This post contains affiliate links.
My easy buddha bowls are bright, fresh, and built around a yogurt dressing with orange juice, honey, and cinnamon that one reader described as being “blown away by.” They come together in 15 minutes, work as a meal prep staple, and are fully customizable depending on what’s in your fridge.
save this recipe!Buddha bowls are one of those recipes where the components matter less than the formula. Greens, grains, protein, vegetables, fruit, something creamy, something crunchy, and a sauce that ties it all together. Get the formula right and the bowl works regardless of what you put in it. Get the sauce wrong and even the best ingredients taste flat.
This dressing is the reason this recipe works. It sounds simple, and it is, but the combination of citrus, honey, and cinnamon does something unexpected: it makes every ingredient in the bowl taste more like itself.
Reader rating
“WOW! I was nervous about the flavours, but MAN, was I blown away by this. The sauce works perfectly! An instant weekly favourite.” —Richie
Simple Buddha Bowl Ingredients and Variations
At its core, the Buddha bowl is just a big bowl of healthy food, mostly plants, served over a bed of greens or grains and topped with a dressing. Buddha bowls usually contain:
- Greens: Like spinach or kale.
- Protein: Like chickpeas, black beans, or other beans.
- Grains: Like bulgur, quinoa, lentils, or brown rice.
- Healthy carbs: Helloooo fruit! This could also be veggies like cucumber, broccoli, or cauliflower for something a little lower in carbs but still filling. Sweet potato is also one of my favorites for a warm bowl!
- Healthy fats: Avocado or nuts will do the trick.
- Extras: Flavorful additions like onions, nutritional yeast, or spices. And, of course, a great sauce! In this case, that’s a yogurt-based dressing.
How to Make Buddha Bowls
- Whisk the dressing. Combine the yogurt, orange juice, honey, cinnamon, salt, and pepper in a small bowl and set aside.
- Cook your grain. Quinoa, brown rice, couscous, or bulgur all work here. Cook according to whichever you choose, then let it cool slightly.
- Build the base. Divide the leafy greens between your bowls.
- Layer the toppings. Add the cooked grain, chickpeas, blueberries, mandarin oranges, avocado, red onion, and shredded carrot in sections over the greens.
- Dress and serve. Drizzle with the yo
What grain works best?
Any of the four grains listed in this recipe work well in a buddha bowl, but they behave differently depending on how you plan to eat it.
Quinoa is the best all-around choice. It stays fluffy and separate whether served warm or cold, holds up well in meal prep, and has a mild flavor that lets the dressing come forward. Cook with a 1:2 ratio of quinoa to water, bring to a boil, then simmer covered for 15 minutes.
Brown rice is the most filling option and the slowest to cook, but it keeps well in the fridge for up to five days. It’s the right call if you’re prepping bowls for the full week. Check the types of rice guide for more on which variety to reach for.
Couscous is the fastest option at about five minutes total, which makes it the best choice when you’re genuinely starting from scratch at dinner. It absorbs the dressing quickly though, so keep it separate until serving if you’re meal prepping.
Bulgur has the most texture and a slightly nutty flavor that adds something to the bowl beyond just a starchy base. It works especially well with the citrus dressing in this recipe. Cook with a 1:1.5 ratio of bulgur to water and simmer covered for 15 to 20 minutes.
How to Serve Buddha Bowls
We’re drizzling these particular buddha bowls with a sweet and savory yogurt sauce built on orange juice, honey, and cinnamon, but the format is flexible enough to take on almost any dressing you have in the fridge. My vegan yum sauce, romesco sauce, and blueberry vinaigrette all work here too.
Serve it straight from the fridge as a cold, crunchy lunch, or warm the grains and chickpeas first if you’re craving something cozier. Keep the avocado and citrus off until right before you eat, since both hold their texture best fresh cut.
How to Store Buddha Bowls
Buddha bowls store best in pieces, not fully assembled.
Keep the greens in one container, the grains and chickpeas together in another, and the dressing in its own sealed jar. Stored this way, everything holds up in the fridge for up to four days.
Leave the avocado unsliced until you’re ready to eat, and keep juicy ingredients like the mandarin oranges away from the greens so they don’t wilt them. The dressing keeps on its own for up to five days.
When you’re ready to eat, assemble everything cold, or warm the grains and chickpeas first, then top with the rest and drizzle with dressing.
Buddha Bowl Recipe FAQs
A Buddha bowl is a single-bowl meal built from a base of greens or grains, topped with protein, vegetables, fruit, something creamy, something crunchy, and a sauce that ties it together. The name comes from the way the bowl is piled high and rounded, like the belly of a Buddha statue.
Both. This version is served cold, which is part of what makes it such an easy meal prep option. Other buddha bowls, like my roasted vegetable buddha bowl, lean warm instead. The format works either way.
A poke bowl is a Hawaiian dish built around raw, marinated fish, usually tuna, served over rice with a handful of toppings. A Buddha bowl has no seafood requirement and is built entirely around plants: grains, beans, vegetables, and a sauce. Think of a poke bowl as one specific dish and a Buddha bowl as a flexible formula.
Easy Buddha Bowls Recipe
Ingredients
Yogurt Dressing
- ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt, 60 g, or dairy-free alternative
- ¼ cup orange juice, 60 mL
- 2 Tbsp honey, 30 g, can sub maple syrup or agave
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- Pinch of salt and pepper
Buddha Bowl Fillings
- 2 handfuls leafy greens, spinach, kale, or lettuce
- 1 cup cooked grains, quinoa, couscous, bulgur, or brown rice
- 1 15-oz can chickpeas, 425 g, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup blueberries, 100 g
- 4 mandarin oranges, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 avocados, sliced
- ¼ red onion, about ½ cup, sliced
- 2 carrots, peeled and shredded
Instructions
- Dressing: Whisk all dressing ingredients together and set aside.
- Filling: Divide greens into 4 servings bowls, then top each with equal portions of cooked grains, chickpeas, blueberries, oranges, avocado, onion, and carrot.
- Serve: Drizzle with dressing and serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information calculated by Sarah Bond, degreed nutritionist.
did you make this?Leave a comment below and tag @liveeatlearn on social media! I love seeing what you’ve made!
Going to try this it looks yummy
This looks so delicious. I am unable to eat chickpeas, beans, or lentils. Can you recommend any replacements?
WOW! I was nervous about the flavours, but MAN, was I blown away by this. The sauce works perfectly! An instant weekly favourite.
YAY! So happy to hear it, Richie! 😀
this is a wonderful recipe, this helped me a lot. i have made my first budha bowl! thank you sara!
Love hearing this, thanks for being here!
Love the flavour of the dressing, but could you check the measurements that are in ml and grams? They all say 60ml or 60g, even when the cup quantities are greater or lesser. I am in the UK, we don’t really use cups!
Hi Angela! Yes, the metric measurements are all correct, as long as you don’t scale up the recipe at all. If you scale it up, then you’ll just have to calculate what they would be.