This Vegan Rice Bowl is quick, easy, hearty, and delicious. It’s loaded with fresh, plant-based ingredients like chickpeas, sweet potatoes, avocados, peppers and more coming together as a hearty vegan dish, still with plenty of flavor.
This blog post and recipe is sponsored by Success Rice. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you so much for supporting brands that make A Paige Of Positivity possible.
About this Buddha Bowl
There’s a reason buddha bowls have been so popular as of recently. They’re extremely simple to throw together and can be loaded up with literally whatever you choose. Buddha bowls are a wonderful way to use what you have in your fridge to make a busy weeknight meal that everyone around the dinner table will be satisfied with (even the picky eaters around!).
This particular rice bowl is loaded with plant-based ingredients including plenty of colorful, nutritious ingredients like roasted sweet potatoes, avocado, cucumbers, bell peppers and sprouts. All of it is drizzled with a homemade spicy mustard dressing that is truly drinkable and the result is a perfect vegan meal you’re going to love.
This Vegan Buddha Bowl is such an easy dinner recipe, and is one of my personal favorites when it comes to healthy meal prep and achieving all of my nutrient daily values. It’s a super satisfying plant-based meal, even for the meat eaters out there!
And if you’re looking for more rice bowls to try, I think you’ll also love this Falafel Bowl, Buffalo Chicken Rice Bowl, this Homemade California Poke Bowl or this Chile Lime Shrimp Bowl, too!
Recipe Ingredients
- Rice – I used Boil-in-Bag Rice from Success Rice. It results in perfectly fluffy rice EVERY TIME.
- Sweet Potatoes and Chickpeas – These get roasted together with a homemade seasoning blend.
- Veggies – I used cucumbers, bell peppers, avocado, and green onion. See below for additional vegetable suggestions!
- Spicy Mustard Vinaigrette – This is homemade, too! It’s super simple (literally just shaking pantry ingredients in a jar), so don’t be intimidated.
See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Substitutions and Variations
I don’t know a recipe more customizable than a rice bowl! Here are some suggestions on how to change it up.
- Rice – You can use any type of rice. Instead of white rice try brown rice, black rice, Cilantro Lime Rice, jasmine rice, cauliflower rice, forbidden rice, even rice noodles, etc. – whatever you have! Or make this a grain bowl with something like quinoa, couscous or farro.
- Veggies – Add any and all veggies. Additional raw veggies you could add include snow peas, red onion, cherry tomatoes, fresh herbs, chopped celery, to name a few. And if you’re looking to roast additional veggies add carrots, brussel sprouts, broccoli, or cauliflower to the pan with the sweet potatoes. But really, the possibilities are endless!
- Chickpeas – Instead, try another plant-based protein like lentils, black beans, Great Northern beans, edamame, pinto beans, etc.
- Sauce – You can take the dressing a lot of different directions on these veggie rice bowls. If the spicy mustard dressing isn’t speaking to you, other ideas I think would be delicious are pesto, a tahini sauce, some sort of Asian sauce like soy sauce or a teriyaki, or if you like some kick, try this Creamy Jalapeño Sauce.
How to Make This Recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Remove the skin of the sweet potato (if desired), then use a vegetable chopper to dice the sweet potatoes in even sized cubes. Rinse and drain a can of garbanzo beans. Add the chickpeas and diced sweet potatoes onto a baking sheet.
2. Combine the seasonings in a small bowl, then drizzle the olive oil and sprinkle the seasoning mixture over the sweet potatoes and chickpeas. Roast for 25-30 minutes or until chickpeas and sweet potatoes are tender.
3. While the sweet potatoes and chickpeas are roasting, prepare the rice according to box/bag instructions. I used Success White Rice, Boil-in-Bag.
4. Next, prepare the spicy mustard dressing. Add all of the ingredients into a mason jar, top with the lid, and shake for 20-30 seconds until combined.
5. Use a vegetable chopper to finely dice the cucumbers. Slice the red pepper into long vertical strips, and slice the avocado.
