Use-it-up roasted buddha bowl

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Y’all, I’m about colorful winter produce. Finding those bright root vegetables makes for an inspired meal. As the grey has covered Portland in a blanket of meh, it’s important to search for mood-lifting hues. I found some seasonal shades in the form of carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, mushrooms, and purple cabbage in the bottom of my crisper drawer. Quell surprise! I love shopping by color but that somewhat spontaneous urge can leave me with produce I don’t know what to do with quite yet. Eventually, the guilt from an unused cabbage will spur me to action and everything gets chopped. This awesome Use-It-Up Roasted Buddha Bowl is full of delicious vegetables on the brink, hearty brown rice, and flavorful black beans from scratch. (Or sub these Tender Lovin’ Chickpeas! Or any bean to your liking, really. Go wild.)

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You can really get creative with the vegetables you use here, which is why this is a favorite go-to meal of mine. Roasting vegetables is the equalizer of the kitchen. Few things are not delectable when roasted, smothered in olive oil, salt, and lemon. Another great note about using olive oil – you don’t need to line your baking sheet with parchment paper. No need to make extra waste! Woo!

I topped this with avocado, which yes, is not local to the PNW, but avocado is one of a few staples in my kitchen that I will make an exception for. We want our approach to zero-waste / low-impact cooking to be manageable, not to make us give up everything we used to love. I’ve given paper towels the boot and decided avocados will help me maintain sanity. It’s always a compromise.

This is an awesome recipe to meal prep with. You can make everything ahead of time and heat + serve during the week with no prep time! Not to mention using up old produce and meal prep is how you unconsciously level up into adulthood and before you know it you’re gathering your 2019 tax materials? How did this happen? Probably the magic of this Use-It-Up Roasted Buddha Bowl!

What vegetables are floating around in your fridge right now?

Stay hungry,
Hawnuh Lee
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Use-it-up roasted buddha bowl   by

A colorful, warm winter bowl to get the most out of your produce! This is a perfect make ahead dish to help with weekday meal prep and planning.

makes: 4 servings | prep time: 15 min | soaking: 8 hours | cook time: 45 min | total time: 60 min

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buddha bowl with mix of winter vegetables, brown rice, and black beans

Ingredients

  • 1 cup black beans
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 onion
  • 3 - 4 garlic cloves
  • 1/2 jalapeno
  • 1 celery stalk
  • 1 bay leaf (optional)
  • 1/2 tbsp kosher salt
  • 1 cup brown rice
  • 2 1/4 cups water

Buddha Bowl Vegetables

  • 3 - 4 carrots
  • 2 medium sweet potatoes
  • 1/4 cabbage (I used purple)
  • 5 - 6 mushrooms (I used crimini)
  • 1 large head broccoli, stalk included
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 2 tbsp kosher salt
  • 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • juice from 1/2 lemon

To-Do's

Black beans

  1. Cover dry beans with double the water and soak overnight (approx 8 hours or first thing in the AM) in a container with room for them to expand. If I’m planning ahead, I set a reminder to do this right before I go to bed.
  2. After soaking time, drain and rinse beans. In a stockpot or large pan, add beans, water and baking soda. Bring to a boil, until thick white foam appears. Skim off as much of the foam as you can. Turn heat down.
  3. Crush garlic. Add in whole onion, garlic, jalapeno, celery (chop into two pieces to fit into pan), bay leaf, and salt. Cover with lid and let cook for 45 minutes – 1 hour or until tender. Test beans with a fork after 30 minutes or so. Once beans are done, turn off heat. Strain out vegetables and bay leaf as best you can and compost. The bean broth will serve as an excellent sauce for the bowl.

Brown rice

  1. While beans are cooking, rinse rice. In a small pot combine rice with water and bring to a boil.
  2. Once boiled, turn heat to low and let simmer for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

Buddha Bowl Vegetables

  1. While beans and rice are cooking, preheat oven to 425°.
  2. Gather mix of winter vegetables – I used carrots, sweet potato, purple cabbage, mushrooms, and broccoli, and roughly chop into 1 inch (ish) pieces.
  3. In a large mixing bowl add chopped vegetables, olive oil, salt and nutritional yeast. Toss or mix until evenly coated. If the vegetables look dry, add a little more oil. If seasoning looks sparse, add more salt / nutritional yeast. Pour vegetables onto baking sheet (or two) and spread into an even layer. Avoid vegetables stacking on top of each other.
  4. Once oven is preheated, cook for 20 minutes or until fork tender. Remove from oven and squeeze plenty of lemon juice over the vegetables.

The Buddha Bowl

  1. Once finished, combine a serving of rice, beans, and vegetables. Add extra bean broth and an extra squeeze of lemon juice. Serve with avocado on top. This is a dish best when warm. Store your leftovers in the fridge for 1 – 1 ½ weeks, separately. This is a great dish to eat throughout the week. Enjoy!
Rated [awcr_rating type="averageRating"]/5 based on 12 reviews

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Comments

12 thoughts on “Use-it-up roasted buddha bowl”

  6. I also love to seek out the most colorful winter produce. It makes a meal not only more appetizing, but just provides so much good flavor. You’re totally right that there are few things that aren’t made more delicious by roasting also. This bowl looks absolutely delicious!

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