Looking for a quick, healthy and flavorful dinner or meal prep recipe? Try these easy vegan Spring Roll Bowls with crispy tofu, avocado
Spring Roll Bowls: Your Quick & Easy Weeknight Dinner Solution
Busy weeknights call for quick and easy dinners, but there’s no need to skimp on flavor. We’re huge advocates of bowl dinners because they’re easy to throw together. Plus, we can use up leftover produce and pantry ingredients.
Dinner bowls are also very customizable. Basically all you need is a grain or carbohydrate, a protein, some form of healthy fat and all of the vegetables you can possibly fit. The more vegetables you add, the more colorful, satisfying and nutritionally beneficial your dinner will be.
Plus, the veggies in these vegan spring roll bowls are raw, which helps this dinner come together in less than 30 minutes. Bonus: raw vegetables means less clean up, which is always a plus in my book!
How to prep vegan spring roll bowls for meal prep
While these make for an excellent dinner, they’re also a great option for vegan meal prep. This recipe calls for rice noodles, but if you’re prepping ahead of time, I suggest swapping with white or brown rice. Cooked rice stores much better than cooked noodles, and it’s super easy to whip up a big batch.
Once you have your grain base ready, simply prep all of the vegetables and tofu as instructed below. Store the rice and undressed veggies and tofu (except avocado) in an airtight container.
Prep the sesame miso dressing separately and store in another container. Bring along the avocado separately and slice when ready to eat. Shake (or stir) up the dressing before pouring over the bowl and enjoy at your desk or on-the-go!
Note: the tofu won’t be quite as crispy if it sits in the container overnight, but it still tastes great.
Let’s talk toppings
For this Asian-inspired bowl, we used a base of rice noodles, which you can find at just about any grocery store. (They’re typically in the Asian foods section.) It doesn’t matter if you use brown or white rice noodles – totally up to you! Additionally, as we mentioned above, you can also swap rice noodles for regular rice. Soba noodles would work perfectly fine, too!
Crispy tofu is the main vegan protein in these spring roll bowls. Start out by pressing your tofu with a heavy object for 30 minutes to remove as much moisture as possible. The less moisture, the crispier the tofu!
We crisp up our tofu on the stovetop, but if you don’t want the splatter mess, you can also throw them in the oven. They might not get quite as crispy as they do in a sauté pan, but they’ll still taste great. A light coating of arrowroot or corn starch makes a big difference when it comes to crispiness.
Other essential toppings include avocado, a sesame miso dressing, and a rainbow of crunchy vegetables.
Oh, and plenty of crushed peanuts for crunch – yum! The vegan sesame miso dressing highlights all of the flavors. It’s best to toss the noodles in some of the dressing before plating to prevent them from getting too sticky. The dressing comes together in just a minute or two – simply shake everything in a (closed) jar, or whisk until well combined.
If you want to switch up the dressing, you could also use the miso tahini dressing from this recipe. I’m a HUGE fan of tahini, so I like to use it as much as possible. It’s the perfect creamy complement to crunchy, raw vegetables and super crispy tofu!
Need a few more easy weeknight bowl dinner ideas?
Try these:
- Vegan Burrito Bowls. Like Chipotle, but better. And 100% vegan!
- Savory Vegan Oatmeal with Mushrooms, Kale and Avocado. Who says oatmeal is just a breakfast food? This bowl will convince you otherwise.
- Vegan Taco Stuffed Avocados. Technically, the taco is the bowl. Genius, right?
- Vegan Sushi Bowls with Miso Tahini Sauce. These have a cauliflower rice base, plenty of fresh vegetables and a creamy tahini sauce.
- Mediterranean Salad with Falafel and Crispy Chickpeas. Technically a salad, but homemade falafel patties turn it into a full meal.
- Pulled Jackfruit Bowls via Lazy Cat Kitchen. These look fantastic!
- Spicy Satay Power Bowls via Choosing Chia. Spicy satay tofu?! I’m in!
We hope you give these other easy recipes a try after enjoying your vegan spring roll bowls!
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Looking for a quick, healthy and flavorful dinner recipe? Try these Spring Roll Bowls with Crispy Tofu, Avocado and a Sesame Miso Dressing! Vegan, gluten free and on the table in 30 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 package rice noodles, cooked according to package directions
- 8 oz extra firm tofu
- 1 1/2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tbsp arrowroot or corn starch
- 2 mini cucumbers, sliced thinly
- 2–3 radishes, thinly sliced
- 1 large carrot, julienned
- 1/2 cup purple (red) cabbage, sliced thinly
- 1 small mango, peeled and diced
- 1 small avocado, peeled and diced
- 3 tbsp chopped peanuts
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds
- 2 green onions, sliced thinly
- Fresh cilantro and lime wedges for garnish
Sesame Miso Dressing:
- ¼ cup sesame oil (regular or toasted)
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp white miso
- 2 tbsp tamari
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/4 + 1/8 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Drain tofu and pat dry with a towel. If you have time, wrap in towel and press with a heavy object for 30 minutes to remove as much moisture as possible. This results in perfectly crispy tofu, but it’s not completely necessary.
- Heat a large sauté pan to medium and add sesame oil. Dice tofu and toss in arrowroot or cornstarch. Toss until well coated. Transfer tofu to pan and cook for a few minutes on each side, until browned and crispy. Don’t crowd the pan – you may have to cook in two batches if you’re using a small pan.
- Cook rice noodles according to package directions.
- To prepare dressing, whisk all ingredients together. When noodles are finished cooking, toss in about half of dressing.
- Assemble bowls with noodles, sliced vegetables, tofu and drizzle with remaining dressing. Garnish with peanuts, sesame seeds, green onion, cilantro and a lime wedge.
Notes
If you’d like to make this for meal prep, swap rice noodles with regular cooked brown or white rice. It will store much better in the refrigerator.
If you use rice do you mix the rice with half the dressing like you do the noodles?
Hi Deb! I definitely would – it will make the rice a lot more flavorful, but not totally necessary. Hope you enjoy!
Delicious and versatile! Had over rice noodles for dinner and the leftovers over a bed of lettuce for lunch the next day. The dressing is so flavorful! I doubled the lime, but I love citrus! For ease I grated the carrots and that worked well.
★★★★★
So glad to hear that! Great idea about the carrots!