A Buddha bowl can be a colorful rainbow of whatever fresh vegetables you want, where you grab the largest high rim bowl you can find and portion out small servings of each ingredient into a colorful collage. Incorporate a variety including leafy greens, cruciferous, root vegetables, starches like your favorite beans, rice or quinoa, and sprouts, and for fats include avocado and hummus in lieu of a dressing, with a spritz of citrus like lemon or lime. In today's bowl I chose red cabbage, carrots, red bell peppers, black beans, yellow rice, raw beets and beet greens, lacinato kale, broccoli sprouts, avocado and cauliflower hummus. The options are unlimited! On the most part, you want to leave everything raw, but I like to warm the beans and the rice or quinoa and lightly sweat the kale and carrots. You don't need dressing or added oil but some folks do. To me it tastes better without it. Sometimes I do broccoli, brussels, cauliflower, diced cooked sweet potatoes, radishes, sugar snap peas, whatever I have on hand. The key thing is to make it pretty! Arrange them in little piles all around the bowl and when you dig in, stir it all up and enjoy! A salad is just a salad, but a Buddha bowl is a rainbow from the garden.
By Mimi Alidor