Nourishing Miso Tahini Japanese Sweet Potato Bowl with Black Rice, Tempeh, & Bok Choy
This ultra nourishing vegan bowl features the mouth-wateringly delicious combo of roasted Japanese sweet potatoes and miso tahini sauce, topped off with nutrient-dense plants like black rice, tempeh, and bok choy. This bowl will leave you satisfied and nourished - without sacrificing on flavors!
It’s easy to fall into the Instagram trap of salivating over meticulously prepared five course dishes and intricately garnished recipes, but I know that for me, most of my everyday meals are quite simple. They usually include some mix of ultra nutritious staples like vegetables, whole grains, greens, nuts/seeds, etc. But don’t confuse simple with boring - I assure you it’s not!! Because whether it’s a quick lunchtime meal or an extravagant holiday dinner, there are two constant key components that are absolute musts to make any meal exciting: 1) tasty flavors (obviously (!!), because I very much enjoy the experience of eating delicious foods) and 2) loaded with many plants (because plants are loaded with nutrients, and nutrients leave me feeling AMAZING!).
So to indulge my taste buds and fuel my body, I often turn to bowls whenever I’m looking for a satisfying meal that also comes together quickly! (And by “bowls” I mean nourish bowls, power bowls, Buddha bowls, etc. - whatever name is currently hot 🔥 and trending with the cool kids these days.) I mean, what other dishes provide such a high taste:effort ratio? They literally consist of throwing together some of your favorite foods and declaring that together, they constitute a “meal.” 😂 Can’t beat it!
Since I absolutely love bowls, I couldn’t think of a better recipe to kick off the new year than this nourishing, plant-rich bowl I essentially built around my newest food obsession - roasted Japanese sweet potatoes with miso tahini dressing. IYKYK - but if you don’t know, you’re about to know.
Why You’ll Love this Bowl
Packed with delicious flavors! Although roasted Japanese sweet potatoes are delicious enough to stand on their own, they’re next level when paired with a miso tahini dressing or sauce (at least if you’re obsessed with anything containing miso and tahini, like I am). There’s also nutty black rice, garlick-y sautéed bok choy, and marinated tempeh to bring in tons of extra umami. Together, these components create a super delicious and very satisfying plant-based bowl with lots of flavors and textures - no boring flavorless piles of leaves here!
Incredibly nourishing and high in fiber. I love it when a meal tastes delicious and also fuels my body with loads of nutrients! (Not to sound self-righteous, but I can’t even begin to describe how different I feel after meals now vs. prior to going plant-based when I was basically eating the Standard American Diet, i.e. SAD :(.) This bowl incorporates whole foods from various ultra nutritious food groups - whole grains, greens, legumes, seeds, and starchy vegetables - each of which is loaded with its own unique set of macro and micronutrients, vitamins, minerals, and tons of fiber. It’s one of those meals that leaves you feeling super satisfied and fueled because you 1) just ate something very nutritious and 2) it also tasted amazing!
Contains lots of plant diversity. There are eight primary whole foods in this dish, not counting extra toppings - Murasaki Japanese sweet potatoes, black rice, tempeh, bok choy, garlic, miso, ginger, and tahini (which is just ground sesame seeds!) - which is quite significant considering that the recommendation for optimal gut health is to eat 30-40+ different whole plant foods each week. This bowl gets you almost a quarter of the way to the recommended weekly goal!
Easy to make. Don’t let the length of the instructions for this recipe fool you. Although there are quite a few steps involved, they’re all pretty simple and straightforward - you essentially just need to cook each component then assemble everything together. Plus the bowl comes together in just under an hour! (See the Tips section below for my suggested prep/cooking order so that all the components are done cooking at the same time.)
Bowl Ingredient Overview
Roasted Japanese sweet potatoes. Japanese sweet potatoes are one of the best types of potatoes out there. If you haven’t tried them before, they taste slightly sweeter with a hint of nuttiness compared to common orange sweet potato varieties. When roasted at high temps, they actually char better than regular sweet potatoes, so they’re extra delicious in these bowls! And aside from being insanely delicious (and, if I’m being honest, 90% of the reason this recipe exists - the other 10% obviously being the miso tahini dressing), they’re loaded with fiber, B vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals including potassium, copper, and manganese.
