A Roasted Garlic Buddha Bowl bursting with nutty brown rice, sweet roasted vegetables,wilted greens, crunchy raw green onions, sesame seeds & heavenly roasted garlic sauce.
Cut the top quarter off your whole garlic bulbs exposing the cloves inside.
Brush your foil with a little oil and place the large part of the bulb in the middle of the foil and draw it up around, squeezing tightly shut all over. Place in the oven and roast for about 30 minutes. Check they feels squishy through the foil. If they don't return to the oven for a few minutes more.
When ready allow to cool in the foil. (It might seem like a lot of garlic but once roasted the flavour mellows and won't be any where near as dominant as it would if you didn't roast it).
Brush your sweet potatoes with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place on a baking tray and put in the oven either with the garlic or after it is ready.
Toss your butternut squash cubes in a little olive oil, season and add to the tray with the sweet potatoes about 15 minutes later.
Roast the butternut squash and potatoes for about another 45 minutes or until both are tender.
In a small bowl mix together the teaspoon of sesame oil, the tablespoon of Tamari and and the 1 teaspoon of maple syrup.
Add the mushrooms to the bowl and allow to soak for a minimum of 10 minutes, stirring them every so often so they get covered in the marinade.
Cook your brown rice according to the directions on the package.
In the last 10 minutes add your mushrooms to the baking tray with the potatoes and squash, making sure to reserve the marinade.
Squeeze the roasted garlic out of each clove and into a food processor or blender. If you squeeze from the base of each they should pop out easily.
Add all the other sauce ingredients including the leftover mushroom marinade and blitz until smooth.
Heat a small fry pan and wilt your spinach over a medium heat with a tiny drop of oil and some salt and pepper.
Add your edamame beans to a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave to stand for a few minutes while you assemble your bowls.
Start with some rice in each bowl, then top that with the spinach, mushrooms, butternut squash, some sweet potato sliced into rounds, the drained edamame beans and a sprinkling of green onions.
Drizzle over plenty of the roasted garlic sauce and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Dig in!
NOTES
This recipe is very versatile. You can sub any of the vegetables for whatever you happen to have or use leftovers from a meal the night before and just warm them through until piping hot then add them to your bowl. However if you do not cook the mushrooms (or you cook them without marinading them first) then add the ingredients for the marinade into the sauce.If you would like to reduce the fat content of this recipe then either use an oil spray to coat your vegetables or steam them (note that if you steam you won't get the same flavour as you do when roasting).Nutritional information is calculated on 2 servings.