Thai Peanut Sweet Potato Buddha Bowl
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Roasted sweet potatoes and quinoa are topped with delicious Thai peanut sauce in this easy, healthy, gluten free, vegan buddha bowl recipe!
This popular buddha bowl has been shared over 100,000 times on Pinterest! People rave about the flavor of the dish and how easy it is to make! If you love this bowl, you’ll also love these vegan recipes for Veggie Fajita Rice Bowls and Buffalo Chickpea Buddha Bowls!
Table of contents
While 2016 was the year that the Wall Street Journal claimed “Bowls Are The New Plates“, the bowl trend isn’t going anywhere in 2017! According to the “Pinterest 100”, Buddha Bowls are one of the Top 10 Food Trend Predictions of 2017!
So what exactly is a Buddha Bowl? It’s a healthy bowl filled with a whole grain, such as brown rice or quinoa and raw or cooked veggies, such as sweet potatoes, broccoli or cauliflower. It’s then topped with a healthy sauce or dip, such as hummus, peanut sauce or pesto.
I love the buddha bowl trend because it’s a fun way to play around with different healthy options in the kitchen without eating the same thing over and over! It’s also great for meal prepping. You can easily prepare a few delicious bowls to eat for lunch or dinner throughout the week.
In this recipe, I roasted sweet potatoes with rosemary, garlic, cinnamon, salt and pepper, bringing a ton of flavor to this healthy bowl! The sweet potatoes are tossed on top of cooked quinoa, which adds fiber, protein and a nuttiness to the bowl. Brown rice, farro, couscous, or your favorite grain would also work well.
I topped the bowl with shredded carrots, cilantro, peanuts and most importantly, my famous Thai Peanut Sauce! This recipe makes more peanut sauce than you need for this recipe. Place the remainder of the sauce in a mason jar and store it in the fridge for up to two weeks. And I promise, you won’t be disappointed that you have extra of this sauce on hand!
It’s so delicious on everything from Thai Peanut Chicken Naan Pizzas, to Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Turkey Meatballs. If you’re looking for more vegan recipes to use it on, try these Thai Peanut Pineapple Veggie Rice Bowls or these Thai Peanut Noodles with Vegetables!
How to make the buddha bowl
- Roast the sweet potatoes. Toss small diced sweet potatoes with olive oil, minced garlic, fresh rosemary, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Spread in an even layer on a baking sheet. Place in a 425°F preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Quick Tip! Place the sweet potatoes on a sheet of foil on the baking sheet for easy clean-up!
- Prepare the quinoa. While the sweet potatoes are roasting, prepare the quinoa, or grain of your choice, for the base of the bowl. Add 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa to a medium pot with 1 cup of water. Place on the stove over high heat and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and fluff the quinoa with a fork. Set aside until you’re ready to prepare the bowls. If you want to make the quinoa in an Instant Pot or rice cooker, check out this post on how to cook quinoa 3 ways.
- Prepare the Thai peanut sauce. While the sweet potatoes are roasting and quinoa is cooking on the stove, prepare the peanut sauce. Add coconut milk, peanut butter, Thai red curry paste and apple cider vinegar to a blender or food processor. Add soy sauce, brown sugar and fresh squeezed lime juice. Blend until smooth and creamy.
- Put the buddha bowl together. Divide the cooked quinoa between two bowls. Top each bowl with half of the roasted sweet potatoes. Add shredded carrots, cilantro and chopped peanuts. Drizzle Thai peanut sauce over the bowls.
Is it healthy?
This buddha bowl is packed with healthy ingredients. Sweet potatoes and carrots are a wonderful source of Vitamin A. Just one serving of this bowl provides 880% of your daily vitamin A needs. Whoa! That’s a lot of vitamins!
Each bowl also contains 18 grams of fiber and 46 mg of iron. There’s also 28 grams of plant based protein per serving in this vegan buddha bowl. Overall, it’s a healthy option to add to a balanced diet.
If you’re looking for a lighter sauce to top the bowl, try this Healthy Thai Peanut Sauce.
Can you eat the bowls cold?
This buddha bowl recipe can be eaten hot or cold. It’s great for taking to work or school for lunch. Be sure to keep the peanut sauce on the side in a separate container, then drizzle on top of the bowl right before eating.