Black rice. Black rice is an incredibly nutritious whole grain and a good source of protein, iron, fiber, and antioxidants (it’s got 5x the antioxidant levels of brown rice! 🤯). Because of its more umami-rich and slightly nutty flavor tones, it pairs wonderfully with all the other Asian-inspired flavors and ingredients in this dish. BTW, if you love black rice, check out my recipe for veg-packed fried black rice with kimchi.
Tempeh. The bowl’s primary protein source! To infuse tons of umami into the tempeh, it steeps in a tamari-based marinade prior to getting sautéed, and will absorb the leftover marinade to finish. In addition to being delicious (albeit if you’ve never tried tempeh before, it’s one of those foods that can be an acquired taste) and incredibly protein-rich, it’s also a fermented food, meaning it’s quite beneficial for our gut health. (Highly recommend Dr. Will Bulsiewicz’s book Fiber Fueled if you’re interested in learning more about fermented foods and all things fiber!)
Baby bok choy. No bowl is complete without some greens, and sauéed garlic-y bok choy is one of my favorites to pair with black rice and tempeh. If you’ve never tried it before, baby bok choy tastes very fresh with a mild pepper-y hint, and it’s very rich in various minerals and vitamins, especially vitamins C and K.
Miso tahini dressing. Not only does this pair amazingly with the roasted Japanese sweet potatoes, it also ties the entire bowl together! And while the dressing is quite simple (primarily a mix of tahini, miso, and water with some garlic, ginger, and rice vinegar for balance), it’s very flavorful. I could (and absolutely do) eat it on its own! Nutritionally, tahini adds a bit of protein alongside vitamins and minerals like iron, copper (which helps our bodies absorb iron), and selenium (which helps decrease inflammation), while miso infuses a healthy dose of beneficial living enzymes (it’s a live, fermented food!).
Tip: If you can’t get enough of the combo of Japanese sweet potatoes with miso tahini dressing, I have great news! You can actually tweak the dressing recipe and follow the same instructions for the potatoes to create a side dish of roasted Japanese sweet potato wedges with miso tahini sauce. Simply follow the same instructions for the potatoes/dressing but reduce the amount of water in the dressing (use 2 tablespoons) to create a thicker consistency sauce/dip, and pair that with the roasted potato wedges. It’s a very simple dish yet tastes absolutely divine!
Toppings. I like finishing these bowls off with some scallions, sesame seeds, and, if I have some around, some spicy microgreens for an extra nutrition boost. These toppings aren’t essential, so don’t sweat it if you don’t have any of the ingredients around, but they are tasty! Alternatively, feel free to top these bowls with anything else you like. More plants can never hurt!
Timing Tips for Making this Bowl
In order for every component of this bowl to be ready at the same time, I recommend preparing and cooking everything in the following order.
Pre-heat the oven.
Start cooking your rice. Once you bring the rice and water to a boil, it will take about 30-35 minutes for it to cook, after which you’ll want to leave it to steam, covered, for 10-15 minutes before serving.
Prepare the tempeh marinade and start marinating the tempeh.
Prepare the potatoes. Once the oven is ready and there’s about 15 minutes of cooking time left on the rice, start roasting the potatoes.
Make the dressing.
Prepare the bok choy for cooking and gather/prepare any toppings you plan on serving onto the bowls.
WIth ~7-10 minutes to go on the potatoes, start cooking the tempeh.
With 2-4 minutes to go on the tempeh, start cooking the bok choy.
The potatoes, tempeh, and bok choy should all get done cooking around the same time, at which point the rice should also have steamed ~10 minutes and be ready to serve.
Finally, assemble all the components into bowls and serve!
Let’s make these bowls!
