Mediterranean Vegan Buddha Bowl with Falafels and hummus dressing (Vegan, Gluten-free, Dairy-free)

Mediterranean Buddha bowl is a nourishing meal that has bits of everything. Little portions of everything you want to eat – whole grains, starch, portion of protein, assortment of vegetables (both raw or cooked), and a delicious dressing topped over. The key to any Buddha bowl is artfully arranging the ingredients in a deep rimmed dish.

They are also known as  bliss bowl, hippie bowl, vegan bowl, poke bowl, glory bowls, power bowls, glow bowl, nourish bowl, sunshine bowl , macro bowls (for all the macro nutrients they are stuffed with)or The big bowl of awesome. What ever you may call it, buddha bowls are easy to prepare, nutritious, delicious, and require very minimal effort.

Mediterranean Buddha bowl is a bowl packed with a combination of whole grains, pulses, loads of vegetables (and fruits),  topped off with a delicious creamy sauce/dressing. Each bite will be an explosion of flavors and texture in your mouth. It’s all vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free packed lunch/dinner bowls for your guys!

Buddha bowls or bliss bowls are basically bowls of delicious, nutrients dense food that seems to be the biggest meal trend of 2017 and a favorite of health bloggers. Most particularly in the vegan community.  While the trend seems that Buddha bowls or bliss bowls is vegetarian or vegan meals.

Okay, so Buddha bowls are vegan, with whole grains, plant proteins and vegetables in it served in deep rimmed dish. All filled with vibrant colored food.  But what about Buddha bowl recipe? The beauty of the Buddha bowl is that there is no single recipe, I mean there is no single right way to do it. It’s more of a formula you use to design your Buddha bowl. It a bowl that is vibrant fully loaded with variations of flavors and texture. You need to remember just that!

Buddha bowl formulates to –

Base – baby spinach, lettuce, kale, watercress, swiss chard

Healthy grains or legumes,

Proteins – tofu, chickpea,

Vegetables  (Raw or cooked) – Tomatoes, zucchini, broccoli, artichokes,

Complex carbs – quinoa,sweet potatoes, yam, butternut squash, brown rice, buckwheat,

Crunch (nuts, seeds), pumpkin seeds, nuts, edamame, sesame seeds, cucumbers, red peppers

Dressing/sause – hummus, pesto, avocado based dressings, tahini, lemon juice cilantro dressing

Fruits – apples, strawberries, blueberries, papaya, mango

That’s it!

See you can’t really mess up, since it pretty much has everything, artistically thrown into the bowl. Load it up with as much different ingredients you may want, or keep it real simple with just a few handful ingredients but loaded with flavors.

This is the kind of bowl that I can eat for lunch and dinner every single day and not be bored of it as it’s easy to customize with whatever ingredient I like to eat and with whatever ingredients I have in hand.

What is a buddha bowl?

Buddha bowl has no religious connection to Buddha, rather it depicts the way Buddha or monks ate food.  Buddha bowl foods are packed with nutrients, plant based food all in one bowl. If you look up the definition of Buddha bowl on internet – it says “a bowl which is packed so full that it has a rounded ‘belly’ appearance on the top much like the belly of a buddha.”

At some point last year, a new trend caught fire. It was happening thing on healthy blogs, on restaurant menus, and it went crazy on pinterest. Buddha bowls became the most favorite among health bloggers since then. It was called buddha bowl or bliss bowl. Buddha bowl is a modern food culture that is nourishing all-in-one meal in a bowl.

All in one bowl? That’s my kind of meal we are talking about. I would easily eat it for lunch and dinner.

This easy Buddha bowl is all I’ve been craving since I made it for the first time in my kitchen

It’s savory

Subtly spiced

Has perfect crunch element

Comforting

Incredibly Satisfying and filling

Packed with flavor

How to make a Mediterranean buddha bowl:

Mediterranean inspired Buddha bowls  must have falafels and hummus. Right O!

So start off making falafels first. A simple homemade falafel can be made just the way you like it. You could keep it plain and simple like we did or add some herbs to give it added flavor and colors. And we definitely want to bake the falafel, it’s clean eating Buddha bowls after all.

Cook soaked chickpeas until just done. No over cooking.

To the food processor add cooked chickpeas (that is drained well), garlic cloves, lemon juice, salt, cumin powder, smoked paprika, red chili flakes and process until a sort of meal is formed. DO not over process it. You want to see small chunks of chickpeas in the falafel mix.

Scoop out the falafel , form little patties with your hands. Place it on to baking tray lined with parchment paper.

Bake in pre-heated oven for 20-30 minutes.

