Brown Rice Bowl w/ Chickpeas, Spinach & Sweet Potato

September 20, 2015 35 Comments

This Brown Rice Bowl with roasted chickpeas and sweet potatoes, garlicky spinach, and an extra creamy maple-tahini dressing is simply delicious. It’s the perfect budget-friendly weeknight dinner when you are looking for something healthy yet still satiating and comforting.

If you are a fan of salad and Buddha bowls, you’ll love this recipe!

This filling Brown Rice Bowl can be enjoyed all year around, though it’s especially lovely in the colder autumn and winter months.

It has earthy brown rice, cayenne spiced crunchy chickpeas, cinnamon roasted sweet potato cubes, garlicky spinach, and a delicious tahini dressing. All very simple to make, yet this recipe is next level deliciousness!

Brown Rice Bowl is…

healthy
vegan
gluten-free
optionally oil-free
protein rich
high in fibre
full of vitamins and minerals
easy to prepare
inexpensive
delicious both cold and warm
nourishing and comforting
perfect to take with you in a lunchbox
and totally customizable

Trust me, this recipe is an absolute keeper. It’s a staple in our home and in one way or another it’s on our menu at least once a week.

How to make Brown Rice Bowl

It’s so simple and easy to make this Brown Rice Bowl!

The components can be all prepared at the same time, so everything is ready to eat at once.

You spice your sweet potatoes and chickpeas. Spread them on a baking tray, and bake for about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile on one of the stove burners you cook the rice.
On another burner your cook the spinach (just 5 minutes before assembling the bowls).
Now make the dressing with whisking together tahini, lime juice, and maple syrup.

That’s it. Arrange everything in nice bowls, drizzle with dressing, and serve immediately or later.

Make ahead tips

This salad is delicious cold or warm, so it can be made hours before serving. Or even days.

Store rice, sweet potato cubes, spinach, and dressing in the fridge for up to 5 days. Roasted chickpeas can be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 5 days as well.

You can also freeze this meal. It’s best to freeze the components separately, and then assemble the bowl before serving.

Customize it the way you like it!

This recipe totally customizable to your liking, so you can play around with whatever ingredients you like or have at home.

RICE

You can use white, black or red rice instead.
If you are not a huge fan of plain rice, you can also add chopped herbs, a little lemon or lime juice, or some hot sauce to the rice.
Or skip rice altogether and try quinoa, buckwheat, millet, or freekeh.

CHICKPEAS

You have so many options for spicing your chickpeas! Try for example cumin, coriander, onion powder, sweet or smoked paprika, chili, or oregano.
Don’t like chickpeas? Simply add cooked lentils or green peas to your bowl for extra protein.
Or swap chickpeas for tofu cubes – yes, you can spice and bake them just like you’d do with the chickpeas.

SWEET POTATOES

You can spice your sweet potatoes in a million different ways, so get creative!
Also, if you don’t have sweet potatoes roasted carrots, beets, parsnip, pumpkin or squash would be equally delicious here too.

SPINACH

You can use fresh or frozen spinach here.
And feel free to add extra spices to your spinach.
If you don’t like spinach at all, try kale, chard, collard or beet greens, cabbage, savoy cabbage, or bok choy instead.

DRESSING

You can use almond, peanut, or cashew butter instead of tahini.
Additional flavorings such as soy sauce, miso, chili sauce or powder, nutritional yeast, grated fresh ginger, garlic, or chopped herbs can be added to the dressing as well.
Don’t like tahini dressing? Try this Brown Rice Bowl with sweet mustard dressing, sour cream, almond dressing, hummus, or spicy peanut sauce.

TOPPINGS and EXTRAS

Add extra crunch and flavor with toppings of your choice. Chopped herbs, toasted nuts and seeds, microgreens, sliced chili, or toasted coconut flakes are all yummy additions.
You can also add extra roasted, grilled or raw veggies. Pickled goodies are also great here.
Tempeh, tofu, seitan, or any store-bought mock meat can be a yummy extra as well.

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