Miso Maple Glazed Shrimp Sweet Potato Buddha Bowl

Buddha bowls are predicted to be one of the food trends that would be most downloaded especially in Pinterest in 2017.  It is a vegetable laden bowl with the following features:

• grains, examples quinoa, brown rice
• source of protein, examples beans, tofu, seafood
• nuts or seeds
• vegetables of various colors
• dressing

In this Buddha bowl I opted for brown rice as the source of the grain and for the protein I used shrimp.  For the vegetables I utilized the two superfood, sweet potato and spinach and included also cucumber and grape tomatoes. For the dressing, I chose a Miso Dressing I concocted.

I could have just added thawed cooked shrimp to the bowl but I decided to glaze it with miso paste sweetened with maple syrup.  I have tasted scallops grilled with these two ingredients and had been waiting for an opportunity to use them for another more affordable source of seafood.  I found that chance in this Buddha Bowl.  The result is really wonderful.  Salty and sweet. 

I always want to include whenever possible my two favorite superfoods, sweet potatoes and spinach in my recipe.  I did not want to just microwave the sweet potatoes and decided to include pan roasting it with the shrimps.  Oh my. The result is again incredible.

You can use any combination of vegetables in a Buddha bowl and the more color, the more you are assured you are getting a variety of nutrients.  For the nuts, I decided to just sprinkle sesame seeds but I could have added almonds or pepita seeds.

The dressing is tangy from the orange juice and rice vinegar and was sweetened again with maple syrup.  I added a little bit of miso paste as the salting agent.  The garlic powder rounds up the overall flavor of the simple but delicious dressing.

The recipe I gave is for one serving but one can easily double or quadruple the ingredients for a bigger batch. By the way this is irresistible.  If you make a bigger batch be sure to share them or you might eat the whole thing.  Ha, ha.  

Miso Maple Glazed Shrimp Sweet Potato Buddha Bowl

1 generous serving

Buddha Bowl

• 2 tsp coconut oil
• 5 shrimp (I used frozen cooked ones that I thawed)
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1 inch slices
• 1 tbsp miso paste
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• miso dressing (recipe below)
• 1/2 cup cooked brown sugar
• 1 cup loosely packed fresh spinach
• 5 grape potatoes, cut in half
• 1/2 cup cucumber, seeded and cut in strips
• black sesame seeds for garnish

Miso dressing

• drippings from roasting shrimp and sweet potato
• 2 tbsp orange juice
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp miso paste

Buddha Bowl:  

Heat a small saute pan at medium heat.  Add the coconut oil and melt it.  Add the shrimp, sweet potato, maple syrup and garlic powder in the heated oil.  Continue to heat with stirring till the sweet potato is cooked and the shrimp coated with the maple miso glaze. Transfer the cooked sweet potatoes and shrimp in the serving bowl leaving any drippings in the pan which is going to be used for the dressing.

Miso Dressing:

Heat the drippings in the pan at low heat and add the orange juice, rice vinegar and garlic powder.  Stir with a fork or whisk till the garlic powder is dissolved. Add the maple syrup and miso paste and stir with a whisk.  

Assembly

Distribute the shrimp, sweet potato, rice, cucumber, tomatoes and spinach in the bowl.  Drizzle the miso dressing and sprinkle with black sesame seeds.