A Buddha Bowl is a bowl full of comfort food – generally a salad with greens, proteins, some more veggies, toppings, and a dressing. This is a very humble salad with a slight crunch of baby spinach, smoothness, and softness of boiled garbanzo or chickpeas, the coolness of cucumber, all drizzled with delicious Tahini dressing. I don’t know about you, but I love love love Tahini. I can eat it as a dip, as a spread or just by itself. The simplicity of this salad makes it one of my favorites.
This is a vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, plant-based recipe.
Buddha Bowl | Spinach Chickpea Salad with Tahini Dressing
Ingredients
Salad
- 2 cups Chickpeas or Garbanzo beans soaked & boiled
- 2 cups Baby spinach
- 2 English cucumbers or any other variety medium sized
Dressing
- 2 tablespoons Tahini (sesame paste)
- ¼ cup Water
- 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
- Salt - to taste
Instructions
Salad
- Soak garbanzo beans overnight. Boil it with a bit of salt. You may also use canned beans.
- Slice cucumbers vertically using a peeler. The slices need to be medium thickness. Not too thin, not too thick. Put the slices in a bowl of cold water. This will make them crisp. Drain the water, roll up the cucumber in rolls, as shown in the salad picture.
- Add the baby spinach, boiled garbanzo beans and the cucumber roll-ups in a salad bowl. Drizzle it with Tahini dressing.
I sprinkled bit of a red chili powder, just for the aesthetics 🙂 What now? Don't we all do it to make the food look preet(ier)? 🙂
Enjoy.
Dressing
- Make tahini dressing by combining Tahini, water, lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Mix it in a blender. You may optionally add a drizzle of olive oil.
Nutrition
How to boil chickpeas or garbanzo beans in an Instant Pot?
Benefits of Spinach:
Spinach is a very versatile, green leafy vegetable that is delicious and loved by all in one form or the other. Right from the smoothies, to juices, to salads, to subzis, to dals, spinach rules the hearts and kitchens across the world. It is also a great accompaniment to any other vegetable.
Not only is spinach nutrition packed and very beneficial for hair, skin, bone health, but is also a key ingredient in amazingly delicious recipes like spinach smoothies, salads, soups, palak paneer, dal palak, saag, aloo palak, palak kofta, palak kebab, palak shorba. So just because it is healthy doesn’t mean it is not tasty.
Spinach can easily be eaten either in raw or cooked form. Generally raw baby spinach is eaten in the form of salad. Both raw form and the cooked form has it’s own benefits. Spinach is rich in many essential nutrients, some of which are more available to our bodies when we consume it raw. These nutrients include folate, vitamin C, niacin, riboflavin, and potassium. Spinach when consumed in it’s cooked form, helps absorb higher levels of vitamins A and E, protein, fiber, zinc, thiamin, calcium, and iron. Important carotenoids, such as beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin, also become more absorbable.
Spinach is a superfood which contains 15 different vitamins and minerals for optimal health – offering vitamin K, vitamin A (in the form of carotenoids), manganese, folate, magnesium, iron, copper, vitamin B2, vitamin B6, vitamin E, calcium, potassium, and vitamin C in every bite. It packs in 5.36 grams of protein per cup (when cooked), making it one of the most protein-rich vegetables available. Spinach is loaded with nutrients yet, it has a low calorie content. It is an excellent source of iron, and contains twice as much as other leafy vegetables.
Some interest facts about Spinach: Spinach is a native plant of Persia (modern day Iran). It was introduced to India by some unknown benefactor, and then from there into China where it was known as “Persian Green”. Today, China is the world’s largest spinach producer with 85% of global production.March 26th is celebrated as National Spinach Day, and July 19th as Fresh Spinach Day in the US.
Enjoy this green leafy goodness on your plate and reap it’s benefits to the glory!
Note: I have referred to this site for researching the benefits listed here.
Sangeeta Sethi
Fabulous well explained healthy and delicious recipe with exotic photo click..
Sonal
thanks a lot for your kind words, Sangeeta 🙂
Sujata Shukla
Your post makes reading even about mundane spinach and cucumber, sound like fun! I must try out this attractive bowl of tasty food, soon!
Sonal
Thank you so much for your kind words, dear Sujata!