Optional additions
While you can most certainly eat this bowl just as it is, if you’d like to add some extra veggies or protein, here are a few of my favorite add-ons!
- Chickpeas – canned chickpeas (drained and rinsed) can be roasted with the sweet potatoes for extra plant based protein. A cup of chickpeas provides 35 grams of fiber, which is 140% of your daily fiber needs! It also contains a whopping 39 grams of protein.
- Broccoli – broccoli florets roasted with the sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli or raw broccoli florets are a great addition to this bowl. At only 31 calories per cup, it adds 135% of your daily vitamin C needs and will help fill you up!
- Cucumber– a 1/4 cup of chopped cucumber added to each bowl, provides another burst of crispy, fresh flavor to this recipe!
- Edamame – fresh shelled edamame can be added right on top of the bowls or frozen shelled edamame can be roasted with the sweet potatoes. Either way, a cup of these soybeans will add an additional 8 grams of fiber and 17 grams of protein to these buddha bowls!
- Cabbage – shredded green of purple cabbage can be added on top of these bowls for even more crunch and extra veggie goodness! If you want tender cooked cabbage, I recommend steamed cabbage for a great addition of fiber and Vitamin C.
More vegan recipes to try
Looking for more easy vegan recipes? Check out these popular dishes!
- Vegan Pad Thai with Zoodles – it’s everything you love about pad Thai, with less carbs and TONS of veggies!
- Vegan Burrito Bowls with Cauliflower Rice – so many veggies, so much goodness, all in one delicious bowl!
- Mexican Vegan Sweet Potato Quinoa Bowl – If you love this Thai Peanut Sweet Potato bowl, you also have to try the Mexican version of this recipe!
- Sheet Pan Gnocchi with Butternut Squash & Crispy Kale – I created this recipe as an Autumn dish, but I can’t stop eating it year-round! This easy vegan meal is made on one pan, for easy cooking and clean-up! Frozen butternut squash can be found year-round at most major grocery stores.
- Vegan Tacos with Grilled Veggies & Chimichurri – Taco Tuesday is my favorite day of the week, because let’s be honest, tacos are DELICIOUS! You know what else is delicious? Grilled veggies and easy homemade chimichurri sauce, making these vegan tacos downright amazing!
What’s your favorite vegan recipe on WhitneyBond.com? Comment below and let me know!
Made this recipe and loved it? Be sure to rate it 5 stars in the recipe card!
Thai Peanut Sweet Potato Buddha Bowl
Ingredients
- 4 cups sweet potato, peeled & small dice
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 cup quinoa, cooked
- ½ cup carrots, shredded
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro
- ¼ cup peanuts, chopped
- ½ cup Thai Peanut Sauce, recipe below
Thai Peanut Sauce
- 1 ½ cups coconut milk
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- ¼ cup Thai red curry paste
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce, Tamari for gluten free
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp fresh lime juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Toss the sweet potatoes and garlic with the olive oil, rosemary, cinnamon, salt and pepper.
- Spread into an even layer on a baking sheet.
- Place in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes.
- While the potatoes are roasting, prepare the peanut sauce by combining all of the ingredients in a large blender or food processor.
- Distribute the roasted sweet potatoes, cooked quinoa, carrots, cilantro and peanuts between two bowls. Drizzle the peanut sauce over the bowls.
Video
Notes
- The nutritional information provided is for one bowl with 1/4 cup of peanut sauce.
- The Thai peanut sauce recipe provided will make approximately 3 cups of sauce. You can either cut down on the ingredients to make less sauce or view the original post for the sauce here to see what other recipes you can make with it.
- If you’re looking for a lighter sauce to top the bowl, try this Healthy Thai Peanut Sauce.
- To add more protein to this buddha bowl, roast 1 cup of canned chickpeas (drained and rinsed) or 1 cup frozen shelled edamame with the sweet potatoes.
- To add more veggies to this buddha bowl, add broccoli florets, diced cucumber or shredded cabbage to the bowl with the carrots and cilantro.
Nutrition Facts
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58 Comments on “Thai Peanut Sweet Potato Buddha Bowl”
Absolutely delicious! My husband and I both loved it and he got over not having meat real quick 😂😂. I added an extra healthy dose of sriracha to kick it up a notch!
