Around six on a Tuesday I get a very specific craving for peanut sauce.
Takeout is twenty minutes away and forty dollars, and by the time it arrives I've usually stopped wanting it.
So I started making this instead, and now it's on my sheet pan almost every week.
The part that surprised me is that the whole thing works because nothing gets tossed.
I used to dump everything in a bowl and stir.
Big mistake.
The chickpeas I'd spent thirty minutes crisping went soft in about forty seconds.
Now every component lands in its own section of the bowl, side by side, like wedges of a pie.
Roasted sweet potato here, crisp chickpeas there, charred broccoli next to them, rice underneath the whole thing.
The peanut sauce goes over the top at the table.
Every forkful you take is a slightly different combination, and the textures stay separate right down to the last bite.
My wife eats hers with the sauce on the side and dips, which honestly might be better.
The sauce itself is peanut butter, lime, soy, ginger, garlic and sesame oil, whisked in a bowl in three minutes.
Everything roasts on one pan.
Make it once and the takeout craving stops winning.
What Makes This a Buddha Bowl
Composed, not tossed. That's the entire distinction, and it's the reason this bowl beats a stir fry made from the same ingredients.
A stir fry cooks everything together and everything ends up tasting like one thing.
A tossed salad does the same in the other direction.
A buddha bowl keeps each component in its own quarter of the bowl, dressed only from above.
Which means the crisp thing stays crisp until your fork gets there.
The formula I follow is five parts, and once you have it you can build a bowl out of almost anything in the fridge.
- A grain base. Jasmine rice or quinoa, seasoned in its own right, spread across the bottom.
- A roasted starchy vegetable. Sweet potato here, and it's the anchor of the bowl.
- A green vegetable. Broccoli, roasted until the tips char.
- A legume. Chickpeas, roasted dry until they crackle.
- A sauce and a crunch. Peanut sauce over the top, chopped peanuts and herbs last.
Sound rigid? It's the opposite. Once you know the five slots you stop needing a recipe at all.
Ingredients You Will Need
The sauce list looks long and it's all pantry. Nine items, one bowl, one whisk.
For the Sheet Pan
- Sweet potatoes (1 ½ pounds), in ½ inch cubes. About two medium. Uniform cubes matter because a pan of mixed sizes gives you burnt small ones and raw big ones.
- Chickpeas (1 can, 15 ounces), drained, rinsed and dried well. Dried well. This is the difference between crisp and chewy and I go into it below.
- Broccoli florets (4 cups). Cut them a bit larger than you think, they shrink hard in a hot oven.
- Avocado or olive oil (2 tablespoons) and salt (¾ teaspoon).
For the Peanut Sauce
- Natural creamy peanut butter (⅓ cup). The kind with oil on top and nothing else in the jar. Sweetened commercial peanut butter turns the sauce cloying.
- Soy sauce or tamari (3 tablespoons). The salt in the sauce.
- Lime juice (2 tablespoons) and rice vinegar (1 tablespoon). Two different acids doing two different jobs. Lime is bright and floral, vinegar is sharp and clean.
- Toasted sesame oil (2 teaspoons). Toasted, the dark kind. A little goes a long way.
- Maple syrup (1 tablespoon). Balance, not sweetness. Leave it out and the sauce tastes flat and salty.
- Fresh ginger (1 teaspoon), grated, and garlic (1 clove), minced. Fresh ginger is the ingredient most peanut sauce recipes skip and the one that makes it taste like a restaurant.
- Red pepper flakes (½ teaspoon).
- Warm water (3 to 5 tablespoons). To thin. The amount genuinely depends on your peanut butter, so go by feel.
For the Base and Toppings
- Jasmine rice or quinoa (1 cup dry). Salt the cooking water. An unseasoned base makes the whole bowl taste diluted.
- Roasted peanuts (⅓ cup), roughly chopped. The crunch on top.