6. Once the roasted sweet potatoes and chickpeas are out of the oven, it’s time to assemble the bowls. Divide the rice between two bowls. Then top with each remaining bowl ingredient: the sweet potatoes & chickpeas, peppers, cucumbers, and avocado. Garnish with green onions, lime juice or lemon juice, and drizzle with homemade dressing. Dig in!
Recipe FAQs
I like to store all of my buddha bowl ingredients in individual containers and build the bowl just before enjoying. This keeps the ingredients freshest, and allows you to reheat components like the leftover rice without also heating up the raw produce like the cucumbers and avocado. The prepped ingredients will keep well in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Absolutely! The recipe serves 2, but can easily be scaled up or down simply by prepping additional bowl components. It’s also great for a group to have all of the ingredients set out and people can build their own bowls with the toppings of their choosing.
One serving of rice is ~½ cup cooked. One cup of dry rice makes ~3 cups of cooked rice, so if you cook 1 cup of rice, you’ll have about 6 servings. The Boil-in-Bag White Rice from Success Rice has individual bags that are pre-portioned into two servings, which is what I used in this recipe.
Yes, this recipe is vegan, making it fully dairy free and it is also 100% gluten free.
More Recipes You’ll Love
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating and comment in the recipe card below. Thanks for visiting!
Vegan Rice Bowl
Equipment
- Vegetable peeler optional
- vegetable chopper optional
- Knife
- Cutting Board
- sheet pan
- strainer
- Mason jar
Ingredients
- 1 can chickpeas, 16 oz
- 3 small sweet potatoes
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 cup cucumbers, diced
- 1 bag Success Rice Boil-in-Bag
- 1 avocado
- 1 bell pepper, sliced
- 2 tbsp green onion, chopped
- 1 lime juiced
Seasoning Mixture
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tbsp cayenne pepper
Spicy Mustard Vinaigrette
- 2 tbsp yellow mustard
- 1 tbsp hot sauce
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 tbsp oil, olive, avocado, or cultured
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Remove the skin of the sweet potato (if desired), then use a vegetable chopper to dice the sweet potatoes in even sized cubes. Rinse and drain a can of garbanzo beans. Add the chickpeas and diced sweet potatoes onto a baking sheet.
- Combine the seasonings in a small bowl, then drizzle the olive oil and sprinkle the seasoning mixtures over the sweet potatoes and chickpeas.
- While the sweet potatoes and chickpeas are roasting, prepare the rice according to box/bag instructions. I used Success White Rice, Boil-in-Bag.
- Next, prepare the spicy mustard dressing. Add all of the ingredients into a mason jar, top with the lid, and shake for 20-30 seconds until combined.
- Use a vegetable chopper to finely dice the cucumbers. Slice the red pepper into long vertical strips, and slice the avocado.
- Once the roasted sweet potatoes and chickpeas are out of the oven, it’s time to assemble the bowls. Divide the rice between two bowls. Then top with each remaining bowl ingredient: the sweet potatoes & chickpeas, peppers, cucumbers, and avocado. Garnish with green onions, lime juice or lemon juice, and drizzle with homemade dressing. I like to keep components separate for visual purposes when serving, but just before enjoying, toss so you get a little bit of flavor from each ingredient in every bite. Dig in!
Nutrition
Notes
Looking for this in MyFitnessPal?
If you’re using MyFitnessPal, search ‘A Paige Of Positivity’ and find Vegan Rice Bowl calories and nutrition facts. Disclaimer: for most accurate macronutrients and caloric breakdown, it is recommended that you input each ingredient into your MyFitnessPal food diary.
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. It’s my passion to create dishes that can be shared with others. Tell me something you loved or just say hi!
obsessed with this for meal prep. Easy to use up leftovers & pantry ingredients!
This recipe is divine!
Another APOP favorite! My entire family enjoyed this recipe last night (including our two littles)! Super easy to utilize for meal prep and the leftovers are just as good the next day. We will definitely be making this recipe again.