those measurements below in the recipe card.
You can, of course, make a whole batch for extras.
How To Make Our Simple Tahini Dressing
Our lemon tahini dressing is super simple to make and a great option to keep in your fridge to quickly jazz up your vegan Buddha bowl with tofu, easy lunches, or salads.
All you need are the following ingredients:
- Tahini
- Fresh lemon juice
- Water
- Salt
- Fresh ground pepper (optional)
Add your tahini and lemon juice into a small bowl and gradually whisk in your water until you reach the perfect consistency for your dressing.
You can make it as thick or thin as you like.
Tahini has a unique taste.
Some people enjoy it with more or less lemon juice, so you can start with the standard two tablespoons and adjust for your tastebuds from there.
Add salt to taste. I love adding a good pinch of freshly ground pepper, but that’s optional.
Our vegan Buddha bowls with tofu are served with sriracha, but you can choose to add some directly into your tahini sauce if you enjoy a milder creamy sriracha taste.
Another popular option for tahini sauce is adding some maple syrup for a sweeter sauce.
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Vegan Buddha Bowl With Tofu Meal Prep
Whether you are a busy stay-at-home mom or working outside the home, your schedule is likely full.
Meal prepping is an excellent way to help stay on track and ensure that you have some quick and easy lunches for weekday meals.
While our vegan Buddha bowl with tofu is a delicious option, there is no need to eat the same things on repeat. Get creative, and roast other tasty vegetables such as:
- Carrots
- Broccoli
- Sweet potatoes
You can stick to tofu Buddha bowls for your protein if you prefer, or try out some lentil or legume recipes.
Amazon also has an exciting vegan cookbook with seventy-five different recipes, and this plant-based cookbook has one hundred bowl recipes.
How To Store Your Buddha Bowl Ingredients
Store all leftovers in an air-tight container and place them in your refrigerator for up to 2-3 days.
Store your tahini sauce in a convenient salad dressing bottle.
Other Easy Vegan Recipes For Meal Prep
- Chickpea and Tomato Curry
- Coconut Yogurt Breakfast Bowls
- Vegan Lentil & Sweet Potato Curry
- Easy Egg and Dairy Free Banana Muffins
Vegan Buddha Bowl with Tofu
Equipment
- Oven
- Stove
Ingredients
- 454 grams Extra firm Tofu 1 lb
- 1 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tbsp Cornstarch
- 1 tbsp Soy sauce
- 1.5 tbsp Hoisin sauce
- 1 tsp Black roasted sesame seeds
- 1 tsp Sesame oil (optinal)
Tahini Sauce
- 1/4 cup Tahini
- 2-3 tbsp Fresh lemon juice
- 1/3 cup Water
- 1/3 tsp Salt (to taste)
- 1/4 tsp Fresh ground pepper (to taste, optional)
Garlic Roasted Mushrooms
- 227 grams Cremini mushrooms 1/2 lb
- 3-4 cloves Fresh garlic
- 1 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil (or alternative oil of choice)
- Salt & Pepper to taste
Smashed Maple-Sriracha Brussels Sprouts
- 227 grams Fresh Brussels Sprouts 1/2 lb
- 2 tbsp Maple syrup
- 1 tbsp Sriracha sauce
- 1/4 tsp Salt Extra 1 tsp for the boiling water
Bowl Toppings
- 1 Avocado
- 1 cup Cherry tomatoes
- 1 tbsp Sriracha
- 1 tsp Black Roasted Sesame Seeds
Instructions
- Drain your tofu package of any liquids and pat dry your tofu block.
- Using a clean dishcloth or paper towels, wrap your tofu block and place it underneath something heavy for 30 minutes. The goal is to draw out any excess liquid from the tofu.
- Cut your tofu into bite-size pieces and place them in a bowl. Add your cornstarch and toss until fully coated. Use a sieve to remove excess cornstarch.
- Place your tofu pieces onto a lined baking tray and drizzle with with soy sauce and olive oil (or avocado oil).
- Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 200°C/400°F. Mix your tofu halfway.
- Remove your tofu from the oven and toss in a bowl with your hoisin sauce. Add roasted sesame seeds (optional).
Garlic Roasted Mushrooms
- Clean and cut your mushrooms in half.
- Minced 3-4 garlic gloves.
- Toss your mushrooms in a bowl with the garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Add to your same baking tray.
Smashed Maple Sriracha Brussels Sprouts
- Get a pot of water on the stove to start boiling, add 1-2 teaspoons of salt to the water.
- While waiting, start by cutting off the stem ends from your sprouts. You can also remove the first layer of leaves.
- Give them a quick rinse and add to the pot of now boiling water.
- Boil on medium-high heat for 12-15 minutes depending on the size of your sprouts. We want the Brussels sprouts to soften but not be fully cooked through.
- Prepare your sauce while your Brussels sprouts boil. Combine your olive oil, sriracha, maple syrup, and salt to a small bowl and whisk together until combined.
- Remove sprouts from the stove, using a strainer drain the boiling water. Take the same saucepan and fill it with cold water and add your sprouts to cold water for 1-2 minutes to cool down and stop the cooking process.
- Properly drain and dry your sprouts using paper towels or a clean kitchen cloth.
- Add Brussels Sprouts to the same baking tray or a seperate tray as they take slightly longer to cook.
- Using the base of a small cup or mug, press each Brussels sprout flat. Try not to smash them to the point of breaking them, we want them smashed but intact.
- Drizzle on your sauce and place in the oven at 400°C for 25-30 minutes depending on how crispy you want them (I opted for 30 minutes).
Tahini Sauce
- Add your tahini and lemon juice into a small bowl and gradually whisk in your water until you reach the perfect consistency for your dressing. You can make it as thick or thin as you like.
- Add salt to taste (pepper as well but optional).
