Name: Mediterranean Buddha Bowl
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Ingredients: 2 cups cooked brown or white rice*; 4 cups romaine lettuce, roughly chopped; 2 cups garbanzo beans; 2 cups cucumbers, cut into quarters; 2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half; 1 cup red onion, sliced; 4 radishes, sliced; 1 avocado, sliced; 20 kalamata olives, pitted and quartered; 1/2 cup hummus; 1 lemon, cut into quarters; Salt and pepper to taste; Optional: drizzle of olive oil or red vinegar

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Meet your new favorite lunch! This Mediterranean buddha bowl is full of nutritious ingredients like brown rice, veggies, chickpeas, and hummus. These bowls are great for meal prepping and easily customizable!

Hands holding up the perfect lunch - a Mediterranean buddha bowl.

Buddha bowls seriously have so many things going for them! They are a great way to use up a bunch of fresh produce in your refrigerator, and by only switching up a few ingredients, you can completely transform the vibe of the bowl. If those weren't enough reasons to love Buddha bowls, they are also great for meal prepping and can be prepared ahead of time for the upcoming week!

Today, we are traveling to where lemons and olives are a part of everyday life and making a Mediterranean Buddha Bowl!

What is a Buddha Bowl

Upclose of a Mediterranean bowl showing garbanzo beans, olives, lettuce, and red onion.

According to Epicurious, the origins of the Buddha bowl came from the book Buddha's Diet by Dan Zigmond and Tara Cottrell. There isn't a specific mention of the term "Buddha bowl," but the book dives into how and what Buddhists eat.

"Buddha woke up before dawn every morning and carried his bowl through the roads or paths wherever he was staying. Local people would place food in the bowl as a donation, and at the end, he would eat whatever he had been given," explains Zigmond. "So that was the original Buddha Bowl: a big bowl of whatever food villagers had available and could afford to share."
Buddha's Diet by Dan Zigmond & Tara Cottrell

Today, a Buddha bowl consists of a combination of grains, veggies/greens, protein, and a dressing or sauce. This encompasses poke bowls, Chipotle-inspired bowls, Bibimpaps, Mediterranean bowls, and everything in-between.

How to Build Your Bowl

Upclose of a lunch bowl with hummus, red onion, reddish, avocado, and tomatoes.

Building a buddha bowl is so much fun. All of the ingredients are mixed in one bowl, which means you have yourself a bowl full of goodness and an easy clean-up! The essential components of a delicious Buddha bowl include:

Rice or noodles
A protein such as tofu, tempeh, seitan, or legumes
Greens
Fresh or roasted vegetables of your choice
A sauce or dressing

How to Customize Your Buddha Bowl

Straight on shot of a Mediterranean buddha bowl.

My favorite part of Buddha bowls is that they are completely customizable depending on your mood! I can never tire of them because, with a few swaps, you have an entirely different meal.

Here are some of my go-to combinations:

For a Mexican-inspired bowl combine rice, greens, corn, beans, salsa, jalapeño, and guacamole.
If you like poke bowls, mix rice or noodles, greens, sliced tofu, edamame, cucumber, mango or pineapple, avocado, ginger, and furikake.
My Mediterranean buddha bowl includes rice, lettuce, chickpeas, tomatoes, red onion, radish, cucumber, olives, avocado, and hummus.
You can also make something completely your own and use up whatever you have on hand! Some of my other favorite ingredients to add on top of grains and fresh greens are roasted sweet potato, chickpeas, broccoli, cabbage, microgreens, beets, and carrots.

Rice bowl sitting on a napkin with lemons and tomatoes scattered around.

I hope this Mediterranean Buddha Bowl recipe ignites your love for buddha bowls, because they are

Customizable
Packed with veggies
Healthy
Full of fiber
Crunchy
Easy
Great for meal prepping

Let me know if you try out this Mediterranean Buddha bowl recipe, and if you do, I would love it if you left a rating and review below! Make sure you are also following along on Instagram and Pinterest for more food inspiration.