Nourishing Miso Tahini Japanese Sweet Potato Bowl with Black Rice, Tempeh, & Bok Choy
Vegan
Serves ~4
Ingredients
Black rice:
1 cup uncooked black rice
2 cups water
Tempeh:
2 8-ounce packages tempeh, cut into ½-¾-inch cubes (each pack should yield ~24 cubes)
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium tamari
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
A few cracks of freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoons neutral oil (or slightly more, as needed, to coat the pan), for cooking
Sweet potatoes:
1 ¾ lbs. Japanese sweet potatoes (about 2 medium-large potatoes)
2 tablespoons neutral oil*
Sprinkle of kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper
Miso tahini dressing:
¼ cup well-stirred tahini
¼ cup white miso
¼ cup water
1 ½ tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 large garlic clove, grated
½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt OR ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Bok choy:
3 medium baby bok choy stalks (weighing about 1 ½-1 ¾ lbs.)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon neutral oil*
Sprinkle of kosher salt
Toppings (optional, for serving):
Sesame seeds, toasted
2-3 scallions, thinly sliced
Mixed microgreens
Directions
Pre-heat the oven to 450°F. Line a large baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
Cook the rice. In a small pot, combine the rice and water over medium-high heat. Once boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook the rice for ~30-35 minutes, or until tender and all the liquid has been absorbed. Turn off the heat and let the rice sit for 10-15 minutes in the covered pan to steam before serving.
Marinate the tempeh. In a small bowl, combine the tamari, rice vinegar, maple syrup, toasted sesame oil, and a few cracks of freshly ground black pepper and whisk together to make a marinade. Add the cubed tempeh to a shallow container that you can cover (I used a Pyrex container with matching lid), pour over the marinade, cover the container, and shake to coat the tempeh. Set aside to marinate for 20-30 minutes, shaking occasionally so that the pieces can absorb the marinade evenly.
Prepare and bake the potatoes. Cut the potatoes in half lengthwise, then cut each half into quarters (so that you get 8 long wedges), then cut the wedges in half widthwise to create shorter 2-3-inch wedges. In a large bowl, toss the potatoes with the oil, a sprinkling of salt, and a few cracks of freshly ground pepper to coat. Spread the wedges evenly onto the prepared baking sheet, making sure that the flat sides of the wedges face down and the potatoes aren’t crowding each other. Once the oven has heated and there’s about 15 minutes of cooking time left on the rice, transfer the potatoes to the oven to bake. Bake the wedges until slightly charred and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, about 24-27 minutes.
Make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together all the dressing ingredients until a smooth and slightly pourable dressing forms. (You can add a splash more water to thin to desired consistency, if needed.) Set aside until ready to serve.
Prepare the bok choy and toppings. Cut the bottom of the thick end of each bok choy stalk so that the leaves are separated while most of their stems remain intact. Prep any toppings you plan to serve the bowls with (slice the green onions, toast the sesame seeds, etc.).
Cook the tempeh. With ~7-10 minutes to go on the potatoes, start cooking the tempeh. In a large cast iron or other large skillet, heat some oil (use enough to coat the bottom). Once hot, use tongs to add the tempeh cubes (reserving the marinade) and sauté until lightly browned on each side, about 4-5 minutes, rotating the tempeh cubes every ~60 seconds so that they cook evenly. Once browned, add the reserved marinade into the skillet and stir to coat the tempeh cubes. Continue simmering the sauce and stirring the tempeh cubes in it frequently until the sauce gets completely absorbed, about 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside briefly until ready to serve.
Sauté the bok choy. With ~3 minutes to go on the tempeh, start cooking the bok choy. In a large skillet, heat the oil. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant. Add the bok choy, season with a sprinkle of salt, and sauté, stirring frequently, until the leaves turn bright green and the stems are tender, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
Assemble the bowls. To each bowl, add some cooked rice, roasted potato wedges, tempeh, and bok choy and drizzle on some miso tahini dressing. Top with scallions, sesame seeds, and microgreens, or any other toppings, if using. Serve immediately.
Notes:
*Any neutral oil (such as avocado, grapeseed, sunflower, etc.) will work, but whenever possible, opt for a “high oleic” variety as these have a much higher content of monounsaturated fats than other neutral vegetable oils.
Loving this bowl? I really appreciate you taking a moment to leave a review in the comments below and sharing the recipe with someone who’d also love it! And if you snap a pic, tag me on Instagram (@teostinykitchen) when you share it so I can see how beautiful it turned out!