- Fresh cilantro (¼ cup) and scallions (2), thinly sliced.
- Lime wedges. A squeeze right before eating wakes the whole bowl up.
How To Make Thai Peanut Sweet Potato Bowls
The oven does the work in two stages. Sweet potato and chickpeas go in first, broccoli joins them partway through.
Step 1: Start the Grain
Cook 1 cup of jasmine rice or quinoa in salted water according to the package.
Start it first and it'll be resting by the time the pan comes out.
Step 2: Roast the Sweet Potato and Chickpeas
Heat the oven to 425°F.
Dry the chickpeas thoroughly on a towel. Roll them around, get them properly dry, discard any loose skins.
Toss the sweet potato cubes and chickpeas with 1 ½ tablespoons of oil and half the salt.
Spread them on a large sheet pan, keeping the chickpeas on their own patch rather than mixed in.
Chickpeas need dry heat all around them to crisp, and sitting against wet sweet potato they'll only ever steam.
Roast 15 minutes.
Step 3: Add the Broccoli Partway Through
Toss the broccoli with the remaining oil and salt.
Pull the pan out, turn the sweet potato cubes, and add the broccoli in the open space.
Roast another 15 to 18 minutes.
Broccoli is done long before a sweet potato cube is, and adding it at the start is how you get scorched black florets and an underdone potato.
You want the sweet potato browned at the edges, the chickpeas rattling when you shake the pan, and the broccoli tender with charred tips.
Step 4: Whisk the Peanut Sauce
Whisk the peanut butter, soy sauce, lime juice, rice vinegar, sesame oil, maple syrup, ginger, garlic and pepper flakes in a bowl.
It will seize and look broken. Keep going.
Add warm water 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking after each one.
Stop when the sauce falls off the whisk in a slow ribbon that sinks back in after a second or two.
I don't give a fixed water amount because peanut butter brands vary enormously in thickness. Go by what it looks like off the spoon.
Pro tip: taste it cold, straight from the bowl. It tastes flatter warm, so if it's right at room temperature it'll be right on the bowl.
Step 5: Compose the Bowl
Spread the rice across the bottom of each bowl.
Lay the sweet potato in one section, the chickpeas in another, the broccoli in a third.
Side by side, each keeping its own patch. Do not stir.
Spoon the peanut sauce over the top in a wide zigzag.
Finish with chopped peanuts, cilantro, scallion and a lime wedge.
Ben's Tips
- Dry chickpeas or don't bother. A wet chickpea cannot crisp. Towel them, let them sit five minutes, towel them again.
- Cut the sweet potato evenly. ½ inch across, all of them. This is the most boring advice in the article and the one that changes the result most.
- Use a big enough pan. Two pans beat one crowded one every time. Crowded vegetables steam and never brown.
- Salt the grain. Unseasoned rice under a heavily flavored bowl tastes like padding.
- Sauce on top, never underneath. Poured over, at the table. The moment it's mixed in, the crisp chickpeas are gone.
- Grate the ginger, don't chop it. Chopped ginger gives you fibrous little surprises. A microplane melts it into the sauce.
Variations and Adding a Protein
- Chicken on the pan. Cubed chicken breast or thigh, tossed in the same oil and salt, added with the sweet potato. It'll be done at the same time. This is the version I make when I want it to be a bigger dinner.
- Baked tofu. Pressed, cubed, and roasted alongside on its own patch of the pan.
- Shrimp. Added for the last 6 minutes only, or they'll turn to rubber.
- Edamame. Shelled and thawed, added cold as a sixth section. No cooking at all.
- Swap the green. Green beans, broccolini or thinly sliced red cabbage all work. Cabbage goes in raw as a crunchy section.
- Peanut allergy. Sunflower seed butter makes a genuinely good sauce with the same method. Use toasted sunflower seeds on top too.
Meal Prep and Storage
This is the meal prep bowl I actually pack. The trick is packing it the same way you'd serve it.
