Oryoki is an ancient Chinese, Japanese and Zen Buddhist eating practice that centers on a tidy bundle of nested lacquered wooden bowls; taking just enough food to adequately nourish your body at any given meal; and eating slowly, mindfully and with deep gratitude.
Having just participated in a gluttonous American Thanksgiving weekend that included two soup-to-nuts turkey dinners, I am intrigued by this practice for both my waistline and the lessons in sustainable eating it facilitates.
Roasted Winter Buddha Bowl with Tahini Dressing
Roasted Winter Buddha Bowls include cauliflower, sweet potatoes and beets with grains and beans on a bed of leafy greens.
This recipe can feed four for dinner, but since all the fresh and cooked ingredients can keep in the refrigerator for up to a week, you can easily eat them one at a time.
Makes 4 bowlfuls
FOR THE SALAD:
1 small head of cauliflower, broken into bite-sized pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 medium red beets, scrubbed and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
10 cups chopped leafy greens
1 cup shredded red cabbage
4 cups cook local wheat berries
3 cups cooked chickpeas
1/2 cup salted, toasted pepitas
FOR THE DRESSING:
1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup warm water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, toss cauliflower with 1 teaspoon olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt and a few good grinds of pepper. Spread the cauliflower on 1/3 of a baking sheet. Use the same bowl to toss the sweet potatoes with 1 teaspoon olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt and a few good grinds of pepper. Spread those chunks out next to the cauliflower. Use the same bowl again to toss the beets with 1 teaspoon olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt and a few good grinds of pepper. Spread those chunks out next to the sweet potato. Place the baking sheet in the oven and roast until the vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile make the dressing by pouring all of the ingredients into a quart Mason jar, putting on the lid and shaking vigorously.
To assemble 1 Buddha Bowl, place 21/2 cups leafy greens in a bowl. Arrange small piles of 1/4 of each component on top of the greens. Drizzle with about 3 tablespoons of dressing and top with 2 tablespoons pepitas.
Eat slowly and be grateful for the colors of the seasonal vegetables in front of you.
The largest of the nested bowls is called the zuhatsu, or the Buddha Bowl, because its deep, rounded shape symbolizes the Buddha’s head and depth of wisdom. Early Buddhist monks would use these bowls to beg for food, cultivating equanimity by gratefully accepting whatever was offered them.
More recently Buddha Bowls (also called Nourish Bowls, Hippie Bowls, Yoga Bowls, Glory Bowls) have been pushed along secularly on social media (seriously, check out #buddhabowl) as a great way to feed a body vegetable-forward meals as part of a leaner, greener lifestyle. The bottom of the bowl is lined with a healthy portion of chopped leafy greens and the top is an arrangement of colorful raw and roasted vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins and a sprinkling of seeds or nuts. The dressings are simple, mostly vegan-compliant lemon- and/or tahini-based mixtures (see recipe).
While there is no strict formula for Buddha Bowl composition, a scan of over 100 recipes showed they generally include 50 percent vegetables and 25 percent each grains and proteins. To make these bowls green as well as lean, use seasonal vegetables (for us in Maine that means hearty winter greens, sweet potatoes, parsnips, carrots, cauliflower, beets and winter squash), local grains (wheat, rye or spelt berries all available from Maine Grains or directly from a growing number of Maine farms) and sustainable proteins (organic legumes, local eggs, roasted pumpkin or winter squash seeds, pastured chickens or responsibly harvested seafood).
Much in the same way that a basic omelet, pasta sauce, soup or pizza base can be a creative way to repurpose leftovers, a Buddha Bowl is a great place for your roasted potatoes from Sunday lunch to coexist with the black beans from Taco Tuesday and the greens that came attached to the beets that went into your borscht on Thursday. Taking the time to arrange these elements artfully in a bowl for a satisfying meal that you savor slowly will make you very grateful to be sitting and eating in that moment.
Christine Burns Rudalevige is a food writer, a recipe developer and tester, and a cooking teacher in Brunswick. Contact her at: cburns1227@gmail.com.
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