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The most important part of any bowl recipe is the sauce! Next time you’re building your bowl reach for one of these 5 easy bowl dressing recipes and bowl sauce recipes so your meal is full on flavor!

I think the fact that I have two blog posts coming out today all about bowl recipes goes to show how often we eat from a bowl. Seriously, we are fully committed to it and include several in our weekly meal prep. And since I’ve now given you the full breakdown of how to build-a-bowl, I wanted to make a post dedicated entirely to easy bowl dressing recipes..because let’s be real, it’s all about the dressing!

As I showed in my build-a-bowl post, there are typically 5 components/ingredients to a delicious buddha bowl (or whatever bowl!) recipe:

  • Grains – though not always, bowl recipes usually contain a base of some type of grain such as brown rice or quinoa
  • Protein – this can be animal or plant-based protein such as chicken or tofu
  • Vegetables – sometimes raw and sometimes roasted, sky’s the limit here!
  • Sauce/Dressing* – THIS is where the magic happens. It isn’t a bowl recipe without a delicious drizzle of sauce.
  • Toppings – always optional but great add-on!

There are clearly so many different options available to you but at the end of the day the flavor really comes from the dressing or sauce. That’s why I wanted to highlight 5 of my favorite buddha bowl sauce recipes so you’re fully equipped to build your own bowls using whatever you have on hand.

These 5 bases are probably the most common bowl dressings and really taste good on just about everything. I’m including recipes for each as well as links to bowl recipes if you don’t want to build your own but would rather follow a recipe. Let’s jump in…

Peanut Butter Buddha Bowl Sauce 

  • 1/4 cup natural smooth peanut butter
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 2 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 2 tbsp tamari (or soy sauce if not gluten-free)
  • 1 tbsp honey (or maple syrup if vegan)
  • 1/2 tsp sesame oil
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1 tsp ground ginger (or 1 inch knob of fresh ginger, grated)

Combine all in a jar and seal it tight. Give it a good shake until well combined. Alternatively you can process in your blender.

Recipes using peanut butter dressing:

the ultimate buddha bowls recipe
thai peanut quinoa bake (not technically a bowl but you can use the peanut sauce recipe on anything!)

buddha bowl sauce

Miso Bowl Recipe

  • 1/4 cup sunflower butter (or almond butter), unsweetened
  • 2 tbsp white miso paste
  • 4 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 2 tbsp fresh ginger, minced or grated
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • 1/4 cup water

Combine all in a jar and seal it tight. Give it a good shake until well combined. Alternatively you can process in your blender.

Recipes using miso dressing:

Veggie Quinoa bowls w/ miso sesame dressing

These customizable Quinoa Veggie Bowls with Miso Sesame Dressing will become a weeknight staple. With a quinoa and veggie base topped with a zesty and flavor-packed dressing this easy dinner or lunch recipe is a healthy vegan option for the whole family.

Tahini Sauce Bowl Dressing

  • 4 tbsp tahini
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • 2–4 tbsp water
  • 1 garlic clove, minced

Combine all in a jar and seal it tight. Give it a good shake until well combined. Alternatively you can process in your blender.

Recipes using tahini dressing:

Baked Falafel Bowls
Macro Sweet Potato Veggie Bowls

Yogurt-Based Bowl Sauce

  • 1 cup greek yogurt
  • 1 cup mixed herbs of choice
  • 1 small garlic clove, roughly chopped
  • salt and pepper
  • optional: 1/2 jalapeno pepper

Combine all in a blender until smooth.

Chicken Shawarma bowls
Green Goddess Dressing

All you need is 5 ingredients to make this easy and healthy greek yogurt tzatziki recipe - perfect for dipping veggies or pita #tzatziki #dip #veggiedip

Avocado Bowl Dressing

  • 1 large ripe avocado
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 cup mixed herbs of choice
  • 1 small garlic clove, roughly chopped
  • salt and pepper

Combine all in a blender until smooth.

avocado green goddess dressing (included as a vegan option in the regular green goddess dressing)
avocado herb dressing

Avocado Herb Dressing for this tangy and delicious spring bulgur wheat salad

Phew! That’s a lot of goodness packed into one post. Hopefully you’ve found a bowl sauce recipe you love. There are obviously so many more options out there but I find that these 5 are the ones we make most often around here. Most make enough for at least 4 meals but feel free to store any leftovers in the fridge for about 1 week and pour on everything…and I mean everything! Enjoy.

Meet the Maven

Hi! I'm Davida and welcome to my corner of the internet. I'm a wellness blogger, yoga teacher, certified herbalist, and green beauty lover.

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7 Comments

  1. I just made the Peanut Butter Buddha Bowl Sauce – it was excellent! [I used fresh ginger]
    and my husband liked it too!

  2. Hello! With the exceptions of the yogurt and avocado dressings, how long are these usually good for? Is it recommended to refrigerate them? Thank you!