This Fast and Easy Chickpea Buddha Bowl recipe with Green Goddess Dressing is that go-to recipe for when you're strapped for time but need something healthy and filling.
This Buddha bowl recipe has a story.
It was a typical Sunday afternoon. I just came back from a long run, took a quick shower, threw this quick meal together, and ate half before jumping on a one-hour Zoom call with Sersie and a group going through our program.
After the call, Sersie and I stayed on the Zoom to catch up, but I grabbed my bowl of food that had been sitting next to me the entire time we were on with the group call. As she was talking, I picked it up to finish eating it. I was hungry! In between taking a bite, I mentioned that I was using up the rest of the green goddess dressing I had in my refrigerator, and it was so yummy.
She said those quick and simple bowls are some of her favorites, and I responded, "yes, mine too!"
After we ended our call, I decided to share this recipe for those who don't have time to fuss over elaborate recipes with a voluminous amount of ingredients. The key to this or any bowl being so yummy is the sauce. Having such a beautiful and delicious sauce makes eating healthy easier and more enjoyable.
Fast and Easy Chickpea Buddha Bowl has 5 key ingredients:
- Chickpeas
- Sweet potato (or plantain)
- Rainbow or Swiss chard (kale or collard greens would work too)
- Quinoa (or brown rice)
- Easy Green Goddess Dressing
To make this fast and easy, this recipe uses canned chickpeas that have been drained and rinsed. If course, if you batch-cooked chickpeas as part of your meal prep for the week, by all means, use those.
This Buddha bowl recipe also uses quinoa which cooks faster than rice, but if you have leftover rice, that works great too.
The sweet potato is microwaved—again, to cut down on time. However, you can substitute the sweet potato for another starchy veggie like an air fryer plantain.
The rainbow chard is simply steamed with water on the stovetop. If you have Swiss chard, kale or collard greens, that's fine to use instead.
In terms of flavor, the show's star is the Easy Green Goddess Dressing. This buddha bowl sauce is paced with freshness from the parsley and cilantro, savory from the onion, garlic and coconut aminos, creaminess from the cashews and tang from the fresh lemon juice. In this case, we're using leftover dressing made the previous day.
This Fast and Easy Buddha Bowl is a nutritional powerhouse!
As a nutritionist and competitive cyclist, this bowl packs a big nutritional punch. The ingredients in this bowl make this meal high in fiber, protein, and loaded with beneficial antioxidants and phytochemicals shown to lower inflammation and stop free radical damage. Rich in Vitamins K, A, C, and E, along with the minerals iron, zinc, magnesium, and potassium, are good for your muscles, heart, and brain health. The nitric oxide boost from the rainbow chard gives this meal extra points for vascular health.
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How to Prepare
- If you don't have leftover Green Goddess Dressing, start by preparing this beautiful sauce.
- Cook the quinoa. Add quinoa and water to a small pot. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to simmer for about 10 minutes or until all the water is absorbed.
- While quinoa is cooking, pierce a small sweet potato with a knife on all sides several times. Put the sweet potato in a microwave safe dish with loosely cover with wax paper or tea towel and microwave on full power for 4 minutes, turning the sweet potato mid-way through. Remove and set aside.
- Heat a sauté pan with a ½ cup of water over high heat. Once the water starts to simmer, add chopped Swiss chard, cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for 3 minutes or until Swiss chard is tender, but still has that beautiful deep green color. Uncover and remove from heat.
- Put a half can of strained and rinsed chickpeas into a microwave save container (use the same container you used to cook the sweet potato in). Microwave on full power for 45 to 60 seconds. Since the canned chickpeas are already cooked, you just want to warm them up.
- Assemble the bowl and pour a generous amount of the Green Goddess Dressing over the top. Feel free to sprinkle some (optional) sesame seeds or hemp hearts and enjoy!
Frequently Asked Questions
The term Buddha bowl was believed to have been coined by Martha Stewart in 2013 when her company published a vegetarian cookbook entitled Meatless. Buddha bowl is also referred to as a "macro" bowl or simply a "grain" bowl. What makes up a Buddha bowl are typically five or six ingredients: a legume (beans, lentils, peas, tofu); a whole grain (brown rice, quinoa); a starchy vegetable (potato, winter squash, or plantain), a non-starchy veggie like kale, chard, or broccoli; and a sauce or dressing. Sometimes, buddha bowls will also have a sprinkle of some seeds.
A Buddha bowl is vegetarian or vegan, while a poke bowl contains fish.
Simply transfer leftovers to a container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat in the microwave for 2 to 3 minutes, or covered in a preheated oven at 350° F for 15 minutes.
We hope you love this bowl, and that it becomes a go-to favorite for you too. Please rate and leave a comment below. Be sure to share a picture on Instagram and tag us @danielfastrecipes so we can see your creation!
Fast and Easy Buddha Bowl with Green Goddess Dressing (VEGAN)
Ingredients
- ⅓ batch of Easy Green Goddess Dressing
- ¼ cup quinoa dry
- ½ cup water to cook quinoa
- 1 small sweet potato about 5-inches long
- 3 cups Rainbow chard tightly packed and chopped
- ½ cup water to steam Rainbow chard
- ½ cup of cooked chickpeas if using canned, drain and rinse
- ½ tsp sesame seeds or hemp hearts optional topping
Instructions
- If you don't have leftover Green Goddess Dressing, start by preparing this beautiful sauce.
- Cook the quinoa. Add quinoa and water to a small pot. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to simmer for about 10 minutes or until all the water is absorbed.
- While quinoa is cooking, pierce a small sweet potato with a knife on all sides several times. Put the sweet potato in a microwave-safe dish, loosely cover with wax paper or tea towel, and microwave on full power for 4 minutes, turning the sweet potato mid-way through. Remove and set aside.
- Heat a sauté pan with a ½ cup of water over high heat. Once the water starts to simmer, add chopped Swiss chard, cover, and reduce heat to low. Cook for 3 minutes or until Swiss chard is tender but still has that beautiful deep green color. Uncover and remove from heat.
- Put a half can of strained and rinsed chickpeas into a microwave save container (use the same container you used to cook the sweet potato in)—microwave on full power for 45 to 60 seconds. Since the canned chickpeas are already cooked, you only want to warm them up.
- Assemble the bowl and pour a generous amount of the Green Goddess Dressing over the top. Feel free to sprinkle some sesame seeds or hemp hearts if using, and enjoy!
Notes
- The Sauce: If you're making the green goddess dressing for this recipe, you only need about ¼ to ⅓ cup for this recipe. Save the rest for green goddess tacos, green goddess salad, or vegan taco salad.
- Leftovers: Simply transfer leftovers to a container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat in the microwave for 2 to 3 minutes, or covered in a preheated oven at 350° F for 15 minutes.
Nutrition
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Gigi & Sersie
Yummy, fast and easy to make. The dressing pulls it all together.