This Crispy Tofu Buddha Bowl is a healthy and delicious meal, packed with protein and fiber. A creamy peanut sauce and roasted peanuts on top add flavor and fun!
This recipe starts with our Crispy Baked Tofu recipe—you can make either 1 or 2 batches to go with the rest of this recipe, depending on how tofu-heavy you want your bowl.
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Why Make This Recipe
- Nourishing and Hearty: This Buddha Bowl is stacked with good-for-you grains, proteins, and vegetables. A very filling vegetarian meal!
- Easily Customizable: Once you have the basics down, you can swap in whatever ingredients you have on hand. Swap farro for quinoa or bell peppers for sweet potatoes.
- Meal Prep Winner: All of the components of this grain bowl can be made in advance, making this recipe perfect for make-ahead lunches or meal prep dinners.
🥗 Ingredients for Buddha Bowl
- Farro: Farro can take a long time to cook, so this is a perfect choice for making ahead of time. We also love that Trader Joe’s has partially-cooked 10 minute farro, which works perfectly in this recipe. If you’d like to make a gluten-free buddha bowl, replace the farro with quinoa or brown rice or another gluten-free grain option.
- Red Onion: This recipe calls for red onions, but you can replace with any onion. Sweet Vidalia onions would be particularly good.
- Edamame: Look for this in the vegetable freezer section of your grocery store. If you can’t find edamame, sliced avocado would make a delicious substitute.
- Peanuts: Chopped peanuts go nicely with the peanut sauce in this tofu bowl recipe, but you could replace these with another kind of nuts or even crunchy seeds like sunflower seeds.
🥗 Ingredients for Peanut Sauce
- Peanut Butter: We recommend creamy peanut butter for this recipe, since it makes a less lumpy sauce. Using natural peanut butter is fine, but make sure to stir well before using, as it has the tendency to separate.
- Soy Sauce: Tamari would make a fine substitute if you are making a gluten-free bowl. If you are making a vegan buddha bowl, make sure your soy sauce is vegan as well.
- Rice Vinegar: Look for “seasoned” rice vinegar; otherwise, you may need to add a little bit of sugar and salt to your sauce.
- Sriracha: Sriracha adds a bit of heat to the peanut sauce. You can leave it out entirely if you don’t want heat, or you can replace with a different hot sauce if you prefer. Cholula or Frank’s Red Hot Sauce would work well too!
🥣 Step-by-Step Instructions
Once you have made one or two batches of Crispy Baked Tofu, set aside while you make the rest of the dish. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare 8 ounces farro according to package directions, and set aside to cool. While farro is cooking, peel a large sweet potato and cut into ¾-inch cubes.
Peel a large red onion, and slice into 1-inch thick wedges. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or nonstick aluminum foil, then add sweet potato cubes and red onion slices. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Toss potatoes and red onions separately to ensure they are evenly covered in oil, then spread out into one layer.
Bake for 15 minutes, then toss. Bake for an additional 10 minutes, until tender and browned.
While vegetables are roasting, make the dressing. Whisk together ¼ cup creamy peanut butter, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 2 teaspoons sesame oil, 1 teaspoon sriracha, and 2 teaspoons brown sugar in a small bowl.
Then slowly whisk in water until the sauce is the thickness you want.
We like to add enough water that you can drizzle the dressing over the grain bowl.
Toss cooled farro with half of the peanut dressing.
Put edamame in a microwave-safe bowl with a couple of tablespoons of water. Cover and heat in the microwave for 3 minutes, then stir.
When you’re ready to serve, arrange buddha bowl with scoops of farro, tofu, sweet potatoes, red onions, and edamame, then drizzle with remaining peanut sauce. Garnish with chopped peanuts.
🧐 Recipe FAQs for Tofu Buddha Bowl
A Buddha Bowl is a vegetarian grain bowl. There are usually 5 components: whole grains like quinoa, farro, or brown rice; roasted or raw vegetables or greens; protein like tofu, beans, or lentils; a dressing; and a topping like nuts, seeds, or herbs. You can serve buddha bowls hot or cold, making these great for a make-ahead lunch. Buddha bowls are perfect for using up small amounts of leftover vegetables, proteins, or grains you might have in the fridge.
