How much do I love Ahi Tuna and especially Poke Bowls? So So VERY Much. I love this combo – can hardly call it a recipe since it’s so easy and quick to put together. (Although there are a handful of ingredients, so yeah, recipe below !) It is fancy enough to serve to company and its great for a weeknight dinner. It’s also quite healthy and oh-so-fresh – so it’s a win win win!
My favorite way to source the tuna is to go down to the docs here in San Diego. Super spoiled – as the boats pull in and offload their haul on Saturday mornings. This is one of the good things that came out of Covid. The fishermen couldn’t sell their fish to the restaurants (and we all still had to EAT!) and so the fishermen began selling direct to the consumers. The fishermen get to keep more of the money and the consumers (ME!) get fresh out of the ocean fish for not too much $$. I’m like a kid in a candy store going down there – and always return home with WAY WAY WAY too much fish – but then I have to get on the phone and call friends to come over. But, they don’t mind! 🙂
Ok – so you don’t live in San Diego, you say? That’s fine. Get off to your local fishmonger, Whole Foods, or other store that you trust. Frequently I get wild tuna from my local Sprouts Market – since it’s right around the corner and sometimes I prefer doing yoga on Saturday mornings…
Ok – so you’ve got your wild tuna – you picked up some fresh vegetables and maybe some cilantro and you are ready to get going on some awesome poke bowls ? It’s so so so easy.
Wild Tuna Poke Bowl
Ingredients
Sriracha Mayonnaise
- ¼ C Mayonnaise – your favorite brand – light is OK!
- 1 Tbl Sriracha
- ½ Tbl Rice Vinegar
- 1 Tsp Fish Sauce
Fish Sauce for Tuna – Quick Marinade
- 3 Tbl Soy Sauce – Less Sodium Typically Used
- 1 Tbl Sesame Oil
- 2 Tsp Sesame Seed
- 1 Lb Ahi Tuna – Raw and Wild ideally
Fresh Additional Ingredients
- 1 Large Avocado
- 1 Large Cucumber – seedless or de-seeded
- 2-4 Green Onions
- ¼ Bunch Cilantro
- 1 Sweet Pepper – Green, Red or Orange (or a combo!)
- ½ Mango – Optional but a yummy variation
- 1 C Rice – Brown or White – your preference
Instructions
- Make yourself some rice. You can do this early in the day or even the day before. If pre-made take it out of the fridge to it isn't cold when you are ready to eat it. I much prefer hot rice or minimally room temp rice to cold. Brown rice has more nutrition, and doesn't spike your blood sugar levels quite as quickly… Note 1 C raw rice will make about 3 C cooked – which should be more than enough for 4 people as typical serving is 1/2 C cooked.
Prepare the Tuna and Quick Marinade
- Since I have a thick cutting board that doesn't leave my counter – I DO NOT cut proteins direct on my main board. I have specialty cutting boards for proteins that can go into the dishwasher and are less porous than my standard cutting board.
- Cut the Tuna into ¾ inch or bite size pieces on your secondary board.
- Toss into a medium sized bowl with the Tuna Marinade ingredients. I let the tuna sit for a little bit… maybe 15-30 minutes. You want the tuna to absorb the flavors without 'cooking'. You could go as much as an hour or two, but any more than that, the acid in the soy sauce could break down your tuna.
Make the Sriracha Mayo
- Using your measuring spoons, put the mayo, sriracha, rice vinegar and fish sauce into a bowl.
- Mix up. Say Wha-la with emphasis ! (Soooo easy!) If you have lumps you may want to whisk up the ingredients a bit.
Clean and Chop your fresh Vegetables #VegItUp
- Consider what vegetables you have in your drawer that you enjoy – cut them up and add them in – whether they are noted above or not !
- Cucumber – I like to de-seed mine. Cut the cucumber lengthwise – and I use a spoon to scrape out the seeds, and then chop the remaining bit of cucumber into small pieces.
- Pepper – Slice in half or quarters, remove the stem and seeds, and slice into bite sized pieces.
- Green Onions – Clean and trim your onions and slice thinly.
- Cilantro – I like to have cilantro on my poke bowl – but the hubster doesn't. Up to you ! Clean and Chop if you have some and like it.
- Avocado – slice in half, remove the pit. Cut the slices or bites in the Avo skin and then use a spoon to remove the 'meat' from the skin.
- Mango – Yes ! A friend was over and knew I had mango and said – let's add some mango. It was a delicious fresh sweet add to the tuna – that went well with the spicy sriracha !
- Wha La ! Dinner is basically ready.
- Get bowls, and let folks make their own poke bowl – adding rice, tuna, veg and topping with the sriracha mayo.
- I like to mix mine up so that all the flavors meld. Note this particular time I used wild rice – since that is what I had closest when I went looking to make rice!
