Cook once, eat 5 times!
Don’t be scared off by the long ingredient list. After making this recipe you’ll have 5 plant-based, filling, delish meals. We love making these bowls on Sunday and then enjoying for lunch throughout the week. They’re super convenient and can be served warm or cold!
Meal-prep
Preparing meals at the start of the week sets yourself up for a week of healthful eating. Remember: Failure to plan is planning to fail!
When meal-prepping this recipe, we use glass containers (*affiliate). This makes it easy to go from the refrigerator to the microwave to your mouth! ?
These bowl keep for up to one week in the refrigerator.
Ingredients
Brown rice – Awesome because it’s a whole grain, meaning it’s not processed so nothing as been removed. That means you are getting all the nutrients that rice has to offer and it keeps you fuller longer. If you make rice often, I can’t recommend enough getting a rice cooker (*affiliate). They’re cheap and make cooking rice SO EASY! You can also cook other grains in a rice cooker (barley, farro, quinoa, etc.) – which, by the way, feel free to substitute any of those for the rice in this recipe.
Sunflower Butter – Go with the all natural option (no oil/sugar added). There should only be one ingredient: sunflower seeds. Sometimes a little salt will be added too, which is okay for most people. My favorite place to buy this is Trader Joe’s, though most grocery stores stock it with the rest of the nut and seed butters.
Ginger – We went with ground ginger for this recipe because that saves us from having to get the food processor out and do extra dishes. If you have fresh ginger around, feel free to use it, although you will want to blend the sauce or mince your ginger really well. If using fresh ginger, you’ll need a 1 inch piece.
Garlic – We used powdered garlic in this recipe because we want the tofu to soak it up. Minced garlic won’t stick to the tofu well and most of it would probably end up on the pan at the end.
Sriracha – This recipe has some sriracha in the sauce and coating the tofu – it’s just enough for a yummy flavor without making it spicy. Although, if you’re sensitive to spicy or have some kiddos who are, feel free to use less/eliminate the sriracha.
Roasting Veggies, Hold the Oil
When switching from cooking with oil to cooking without it there is a bit of a learning curve – but forgoing the oil when roasting veggies is actually easier than roasting with it. Just cut up the veggies and throw them on a pan. Make sure to use parchment paper or silicone baking mats (*affiliates) to prevent sticking.
Roasting veggies without oil doesn’t really change how the veggies turn out. They still get crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.. Just a lot less empty calories. And as as added bonus, no oily pans to scrub afterwards – clean up is way easier! ?
Interested in learning about all the benefits of cooking without oil? Check out our Why No Oil post.
For this recipe you will need two pans to roast all of your veggies (plus another for the tofu).
We recommend roasting the sweet potatoes, onions, and Brussels sprouts on one pan and the peppers, broccoli, and mushrooms on the other pan. This is because the cook time is different for each pan. The sweet potatoes, onions, and Brussels sprouts will need 40 minutes to roast while the broccoli, mushrooms, and peppers will just need 20… we don’t want over/uncooked veggies!
Dressing
The simple sunflower butter dressing only requires dumping and mixing. It’s best to add this right before eating. If you don’t have sunflower butter on-hand, feel free to substitute any nut or seed butter. But then put sunflower butter on your grocery list, so you can use it next time.. because it’s DELISH!!!
These dressing containers (*affiliate) make it easy to divide the dressing.
Tofu
You will want to use firm or extra firm tofu for this recipe.
We want to remove as much water as possible so we will have crispy tofu at the end. To remove liquid from the tofu, wrap a clean towel around the block of tofu and set something heavy on top of it (I use my cast iron skillet). Let it set for 15 minutes and you’ll be surprised at how much moisture came out of your tofu.
If you’re not a last-minute person like me, you can drain your tofu overnight in the refrigerator – this will give you super crispy tofu! To do so, wrap a towel around the tofu and sit in in the fridge with something heavy on top – leave it there for no longer than a day.
After your tofu is drained, cut it up in ~1 inch cubes. Then either toss the tofu cubes in a bowl with the tofu marinade to coat them (quickest), or use a basting brush to brush the marinade on (shown above).
This is one of those foolproof recipes that you can’t mess up. Therefore, feel free to use any veggies you have on hand! Squash, carrots, cauliflower, celery, eggplant, potatoes… whatever you need to use up.
Enjoy and then let us know how it turns out!
Meal Prep: Roasted Veggies & Tofu Buddha Bowl with Sunflower Butter Dressing
Equipment
- 3 large baking sheets
- 3 sheets parchment paper
Ingredients
Tofu
- 1 14 oz. block tofu extra firm or firm
- 1/4 cup tamari recommend low sodium
- 1 1/2 Tbsp Sriracha
- 1/2 tsp garlic powdered
Roasted Veggies
- 1 onion
- 1 lb Brussel Sprouts
- 2 large Sweet Potatoes
- 1 crown broccoli
- 8 oz mushrooms
- 1 bell pepper any color
Dressing
Grain
- 1 1/2 cup brown rice rinsed
Instructions
Grain
- Add brown rice to medium saucepan with 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil, over medium heat. Once boiling, reduce heat to low, add lid and let simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and fluff with a fork.
Tofu
- Press tofu by wrapping it in a clean towel, laying flat on counter and laying something heavy over it (such as a cast iron skillet). Let sit for 15 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a medium bowl, mix together tofu marinade ingredients: tamari, Sriracha and garlic.
- Unwrap tofu. Slice into 1-inch cubes. Add cubes to the mixing bowl and toss with marinade until tofu is coated.
- Transfer tofu cubes to a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes. Flip and bake for another 10 minutes.
Roasted Veggies
- Chop all veggies into bite-sized pieces.
- Add chopped sweet potatoes, onion and Brussel sprouts to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes. Stir and bake for another 20 minutes, or until soft.
- Add chopped bell peppers, mushrooms and broccoli to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes.
Dressing
- Mix all dressing ingredients in a small bowl.
Meal Prep Assembly
- Divide brown rice between 5 meal-prep containers. Divide all veggies and tofu between containers. Divide sauce between 5 small sauce containers so it can be added right before eating.
Notes
Nutrition
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This recipe looks awesome!
What is the oven temp for roasting the tofu and vegetables?
Oh yes, the temp may help ? — It’s 400’F.