Yes, this recipe is great for make-ahead. You can prep all of the components in advance and store them separately in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve. That said, the crispy tofu is best served hot. Make it in advance but crisp it up again by reheating in the air fryer or in a dry nonstick skillet.
👩🍳 Expert Tips
You can combine the potatoes and red onions on your sheet pan if you’d like. We like to keep them on separate sides of the pan in case your sweet potato cubes are too small or too big and cook in a different amount of time than the onions. In that case, you can just remove whichever vegetable is done first.
You can also replace the vegetables in this buddha bowl with whatever vegetables you have on hand. We especially love this one with our Roasted Mini Peppers.
Love this spicy peanut dressing? Why not use it on something else? Here are some ideas:
- use it as a dressing for any kind of green or grain salad
- toss it with cooked noodles to make peanut noodles
- use as a marinade or serve as a dip for broiled or grilled steak or chicken
- drizzled over roasted vegetables, then top with chopped peanuts
On the other hand, if you’d like to try this bowl with a different dressing, check out our Vegan Buddha Bowl with Lemon Tahini Dressing—super delicious! Or, try our Sesame Ginger Dressing on top instead.
Other Delicious Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes
Looking for more meatless recipes? This Vegan Mac and Cheese without Cashews is a delicious vegan take on a classic. Or try one of these favorites:
If you try this Tofu Buddha Bowl recipe, we would love to hear from you! Please rate this recipe and leave a comment below—your feedback is invaluable to us.
And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to our newsletter. We’d love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!
📖 Recipe
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Crispy Tofu Buddha Bowl
Ingredients
For the Buddha Bowl
- 1 or 2 batches Crispy Baked Tofu
- 8 ounces farro
- 1 large sweet potato (1 - 1 ½ pounds)
- 1 large red onion
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 ½ cups frozen shelled edamame
- ⅓ cup chopped salted peanuts for garnish
For the Peanut Sauce
- ¼ cup creamy peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon sriracha
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 3-4 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Make one or two batches of Crispy Baked Tofu, depending on how tofu-heavy you want your meal, then set aside while you make the rest of the dish.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Prepare farro according to package directions, and set aside to cool.
- While farro is cooking, peel sweet potato and cut into ¾-inch cubes.
- Peel red onion, and slice into 1-inch thick wedges.
- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or nonstick aluminum foil, then add sweet potato cubes and red onion slices.
- Drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper.
- Toss potatoes and red onions separately to ensure they are evenly covered in oil, then spread out into one layer.
- Bake for 15 minutes, then toss.
- Bake for an additional 10 minutes, until tender and browned.
- While vegetables are roasting, whisk together peanut butter, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, sriracha, and brown sugar in a small bowl.
- Slowly whisk in water 1 tablespoon at a time until the sauce is the thickness you want. We like to add enough water that you can drizzle the dressing over the grain bowl.
- Toss cooled farro with half of the peanut dressing.
- Put edamame in a microwave-safe bowl with a couple of tablespoons of water. Cover and heat in the microwave for 3 minutes, then stir.
- When you’re ready to serve, arrange buddha bowl with scoops of farro, tofu, sweet potatoes, red onions, and edamame, then drizzle with remaining peanut sauce.
- Garnish with chopped peanuts.
Notes
You can prep all of the components in advance and store them separately in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve. That said, the crispy tofu is best served hot. Make it in advance but crisp it up again by reheating in the air fryer or in a dry nonstick skillet. Storage:
Leftovers will keep in the refrigerator for 4-5 days in an airtight container.
Nutrition
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More About Molly
Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!
Mimi Rippee says
This looks so good! I don’t make many “bowls” for myself cause I really limit my carbs. Especially those not whole-grain. I love them, but I just look at oatmeal and gain weight! Anyway, lovely ingredients in this one!