Tuna poke bowl

Tuna poke bowl with avocado and edamame beans

The great thing about poke bowls is that they’re easy to prepare, you can put whatever you want in them and they’re generally quite a healthy meal whilst also being so tasty and colourful.  I’ve used tuna here but salmon is another favourite. If you can’t get sushi grade fish which can be eaten raw then you could always just use cooked fish. For me, what makes a poke bowl really special is the rice, I definitely think it is worth the effort of getting sushi rice which has much shorter and plumper grains than typical basmati or jasmine rice. The sushi vinegar which is added to the cooked rice also adds so much flavour to the rice, its a little tangy, a little sweet and salty. Just so moorish compared to plain rice.

Serves 2

Time: about 40 minutes including cooking the rice which takes about 20 minutes

Ingredients

• Approx 160g fresh raw sashimi grade tuna (aim for roughly 80g per person)

• 1 cup (approx 200g) sushi rice , rinsed a few times until water runs clear

• 1 ½ cup (approx 300ml) water

• 2 ½ tbsp sushi vinegar or sushi seasoning. I use Mizkan sushi seasoning

• Sriracha mayo – a mix of mayo and sriracha stirred together to the spiciness you like . I used about 2 tablespoons mayo to 1 tsp sriracha

Marinade

• 1 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tsp dark soy

• 1  ½ tbsp toasted sesame oil

• 1 tbsp mirin

• 1 tbsp rice vinegar

• 1 tsp Sriracha

• 1 tsp grated fresh ginger

Toppings

• 1 small avocado, destoned and sliced or diced as preferred

• ¼ cup edamame beans per person (I used frozen ones which I warmed through by steaming as happened to have my steamer on at the time, but you can also boil or microwave to cook)

• Sushi ginger

• 1 spring onion, sliced

• Nori strips

• Toasted sesame seeds – I used a mix of black and white but one or the other will do

• Other ideas: carrot strips, radishes, mango chunks, cucumber, crispy onion bits, salad leaves such as rocket or watercress, cooked tenderstem broccoli, cherry tomatoes.

Method

1. After rinsing the rice, add the water with the rice in a pan, the level of the water should be about 1cm above the rice. Just stir the rice once during cooking and let it bubble away gently and the water slowly get absorbed by the rice. It will likely take about 20 minutes.

2. Once cooked, take the rice off the heat and cover the pan, leaving the rice to just steam and soak up that last bit of moisture for about 10 minutes.

3. Add the sushi seasoning and gently mix in to the rice. Leave to the side to cool as when served the rice should be just warm as opposed to steaming hot.  

4. Whilst the rice is cooking you prep everything else.

5. Mix the marinade for the tuna in a bowl.

6. Dice and slice all your other toppings as you like, generally I tend to go for small bitesize pieces or cut in to wedges.  

7. Dice the tuna in to approx. 1 cm dice, or however chunky you like then add to the marinade. The tuna just needs a quick toss in the marinade it doesn’t need to be left long.

8. Once you have all the component parts ready, the assembly just takes a minute. Plate up the rice in your serving bowls and top with the avocado, tuna, edamame beans and sushi ginger, or whatever toppings you are using.

9. Sprinkle the spring onion and nori strips on top then the sriracha mayo. I put the mayo in a little squirty bottle so it can be drizzled on nicely but you could just dollop it on. Finally, sprinkle some sesame seeds on top and enjoy!