Whole Food, Bowl Food: Vegetarian & Vegan Buddha Bowls

Buddha or 'bliss' bowls are quick, healthy, vibrant meals built around fresh vegetables, herbs, a grain, some protein, and whatever dressing you fancy. The variations are endless! You can incorporate interesting flavours (think dried or fresh seaweeds), edible flowers, and the best part about these bowls is each person in your family can choose from the components and build their own 'buddha bowl.'

This class will focus on how to create nutritiously balanced vegetarian bliss bowls (vegan option also available; please indicate when you book). We'll teach you how to prepare a variety of elements, with an emphasis on raw and cooked vegetables, herbs and edible flowers grown in our Wellington organic garden. We will talk through chopping techniques and discuss how important texture is and how you can play around with the shape and size of your raw vegetables to alter the texture; we'll also discuss using fresh herbs to add pizzazz (and which complementary herbs go well with particular vegetables), how to make delicious, easy salad dressings to go on your buddha bowl and how to store them, and how to create grain and protein pairings to increase digestibility and your body's ability to absorb the nutrients. We'll also discuss the importance of prep to save you time at mealtimes and ways to create your own home 'salad bar' with on-hand pre-chopped ingredients in your fridge to use to build your Buddha bowls.

DID YOU KNOW that Buddha was actually quite thin? Most people think Buddha was chubby but the statue you may be thinking of isn't actually of Buddha. (Those statues you see in Chinese restaurants are of a monk who lived a thousand years later.) "Buddha's Diet: The Ancient Art of Losing Weight Without Losing Your Mind" by data scientist and Zen priest Dan Zigmond and digital strategist and wellness writer Tara Cottrell, describes how, like most of us, he hated dieting and sought a "middle way" between unhealthy overindulgence and unrealistic abstinence.