Teriyaki buddha bowls are packed with flavour and overflowing with your daily serve of veggies, making this a delicious and super healthy lunch to have at home, or to meal prep.
I love following food accounts on Instagram. They truly inspire the way I eat and give me so much motivation when I am looking for something new to try. Something that is just everywhere among the healthy food accounts though is what has been labeled buddha bowl. It is basically what feels like just a pretentious name for a bowl packed full of all the healthy things, styled in a way that showcases all the elements and draws attention to the variation of colours and textures.
I really had to laugh when I read this article describing what a buddha bowl was. It pretty much sums it up. But when I was looking to name this recipe, I realised that it basically was what is commonly identified as a buddha bowl and that name sounded a lot more interesting than calling it a teriyaki chicken and vegetable bowl.
So here we are, I am sharing with you today my take on a super healthy but amazing delicious buddha bowl. And let me tell you, I wouldn’t be sharing this if it wasn’t insanely tasty. Also, look how pretty and colourful it is! People have it right that when healthy food looks pretty and colourful, it becomes more enjoyable to eat. It certainly makes me more interested!
This recipe uses the combination of ingredients that I like to throw together, but the reality is it is a formula and you can really use anything that you have available at the time. What you are looking for is some protein, whole grains, and a whole lot of veggies. You also want to use foods that give you a reason to use the hashtag #eattherainbow when inevitably posting your creation on instagram. Think vibrant, colourful foods, which apart from just looking pretty, give you a well rounded and balanced bowl. Red cabbage, carrot, broccoli, kale, spinach, capsicum all have that rich, nutrient dense colour and work really well in this kind of salad style bowl.
For the whole grain component I like to use quinoa. It is just lighter than rice and makes me feel super healthy and full without getting bloated. It does however get stuck in my teeth so I do need to do a mirror teeth check before starting a conversation with someone after lunch…
You can use anything you want here though. Rice, preferably brown or wild would be a great sub, but if you want to stick with quinoa I have the easiest way to cook it.
How do I cook quinoa?
This question literally has prevented me from including more quinoa in my diet. I get a bit scared like when thinking about cooking rice using the absorption method so I couldn’t even think about trying that with quinoa without automatically assuming that I will fail. So I just had just continued to live without learning how to cook it until now, when these bowls demanded it.
Enter my trusty rice cooker.
I should have known that my rice cooker could handle this task. Add water and quinoa at a 2:1 ratio, being 2 cups of water to every 1 cup of dried quinoa. Add a pinch of salt and let your cooker do it’s thing! In about 30 minutes you will have fluffy, perfectly cooked quinoa ready to go.
Yes it was super easy and no, I don’t want to think about how long it took me to figure this out.
For this recipe I have stated to use 1 cup of cooked quinoa. To make this quantity use ½ cup of dried quinoa and 1 cup of water plus a pinch of salt.
So call it whatever you like, this meal is satisfying, delicious and yes, pretty to look at. It’s the kind of non-boring food we actually want to eat when making healthy choices.
Give it a try and make sure to tag me @eightforestlane in your instagram snaps so I can see your colourful creations!
Teriyaki Buddha Bowl
Ingredients
- 2 chicken thigh fillets
- ½ cup teriyaki sauce
- Broccoli
- 1 cup quinoa , cooked
- Edamame
- Superfood slaw*
- Sesame seeds
Dressing
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1 tablespoon honey
Instructions
- Chop chicken into small pieces and marinade in the teriyaki sauce for at least 2 hours, or even better overnight.
- Heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and cook chicken until tender and cooked through. Set aside to cool.
- Lightly steam broccoli so it is tender, and allow to cool.
- Assemble the bowls. In your serving bowl, arrange cooked quinoa, broccoli, chicken, edamame, and a bit of the slaw. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
- In a small jar, add all dressing ingredients and shake. Drizzle over all ingredients. Devour because eating healthy never tasted so good!
Notes
Nutritional information is provided as a guide only and is calculated using automated online tools, therefore we cannot guarantee the accuracy. We encourage you to make your own calculations based on the actual ingredients used in your recipe.
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