Spicy Peanut Bowl
Spicy Peanut Bowl
This bowl is inspired by Fresh’s Buddha Bowl. Fresh is a popular vegetarian restaurant in Toronto and one of my favourite places to go for dinner with a friend. I always feel like I order fancy salads and bowls in restaurants and they taste better than any salad I make at home. And so I always want to go to eat out when I’m craving a good bowl, but these places are also expensive. So a while back I decided to recreate my favourite menu items from Fresh and it was quite easy and in my opinion, tasted just as good!
INGREDIENTS
Bowl
1 medium sweet potato
2 tsp. olive oil
1 tsp. paprika
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper
1 cup brown rice
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1 cup diced cucumber
3 cups spinach
3 tbsp. chopped peanuts
1 sprig fresh cilantro (optional)
Spicy Peanut Sauce
2 tbsp. sesame oil
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp. natural peanut butter
1 tbsp. sriracha
1 tsp. fresh grated ginger
3-6 tbsp. water
YIELD
3 servings
TIME
Prep - 15 minutes
Cook - 20 minutes
Assemble - 5 minutes
TOOLS
1 baking sheet
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking sheet with foil.
Wash and dice sweet potato. Toss with olive oil, paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper. Lay out on the first baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until tender.
Cook rice according to directions on the box.
Wash and chop vegetables.
Begin assembling bowls while your sweet potatoes roast. Divide spinach amongst 3 bowls. Divide up cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, and rice amongst your bowls.
Make the peanut sauce Mix all ingredients in a measuring cup. Reduce the amount of to half sriracha if you don’t want the sauce to be too spicy. Start with 3 tbsp. water and add more until you get a consistency that will pour onto your bowls.
Add sweet potatoes to your bowls once they’re done. Top with chopped peanuts and cilantro. Pour on the sauce and enjoy.
This bowl can be served hot or cold. I allow the sweet potatoes and rice to cool completely before adding to a tupperware to eat for lunch at work the next day cold (make sure you store your dressing in a separate container). But, you could refrigerate potatoes and rice separately and warm up before adding to the vegetables and spinach.
ADAPTATIONS
If you want this bowl to have more protein you can top with a protein like tempeh or chicken.
