Umami bowls
You know those tasty savoury bowls full of different vegetables and colours? Did you know that making your own quinoa bowl, buddha bowls and poke bowls doesn’t have to be complicated or a lot of work at all? The trick is to choose the right sauces and marinades. Leave that with this umami sauce which is fast and easy in use!
What is the difference between a poke bowl, quinoa bowl and a buddha bowl?
Poke bowl
A traditional Hawaiian dish, the poke bowl has been influenced by Japanese cuisine over the years. In the poke bowl as you know it today, the ingredients look a lot like sushi. The base is sushi rice; that’s what you fill your bowl with. The different ‘sections’ in the bowl usually consist of raw fish, such as tuna and salmon, combined with vegetables like cucumber, seaweed (wakame and nori), edamame and avocado. If you do it the vegan way, you quickly end up with tofu.
The sauces accompanying a poke bowl are very decisive. A combination of a (vegan) mayonnaise with wasabi or sriracha, soy sauce or ponzu (a lighter soy sauce with citrus) are most common.
Sesame and chilli toppings are also quite Japanese. Think togorashi (a chilli pepper mix), furikake (sesame and seaweed) or gomasio (sesame and salt). The rice can be served either hot or at room temperature, the toppings of a pokebowl are usually chilled.
Quinoa bowl
In a quinoa bowl, (the name says it all) quinoa is the base of the dish. You cook the quinoa and serve it in a bowl. You combine that with an array of vegetables, proteins, healthy fats (avocado or nuts) and a dressing or sauce of your choice.
Quinoa bowls are nutritious and versatile, a kind of mix-and-match of healthy ingredients. You eat quinoa warm, at room temperature or cold.
Buddha bowl
A buddha bowl is similar to the quinoa bowl, but the base can also consist of other (ancient) grains. Think buckwheat, millet, couscous, bulgur or spelt. The vegetables, proteins and sauce are again entirely up to you. Buddha bowls are usually vegetarian or vegan, so fish or meat plays a lesser role than in, say, a poke bowl. And: the more colourful, the better!
Why the name Buddha for a buddha bowl? There are several ideas about that. Some say the name buddha bowl comes from how it looks: a bowl full of food with different colourful ingredients arranged in sections, resembling the full belly of a Buddha statue. The idea is actually that it looks like the round shapes you see with such a statue. So there is no official link between this recipe and Buddha, but the bowl full of nutritious food refers to the balance and abundance associated with Buddha’s teachings of well-being and harmony. A buddha bowl conveys the idea of balance and health.