Creating your perfect Poké Bowl
The best Poké Bowl is the one you customize to your own taste. In this post I'll give you a few sauce recipes, ingredient suggestions and ideas to create the perfect Poké Bowl!
The Sauces
Garlic Ginger
This one is my go to not only for poke bowls, but stir frys, as a BBQ sauce, and one of my favorites, as a chicken wing sauce.
2 TB light olive oil (or other neutral oil)
1 TB fresh minced garlic
1 TB fresh minced ginger
4 cloves black garlic (smashed into a paste) use more raw garlic if you cannot find this
2 TB soy sauce
1 TB coarse ground Korean chili flakes (crushed red pepper works too)
1 TB gochujang chili paste
1/4 c rice wine vinegar
1/4 c water
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
In a skillet over medium high heat add oil, fresh garlic, and ginger. Saute until fragrant, but not brown. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until it reduces to slightly thick. Add corn starch mixed with water to thicken if needed.
Sweet Chili Aioli (Yum Yum Sauce)
This seems to be the sauce people can't get enough of. Great on fried rice, stir frys, and of course poké bowls .
1 c Mayo
2/3 c sweet Chili sauce
1 tsp sriracha
1 tsp soy sauce or tamari
1 tsp spanish paprika
Combine well.
Spicy Fish Sauce/Marinade
This is the base for your spicy tuna or spicy salmon salad. You'll toss about 1-2 TB in each cup of raw chopped fish.
1/4 c mayo
1 TB sambal (chili garlic paste)
1 TB sriracha
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 bunch green onions, finely chopped
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds (black sesame is great too)
Combine the ingredients. Toss with diced tuna, salmon, tofu, cooked Chicken, etc.
Other sauce reccomendations
Wasabi
Teriyaki
Sweet Chili Sauce
Ponzu
The Base
Typically sushi or jasmine rice is the base for a poke bowl, but we don't have to limit ourselves. Here is a list of suggestions
Jasmine rice, Brown Rice, sushi rice, quinoa, baby kale, mixed greens, millet, bulgur wheat, barley, forbidden (black) rice, cauliflower rice.
The Centerpiece (protein)
Here's a list of items I like to use as the centerpieces of my Pokè Bowls . Be creative with your favorite proteins
Ahi tuna
Spicy Tuna
Sesame crusted tuna
Salmon
Spicy Salmon
Smoked Salmon
Krab stick/Imitation Crab (yes there are clean versions of this, typically made from pollock)
Cooked chicken
Tofu
Cooked fish
Tempeh
Toppings
Here's where you add the crunch, textures, and complementary flavors to your Poke Bowls. Here's a list of suggestions to choose from
Green onions
Fried shallots
Fried onions
Peanuts
Macadamia or other tree nuts
Red cabbage
Cilantro
Avocado
Carrots
Red onion
Cucumber
Seaweed salad
Edamame
Toasted seaweed
Radish
Fried wontons
Sprouts
Watercress
Mixed salad greens or other young greens
Pickled ginger
Chickpeas
Wasabi peas