- Roasted vegetables and chickpeas. Airtight in the fridge for 4 days. Keep the chickpeas in a separate small container if you want any hope of crunch on day three.
- The grain. 4 days, and it reheats better with a teaspoon of water splashed in first.
- The peanut sauce. Up to 1 week, in a jar. It thickens into a paste when cold, so let it sit out for ten minutes and whisk in warm water a teaspoon at a time.
- Peanuts and herbs. Keep them out entirely until the moment you eat. Chopped peanuts go soft and cilantro goes slimy.
- Reheating. Microwave the grain and vegetables together, add the cold sauce after. Heating the sauce makes it separate and go oily.
How To Serve
- As a full dinner bowl. Sauce poured over at the table, lime wedge on the rim, extra chili flakes for anyone who wants them.
- As a packed lunch. Sauce in a small separate container. Pour it on right before you eat and it's as good as it was at home.
- Family style. Everything in serving bowls in the middle of the table and everyone builds their own. Kids will eat this if they get to assemble it themselves.
Recipe
Thai Peanut Sweet Potato Buddha Bowl
Ingredients
For the Sheet Pan
- 1 ½ pounds sweet potatoes about 2 medium, peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes
- 15 ounces canned chickpeas drained, rinsed and dried well
- 4 cups broccoli florets
- 2 tablespoons avocado or olive oil divided
- ¾ teaspoon salt divided
For the Peanut Sauce
- ⅓ cup natural creamy peanut butter unsweetened
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari
- 2 tablespoons lime juice fresh
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger grated
- 1 clove garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 3-5 tablespoons warm water to thin
For the Base and Toppings
- 1 cup jasmine rice or quinoa dry, cooked in salted water
- ⅓ cup roasted peanuts roughly chopped
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves
- 2 scallions thinly sliced
- 1 lime cut into wedges
Instructions
Roast the Sheet Pan
- Cook the rice or quinoa in salted water according to the package directions and set it aside covered.
- Heat the oven to 425F. Dry the chickpeas thoroughly on a towel, discarding any loose skins. Wet chickpeas will steam instead of crisping.
- Toss the sweet potato cubes and chickpeas with 1 ½ tablespoons of the oil and half the salt. Spread them on a large sheet pan, keeping the chickpeas on their own patch rather than mixed among the potato. Roast 15 minutes.
- Toss the broccoli with the remaining oil and salt. Pull the pan out, turn the sweet potato cubes, and add the broccoli to the open space. Roast another 15 to 18 minutes, until the sweet potato edges are browned, the chickpeas rattle when you shake the pan, and the broccoli tips are charred.
Sauce and Assembly
- Whisk the peanut butter, soy sauce, lime juice, rice vinegar, sesame oil, maple syrup, ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes together. The mixture will seize at first, which is normal.
- Add warm water 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking after each addition, until the sauce falls off the whisk in a slow ribbon that sinks back in after a second. Taste it cold and adjust the lime and salt.
- Spread the cooked grain across the bottom of each bowl. Lay the sweet potato in one section, the chickpeas in another and the broccoli in a third, side by side. Do not stir them together.
- Spoon the peanut sauce over the top in a wide zigzag, then finish with chopped peanuts, cilantro, scallion and a lime wedge. Serve right away.
Notes
- Dry the chickpeas: towel them, rest five minutes, towel again. A wet chickpea cannot crisp.
- Even cubes: ½ inch across, all of them, or you get burnt small pieces and raw big ones.
- Stagger the broccoli: it finishes well before sweet potato, so it goes in at the halfway mark.
- Sauce consistency: peanut butter brands vary, so thin by look rather than by measurement.
- Add a protein: cubed chicken roasts in the same time; shrimp goes in for the last 6 minutes only.
- Meal prep: store components separately for 4 days, sauce in a jar for a week, peanuts and herbs added only at serving.