When done, remove from oven and let cool completely. Falafel will be very fragile when out of oven.

Next let’s make the outrageously delicious hummus dressing for this Mediterranean Buddha bowl.

Roast red bell peppers on a grill on stove fire until it gets nice charred all sides.  Remove from fire, and carefully peel  off the skin. Remove the seeds and chop the flesh of red bell peppers into small pieces.

To cooked chickpeas add garlic cloves, pepper powder, cumin powder, salt lemon juice, tahini, smoked roasted red bell peppers and slowly pour in olive oil as you process until you get smooth and creamy hummus.

You can keep the dressing as thick or think you like. To think it down add little water or olive oil so it’s right pouring consistency.

Finally for the vegetables –

Chop all the vegetables. Cherry tomatoes, avocados, olives and baby spinach

And for the whole grains I’ve used red quinoa, corn bulgar mix.

Putting it all together –

Into 2 bowls(deep rimmed bowls) divide baby spinach at the base of the bowls. Portion out half of quinoa+corn bulgur mix. Add as much falafel as you like and vegetables on the sides.

Top everything with roasted bell pepper hummus sauce. Garnish with pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds if desired.

Serve immediately! Enjoy!

More hummus variations that you can use it as dip or dressing –

Roasted beetroot hummus

Basic hummus without tahini

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Mediterranean Vegan Buddha Bowl with Falafels and hummus dressing (Vegan, Gluten-free, Dairy-free)

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

40 mins

Total Time

1 hr

 

Mediterranean Buddha bowl is a bowl packed with a combination of whole grains, pulses, loads of vegetables (and fruits), topped off with a delicious creamy sauce/dressing. Each bite will be an explosion of flavors and texture in your mouth. It’s all vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free packed lunch/dinner bowls for your guys!

Course: Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine: Mediterranean

Servings: 2 people

Ingredients

Falafel

• 1 cup chickpeas or 15 oz can chickpeas
• 4 cloves garlic
• ½ teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Salt to taste
• 2 tablespoon olive oil adjust as required

Smoked red pepper hummus sauce

• ½ cup chickpeas
• 2 cloves garlic cloves
• ¼ teaspoon pepper powder
• ¼ teaspoon cumin powder
• Salt to taste
• Juice of 1lemon
• 2 tablespoon tahini
• 1 red bell peppers
• 5-6 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Whole grains

• 1 cup quinoa corn bulgur mix or plain red quinoa or couscous
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ½ teaspoon lemon juice
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper powder

The rest of the bowl

• ½ cup cherry tomatoes
• 2 ripe avocadoes
• 1 cup tightly packed baby spinach or Romania lettuce leaf
• 10 -12 olives

Instructions

For the falafel –

1. Cook soaked chickpeas until just done. No over cooking.

   To the food processor add cooked chickpeas (that is drained well), garlic cloves, lemon juice, salt, cumin powder, smoked paprika, red chili flakes and process until a sort of meal is formed. DO not over process it. You want to see small chunks of chickpeas in the falafel mix.

   Scoop out the falafel , form little patties with your hands. Place it on to baking tray lined with parchment paper.

   Bake in pre-heated oven for 20-30 minutes.

   When done, remove from oven and let cool completely. Falafel will be very fragile when out of oven.

   For crispier falafel, saute baked falafel in a pan with little olive oil over medium heat until falafel browns on all sides. This step is optional!

For smoky red pepper hummus sauce -

1. Roast red bell peppers on a grill on stove fire until it gets nice charred all sides. Remove from fire, and carefully peel off the skin. Remove the seeds and chop the flesh of red bell peppers into small pieces.

   To cooked chickpeas add garlic cloves, pepper powder, cumin powder, salt lemon juice, tahini, smoked roasted red bell peppers and slowly pour in olive oil as you process until you get smooth and creamy hummus.

   You can keep the dressing as thick or think you like. To think it down add little water or olive oil so it’s right pouring consistency.

Whole grains –

1. Cook quinoa corn bulgur as per packet instructions about 12 minutes. You can flavor the quinoa mix with little salt pepper powder and lime juice.

   In place of quinoa + corn bulgur mix you can used just quinoa or couscous. Which ever is your favorite. 

Putting it all together –

1. Into 2 bowls(deep rimmed bowls) divide baby spinach at the base of the bowls. Portion out half of quinoa+corn bulgur mix. Add as much falafel as you like and other ingredients arranged side by side. Mix everything together, getting the dressing on everything, and enjoy!

Recipe Notes

To make crispier falafel -

after baking the falafels, I put them in a pan with little olive oil and cooked until it turned crispier on both steps. You can skip this step if you don't mind crispier falafels.

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