Fantastic Megan, so glad your meat loving husband (I’ve got one of those too!) enjoyed it! I’m always excited when my husband loves vegan and vegetarian recipes that I create!
Hi Whitney I Iove your healthy recipes♡ My question is to make less sauce can you just cut ingredients list in half or does that alter the flavor? Thank u
Thanks so much Tina! Yes, you can definitely cut the ingredients in half to make less. I’ve done it and it works perfectly!
Loved this! I used almond milk instead and didn’t have cilantro on hand and it was a hit. I used two bags of microwave rice and didn’t use very much of the sauce at all.
So glad you enjoyed it Mary Jo! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Soy Sauce?? Gluten frtee?? Very very few are. Their prime ingredient is wheat.
Gluten free soy sauce or tamari can be used to make the sauce gluten free.
this was so warming and delish, do think I can freeze the sauce in ice cubes and bag them for later use?
Yay! So glad you enjoyed it Genevieve! You can definitely freeze the sauce in ice cube trays and defrost them individually for later use.
I made this for dinner tonight…A M A Z I N G !!!! Often times, I make modifications to the recipe, but absolutely none needed for this. Absolutely delicious.
Hi Kristin, so happy to hear that! Thanks for sharing 🙂
How many calories is this per serving?
Wow, each serving is around 1700 calories! Looks tasty though.
Not all of the peanut sauce will be used in this recipe, therefore cutting down on the calories.
this should really be a serving for 4. The calories are 1,700 if it serves 2!? thats more than some people eat in an entire day! ( I eat 1300 cal a day)
Recipe is delicious. I subbed almond mild for lower calorie.
This was delicious! Thank you so much!!
This was reeeeally good, the kids loved it too which is a bonus! I added some chopped spinach for extra veges and some pan fried tempeh for me and hubby for some extra protein. Such an easy tasty meal that I will definitely be cooking regularly!
Can you tell me how many servings this is?
Hi Cecily, the recipe will make 2 buddha bowls, with some leftover peanut sauce.
This was sooo good! One question though, is there supposed to be a lot of left over peanut sauce? I felt like cutting the recipe (just for the sauce) to 1/4 would still have been plenty.
Hi Alicia, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! This recipe does make a lot of sauce! I mention within the blog post that this recipe makes more peanut sauce than you need for this recipe, but you can put the remainder in mason jars and store it in the fridge for up to two weeks. You can also cut the recipe down if you’d like. I always like to have some in the fridge to use on different things because it’s so good!
Recipe looks yummy but that has got to be wayyyyy to much sauce for two bowls. Over a cup of peanut/coconut milk per person! Yikes
Hi Karen, thanks so much! I did mention in the post that this recipe makes more peanut sauce than you need for this recipe, but you can put the remainder in mason jars and store it in the fridge for up to two weeks and use the extra sauce to top other buddha bowls, or use it in other recipes. Enjoy!
Sliced jalopenos are in the ingredients list, but where they are used is never said? Otherwise, excited to try this tonight.
Hi Devi, I apologize for that! I tried them as a topping on the buddha bowls the first time I made them, but ended up preferring them without, so I removed them from the main blog post, but forgot to remove them from the printable recipe. Enjoy!
This is my new favorite meal prep. Thanks for the amazing recipe. We LOVE the coconut peanut sauce!
Hi Cara, I’m SO happy to hear that! Thanks for sharing!
Tonights dinner, Im really looking forward to this.
Yay! Thanks for sharing Sandra! How did it turn out?
I made this for a birthday luncheon for 8. It was delicious and something I will make again. Everyone wanted the recipe at the end. I followed the recipe exactly and offered chick peas as well to use as a topping. Thanks for such a delicious idea.
That’s awesome Julie! Thanks so much for sharing!! 🙂
I made this and oh my gosh it was so good!! Especially the sauce, I didn’t have coconut milk so I subbed it for olive oil and water and I didn’t worry about not having the curry because of the soy sauce and I almost ate half the potatoes before the rice was done. ???
Haha, yes! Those potatoes are the best, right?! So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I’m a huge fan of buddha bowls, they’re just so easy to throw together! Love the sound of this sauce, thanks for sharing : )
Kathryn | nimblenote.blogspot.com