Mexican Buddha Bowl Recipe

What is there not to love about a Buddha bowl? It's colorful, its healthy, and it's a virtual guarantee that you'll be able to squeeze your five-a-day in with little to no effort.

In case you might have forgotten (or weren't entirely sure) about where Buddha bowls come from, according to Bon Appétit, they have less to do with the mystic for whom the dish is named, and more to do with American lifestyle guru Martha Stuart. In the 2013 book "Meatless" that bears Stuart's imprint, editors talk about a plant-based one-bowl dish that offers "a general formula than a hard-and-fast recipe, since you can swap out different ingredients for variety and to make use of whatever you have on hand."

Recipe developer Catherine Brookes of Blue Sky Eating was inspired to create her thematic Buddha bowl because, as she puts it, "I love so many of the staple ingredients that you often find in Mexican dishes and wanted to throw them all together in one easy, healthy bowlful. It's definitely full of goodness and flavor!"

Brookes' Mexican buddha bowls can be pulled together with many things you might already have in your pantry or fridge: sweet corn, sweet potato, quinoa, black beans, cherry tomatoes, avocado, and lime.

To make the spicy garlic coating, you'll need olive oil, garlic, ground cumin, chilli powder, smoked paprika, and sea salt. If you're not a fan of ground cumin, Brookes suggests skipping the cumin and adding extra paprika, or switching the cumin altogether for a mild curry powder.

And to prepare the cilantro lime dressing, you'll need coconut yogurt, fresh lime juice, and fresh cilantro. If coconut yogurt is not easily available, Brookes says either plain, Greek, or unsweetened yoghurt will do the trick as well.

Brookes recommends beginning your Buddha bowl prep by preheating your oven to 400 F, and then making the spicy garlic coating and the cilantro lime dressing while the oven is getting ready to bake the sweet potato. Once the oven is ready, dice the sweet potato, spread that out on a baking sheet, then pour the spicy garlic coating over it. Toss to ensure the sweet potato is well coated, then bake for 25 minutes. When the diced sweet potato is cooked, set aside.

While your sweet potato is baking, you'll want to turn your avocado into a simple guacamole that'll add so much flavor to this Buddha bowl. In order to prepare the guacamole, you'll first need to remove the skin and stone from the avocado, and then mash it with a little salt and pepper, as well as a squeeze of fresh lime juice. When your guac is ready, you'll want to set that aside as well for when you're ready to assemble your creation.

Once the diced sweet potato is ready, pulling your Buddha bowls together is beyond seamless. The process involves dividing the sweet corn, black beans, tomatoes, quinoa, and cooked sweet potato into equal portions, spooning them into a bowl, then topping the bowls off with guacamole before adding the cilantro lime dressing.

While Buddha bowls are, by their very nature, vegan, there isn't any harm in added protein if you need or want it. Should you want to add a protein, chicken or beef strips, or pulled pork will do the trick.