Mel’s Buddha Bowls {With Super Tasty Peanut Sauce}

First week of maternity leave. Thirty-nine weeks. No baby yet. I thought maternity leave before the baby arrived would be relaxing. I was wrong. It's the opposite of relaxing — it's waiting, which is the most exhausting activity known to humankind. I clean things that don't need cleaning. I reorganize the nursery drawers (twice). I fold and refold the tiny onesies, marveling at the smallness of them, the impossibility that a human can be this small. Amma comes over every day. Not to help — to be here. She sits in the rocking chair and tells me stories while I nest. Stories about when she was pregnant with me, in 1987, in this same town, in a different apartment, in a different America. "I was alone," she said on Tuesday. "Your father worked twelve hours. No family here. No mother to cook for me. I made my own postpartum food." "That must have been so hard, Amma." "It was what it was. We didn't have words like 'hard' then. We just did it." This is the immigrant story in its purest form: we just did it. No therapy, no support groups, no meal trains. Just a woman in an apartment in Edison, New Jersey, making her own dried ginger laddu because her mother was seven thousand miles away. I'm luckier than she was. I have Raj. I have Amma herself, sitting in my rocking chair, telling me stories. I have a freezer full of sambar and a container of fifty laddus and a community that brought me dumplings and blankets and bangles. But I understand her now — the loneliness she must have felt, the fear. Becoming a mother is the most communal and the most solitary thing you can do. You can be surrounded by people and still be entirely alone with the enormity of it. I made rasam for lunch — Amma supervised from the rocking chair, calling instructions across the apartment. "More pepper! You always use too little pepper!" She was right. I added more pepper. The rasam was better. Thirty-nine weeks. The hospital bag is by the door. Raj sleeps with his phone on full volume. Amma's number is on speed dial. The world is holding its breath. Come on, Anaya. We're running out of things to clean.

The rasam was lunch — Amma’s domain, her voice carrying across the apartment with instructions about pepper. But dinner was mine to figure out, and in those long, suspended days of waiting, I kept coming back to this bowl: something I could build slowly, layer by layer, with my hands doing something useful while my mind ran circles. Mel’s Buddha Bowls became my thirty-ninth-week ritual — wholesome enough to feel like I was taking care of Anaya already, simple enough that I could make it even when I was exhausted from doing nothing. The peanut sauce, I will not be held responsible for how much of it you eat straight from the jar.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 40 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

For the bowls:
2 cups dry brown rice or quinoa, cooked according to package directions
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed (about 2 cups)
1 1/2 cups broccoli florets
1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, drained, rinsed, and patted dry
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 cups fresh spinach or baby kale
1 medium avocado, sliced
1/2 cup shredded red cabbage
Sesame seeds and sliced green onions, for garnish
For the peanut sauce:
1/2 cup creamy natural peanut butter
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce or tamari
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (about 1 lime)
1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1 small clove garlic, minced
3–4 tablespoons warm water, to thin

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 425°F (220°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Cook rice or quinoa according to package directions and set aside.
Roast the vegetables and chickpeas. Spread sweet potato, broccoli, and chickpeas on the prepared baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper, and toss to coat evenly. Roast for 22–25 minutes, flipping once halfway through, until sweet potatoes are tender and chickpeas are lightly crispy.
Make the peanut sauce. While the vegetables roast, whisk together peanut butter, soy sauce, lime juice, maple syrup, sesame oil, ginger, and garlic in a small bowl until smooth. Add warm water one tablespoon at a time until the sauce reaches a pourable, drizzleable consistency. Taste and adjust — more lime for brightness, more soy for salt, more maple for sweetness.
Assemble the bowls. Divide cooked grain among four bowls as the base. Top each with a handful of spinach or kale, a portion of roasted sweet potato, broccoli, and chickpeas. Add avocado slices and red cabbage.
Sauce and serve. Drizzle generously with peanut sauce. Garnish with sesame seeds and green onions. Serve immediately, with extra peanut sauce on the side because there will never be enough peanut sauce.

Nutrition (per serving)

Mel’s Buddha Bowls {With Super Tasty Peanut Sauce} — The Bowl That Held Me Together While I Waited