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This beautiful, nourishing sweet potato Buddha bowl with lentils, freekeh, and lemony kale salad can be yours in about 45 minutes.
Why we love this recipe
I also love a good Buddha bowl, don’t you? They’re a great excuse to tie a whole bunch of your favorite foods together with a loose thread, and the possibilities for vibrance, healthfulness, and flavor are pretty much limitless.
This sweet potato Buddha bowl is full of lemony kale salad, perfectly roasted sweet potatoes, toothsome freekeh and savory lentils. It’s:
- A beautifully balanced combination of sweet, savory, and hearty flavors
- Prep-ahead friendly
- Naturally vegan, with an easy gluten-free option
All that, and it comes together quickly and efficiently to make dinner for four or a series of meal-prep meals for the week.
What you’ll need
Here’s a glance at the ingredients you’ll need to make this recipe.
- You can use any variety of sweet potatoes (sometimes sold as “yams” in the U.S., though they aren’t yams). You’ll peel them and dice them nice and small so they cook through in a short time.
- Green curly kale tends to have a fairly mild flavor, and it becomes nice and tender when you massage it with the dressing.
- Freekeh (sometimes called farik) is an ancient cereal grain. It’s green durum wheat that’s been roasted, threshed, sun-dried, and cracked. It’s not gluten-free, so if you’d like these bowls to be GF, substitute quinoa, brown rice, or buckwheat.
- I particularly like Puy lentils (sometimes called French lentils) for salads and bowls because they hold their shape and a little bit of bite even when beautifully creamy and tender, and even after a week in the fridge. They have a delicate, complex, earthy flavor.
- A teaspoon of herbes de Provence adds the perfect subtle flavor to this recipe. Blends vary but usually contain some combination of savory, marjoram, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and lavender.
- Nutritional yeast has a super-savory flavor that adds depth and crave-ability to this salad dressing, among many other great recipes.
- And here’s how to make my absolute favorite creamy lemon vinaigrette.
How to make it
Here’s an overview of what you’ll do to make a beautiful sweet potato Buddha bowl. You can see the steps in action in the video that accompanies this post, and get all the details in the recipe card below.
- First you’ll peel, dice, and roast the sweet potatoes.
- While the potatoes cook, you’ll simmer the lentils and the freekeh.
- Toward the end of cooking time, prepare the kale salad.
- When everything is ready, assemble the bowls. That’s it!
Expert tips and FAQs
They’re not, but they can be. Simply swap out the freekeh and instead include quinoa, brown rice, or buckwheat. Everything else is naturally gluten-free.
Yes — and you’ve got options. All of the elements hold well, some more than others. The creamy lemon vinaigrette, lentils, and freekeh are no-brainers. They’ll keep beautifully in separate airtight containers in the fridge for a week. You could say the same for roasted sweet potatoes, but some people may prefer them straight out of the oven.
Dressed kale salad holds surprisingly well in the fridge for a couple of days, but I’d recommend prepping the kale itself and massaging in the dressing shortly before serving for best results.
More favorite vegan sweet potato recipes
- Sweet potato black bean tacos
- Sweet potato and lentil burgers
- Instant Pot sweet potato chili (includes stovetop instructions too)
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Sweet Potato Buddha Bowl
Ingredients
- 2 pounds (907 grams) sweet potatoes
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) olive oil
- 2 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt, divided
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
- 1 cup (135 grams) freekeh
- 1 cup (140 grams) Puy lentils
- 1 teaspoon herbs de Provence
- 1 large bunch curly kale
- 1 batch lemony blender dressing
- ½ cup (40 grams) nutritional yeast
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F with a rack in the center.
- Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into 1/2-inch dice.
- Place on a sheet pan and toss with the olive oil, 1 teaspoon of the salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper until all is evenly coated and glimmering with oil.
- Roast until lightly crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, about 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place freekeh in a small pot along with three cups water, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, or until tender to your liking. Like many grains, freekeh is at its best when it's tender but still retains a bit of a toothsome bite.
- Remove from heat and let rest for five minutes. Drain any remaining water.
- In a separate small pot, place lentils, herbs de Provence, and remaining 3/4 teaspoon salt. Cover with water by an inch.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain remaining water.
- Strip kale from stems and break leaves into bite-sized pieces. Toss well with 1/4 cup of the dressing.
- Place some kale salad into each serving bowl. Nestle in some sweet potatoes, freekeh, and lentils. Drizzle with extra dressing and sprinkle with nutritional yeast before serving.
Notes
- You can use any variety of sweet potatoes (sometimes sold as "yams" in the U.S., though they aren't yams). You'll peel them and dice them nice and small so they cook through in a short time.
- Green curly kale tends to have a fairly mild flavor, and it becomes nice and tender when you massage it with the dressing.
- Freekeh (sometimes called farik) is an ancient cereal grain. It's green durum wheat that's been roasted, threshed, sun-dried, and cracked. It's not gluten-free, so if you'd like these bowls to be GF, substitute quinoa, brown rice, or buckwheat.
- I particularly like Puy lentils (sometimes called French lentils) for salads and bowls because they hold their shape and a little bit of bite even when beautifully creamy and tender, and even after a week in the fridge. They have a delicate, complex, earthy flavor.
- A teaspoon of herbes de Provence adds the perfect subtle flavor to this recipe. Blends vary but usually contain some combination of savory, marjoram, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and lavender.
- Nutritional yeast has a super-savory flavor that adds depth and crave-ability to this salad dressing, among many other great recipes.
- You can make many of the elements of this dish in advance if you like. They all hold well, some more than others. The creamy lemon vinaigrette, lentils, and freekeh are no-brainers. They'll keep beautifully in separate airtight containers in the fridge for a week. You could say the same for roasted sweet potatoes, but some people may prefer them straight out of the oven. Dressed kale salad holds surprisingly well in the fridge for a couple of days, but I'd recommend prepping the kale itself and massaging in the dressing shortly before serving for best results.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hungry for more?
Subscribe to Umami Girl’s email updates, and follow along on Instagram.
