Best Vegan Buddha Bowl (2024)

This vegan buddha bowl is packed with fluffy quinoa, roasted chickpeas, sweet potato and my favorite dairy free pesto sauce (or pesto hummus) for tons of flavor in every bite!

Buddha Bowls are the best because you can throw in like 800 of your favorite foods into one bowl and call it a meal.

This vegan buddha bowl recipe was inspired by my sweet potato chickpea buddha bowl, and is kind of a cousin to my black bean burrito bowl but with some delicious twists you’re going to love!

It starts with a bed of fluffy quinoa, and then we layer on roasted sweet potatoes & peppers, crispy chickpeas, dairy free pesto, and creamy avocado. I don’t think it gets any more perfect than that.

It’s a simple and high protein vegan dinner recipe that is perfect for meal prep. You can customize it to your liking, throw in any additional veggies, swap out for a different sauce (hi peanut sauce!) or turn it into a salad with a base of arugula.

Key Ingredients

• Quinoa: I have a post about how to cook perfect quinoa so it’s fluffy and delicious every time! You can use white, red or tricolor quinoa, but I like white quinoa because I think it has the best texture.

• Sweet Potatoes: Roasted and seasoned to perfection to give this bowl a ton of flavor.

• Peppers: I like using red bell peppers because they soften when roasted and have a great flavor.

• Chickpeas: Seasoned with paprika, salt and a few other spices. The chickpeas add a ton of protein to this bowl! They’ll be roasted along with the sweet potatoes and peppers to add a nice crunch to the dish.

• Dairy Free Pesto: My dairy free pesto recipe is easy to make and adds so much flavor to this bowl. Trust me, don’t leave it out!

• Avocado: What’s a vegan buddha bowl without avocado?!

• Lots of spices! Mostly paprika, nutritional yeast, turmeric, chili powder, and salt. We’ll be using these for the sweet potatoes and chickpeas for a lot of flavor.

Instructions

This bowl has a few different parts to it, but you can overlap the cooking/roasting process so it all comes together pretty quickly! The first step is to preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

Next, cook thequinoa according to these instructions. It will take about 20 minutes to cook and you can prep the rest of the ingredients while that is happening.

Once the quinoa is on the stove, peel the sweet potatoes and chop into 1 inch cubes.

You can leave the skins on if you like, but I find the texture is much better with the skins off. Cut the peppers into strips and add to a large bowl with the sweet potatoes.

Toss the peppers and sweet potatoes with olive oil and seasonings until well coated.Add both to a baking tray lined with parchment paper, leaving some room at the top for the chickpeas.

Drain and rinse the chickpeas and add them to the same bowl you used before (less stuff to clean up!).

Toss with oil and spices until well coated.They won’t be super spicy as is, so feel free to add a pinch of cayenne pepper if you like spice.

Add the chickpeas to the baking tray with the sweet potatoes and bake everything for 30-35 minutes or until the potatoes are completely cooked through.

While they are roasting, make thedairy free pesto and give the quinoa a nice fluff with a fork when it’s done cooking.

When everything is done, assemble the bowls with a bed of quinoa and layer on the sweet potatoes, peppers, chickpeas, pesto and avocado.Top with black pepper, cilantro or red pepper flakes if desired.

How to store buddha bowls

Once prepared, this vegan bowl recipe will last in the fridge for about 3-5 days. You can have everything all assembled, but I suggest adding the avocado just before you are going to eat so it doesn’t get brown.

You can also store all of the components separately and then throw together whatever you’re craving that day!

What grain is best?

What grain is best? I like using quinoa in this recipe, but white or brown rice (or my cilantro lime rice), or any other grain such as millet will work well too.

For more protein, you can try using a lentil based “rice” like from Right Rice or Banza.

For a grain free and lower carb buddha bowl you can use any type of lettuce as the base of the bowl instead of the quinoa or opt for cauliflower rice instead.

Do you eat it hot or cold?

This particular vegan buddha bowl is best eaten hot, but it is also delicious cold. It’s great for an on the go lunch that you can pack in any tupperware container.

Try these next!

• Sweet Potato Burrito Bowl
• Peanut Chickpea Bowl
• Crispy Baked Peanut Tofu
• Vegetarian Sushi Bowl
• Mexican Green Rice Buddha Bowl

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