The Buddha bowl
What on earth is a Buddha bowl? Well it's essentially a vegan salad in a bowl, doesn’t sound that exciting right? Wrong! It’s such an easy and healthy lunch to make at home, and incredibly Instagram worthy if you do it right. My secret to this salad is chopping the veg really small so you don't notice you're eating it, it's how I got my Dad to actually eat a salad and enjoy it.
Here’s my quick Buddha bowl recipe and remember with these it’s all about the presentation.
Serves one:
Large iceberg lettuce leaf
Handful of broccoli florets
Sunflower seeds
Good handful of cooked lentils (here I used puy lentils)
4 cherry tomatoes
Half a handful of cucumber
Half a handful of yellow pepper
Handful of a cooked grain (quinoa, brown rice, bulgur wheat etc.)
½ tsp Chilli flakes
1 tbsp. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
This can be served hot or cold, if you want a warm salad then make sure your grains and lentils are still warm. Take a deep bowl and place the lettuce leaf in the bottom to line it. Finely chop cucumber, tomatoes and pepper. Then in a mixing bowl combine lentils, grains, pepper, tomatoes and cucumber. Put these in the bowl on top of the lettuce.
Put the broccoli in boiling water for about 4 minutes. Heat the oil in a large frying pan, drain the broccoli and then add to the pan with chill, salt and pepper. Fry for 5 minutes. Set the broccoli aside and put the sunflower seeds in the pan and toast until golden. Put the broccoli on top of the salad and then add the seeds and voilà you are Instagram ready!