Ahi Poke Bowl Recipe With Shoyu Sauce

You need to try this ahi poke bowl recipe.  Not because it’s the hottest food around, but because it’s one of the tastiest, healthiest quick meals out there.

Filled with fresh, protein rich tuna and edamame, the healthy fat of avocado and the vegetable nutrients of cucumber, onions and jalapeno, you have one complete balanced, nutritious, beautiful and flavorful meal.

What Is An Ahi Poke Bowl?

First you might ask How Do I Say Poke?  It’s poh kay, sounds like Okay.  When the poke food craze first came out, I would ask for a poke (sounds like I was poking someone in the arm), then tried pokee.  Guess I wasn’t as sophisticated as I thought.  So if you want to sound like you’re in the know, say poh kay.

Poke bowls, specifically ahi poke bowls, are an Hawaiian dish consisting of marinated, cubed tuna served over sushi rice with green onions and just a couple of toppings.  On the mainland we have added all kinds of toppings and sauces.

I don’t know how Hawaii natives feel about that, but personally I like the additions.

I think of our ahi poke bowl recipe like a deconstructed sushi roll.  You know, just like the deconstructed furniture craze made popular by Restoration Hardware, only sushi style.  It’s a lot easier than rolling the little sushi rolls and a heartier dinner.

I developed my ahi poke bowl recipe after a local restaurant here called Boru Boru in the Emory neighborhood.  They have all kinds of sushi bowls and burritos, fresh tasting and delicious.

My favorite is their Shoyu style poke bowl.  Shoyu is soy based, and I like the tuna.  I don’t know their exact recipe so made my own for the marinade.  I opted to use the same toppings Boru Boru uses. 

For a quarter of the price I can make these ahi tuna poke bowls at home for the entire family.

Don’t get me wrong, there are always times I’ll swing by Boru Boru to pick up a quick meal, but just like many of the recipes on my site, it just makes sense to make the ahi poke bowl recipe at home when you can for customized options, salt intake and cost.

What Is Ahi Tuna?

There are several types of tuna. 

For canned tuna you’ll often see albacore and skipjack used. 

The sushi purists will opt for Bluefin, which is expensive and more importantly on the endangered species list.  Avoid any fish on the list.  If you ever wonder about that just go to https://www.seafoodwatch.org/ and type in the fish you want to eat in the search bar.  It will tell you if that fish should be avoided.

Now you ask, what is Ahi Tuna?  It’s a wild caught yellowfin or bigeye tuna caught in the Western and Central Pacific.  It has a delicious flavor and texture and is perfect for sushi.

Do I Have To Buy Sushi-Grade Tuna If Eating Raw?

Yes.  The problem is that even tuna labelled sushi-grade usually isn’t monitored by any government agency, so you want to buy from a reputable place. 

Make sure your grocery store or fish market is clean, the fish have clear eyes and that the cutting boards are sanitized between different fish.

The sushi-grade tuna should also be stored separately from the other seafood.

Tuna is actually the only fish that “technically” doesn’t have to be frozen to eat raw because it has extremely clean flesh.  But the FDA says that any fish to be eaten raw needs to be frozen.

I’ve written a separate post on sushi-grade fish because when researching for this ahi poke bowl recipe there was an incredible amount of information, it begged for it’s own post.

And if you substitute salmon, which is known for parasites, it definitely needs to be frozen.  Sushi is one of the places where fresh isn’t better than frozen.

Is Our Ahi Poke Bowl Recipe Healthy

You bet!

The beautiful thing about Poke bowls is that they are customized for each person, whether you are a carnivore, pescetarian, flexitarian or vegetarian. Just let your diners choose their toppings to make the poke bowl gluten-free, whole 30 or keto.

Healthy, fresh protein packed tuna and edamame, the healthy fat of avocados and nutritious toppings makes this meal a powerhouse of nutrition.

Is Our Ahi Poke Bowl Recipe Gluten-Free?

Yes, with the exception of the crispy onions.  Just leave the crispy onions out or replace with raw onion. 

Check labels if using store bought ingredients.  Soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and some sushi rice may contain gluten, check the labels.

Is Our Ahi Poke Bowl Recipe Keto and Whole 30 Friendly?

For the most part yes, with a couple of substitutions.

You will want to decrease the amount of rice or substitute it all together.  Replace with quinoa, zoodles or riced cauliflower.

The crispy onions have carbs so you’ll want to ditch those too.

The edamame is high in protein so you may want to skip or replace with a lower protein vegetable like asparagus, spinach, kale or arugula.

Otherwise you are looking at a meal filled with healthy fats and with a moderate amount of protein, primarily from the tuna.

Ingredient Substitutions For Our Ahi Poke Bowl Recipe

Rice – you can make your favorite white or brown rice.  My favorite is Basmati, it has a little nutty flavor to it.  Sushi rice is ideal because it’s sticky like what you’ll find in restaurants.  If you want to make Basmati or other rice stickier, just add a tablespoon or so of rice vinegar to the cooking liquid.

You can also substitute quinoa, zoodles or riced cauliflower.

Tuna – Use any sushi or sashimi-grade fish, another popular choice is salmon. 

I have a child who isn’t wild crazy about raw fish.  I usually make Drew a pan sautéed chicken thigh, slice it on an angle and he builds his own protein bowl with the other toppings.

Marinade – we’ve opted for a traditional, simple shoyu marinade.  I love using ponzu sauce which you can buy bottled or make your own by adding 2 Tablespoons each of lime juice and lemon juice to the shoyu marinade in our ahi poke bowl recipe. 

The only downside to ponzu is that the tuna needs to be eaten in an hour or so.  The citrus “cooks” the tuna and starts to degrade the texture.  Now as I say that, we’ve eaten the ponzu sauced tuna the next day and it still tastes great but the texture has changed.

Pickled red onion – raw onion can be substituted but will lack the tangy bite of the pickled red onion

Cucumber – add any vegetable or even fruit that you like.  I see people using mango all the time. 

Crispy onions – oh just live it up and have the crispy onions.  They lend a great crunchy bite to the ahi poke bowl recipe.  When I was making this recipe, I wanted to save time and bought the classic canned French’s fried onions, which I’ve always been reserved about using.  For some reason I thought they were loaded with chemicals.  Quite the contrary.  I will not feel guilty again using the canned fried onions.  And they are yummy to boot!

Pickled jalapeno – Use freshly sliced jalapeno or any chili pepper that you like.  Pickled has a nice, mellow flavor to it compared to a fresh jalapeno.  I also like the fact that you buy the pickled jalapeno jarred and can store in the refrigerator for months, so you always have it on hand.

Edamame – just like the cucumber, you can use any fresh vegetable that you like.  Edamame pack a walloping protein punch with 17 grams per cup.  They are kept in the freezer and easy to make, so what’s not to like?

Scallions or green onions – any onion adds a nice taste and a little crunch to the ahi poke bowl recipe.  I like the green onions for their subtle taste and bright green color.  They also happen to be traditional to poke bowls too.

Traditional way to cut the green onion is to slice into 1/4 or 1/8″ slices.

If you want to get fancy, then cut the green into 2 inch lengths. Slice each piece lengthwise into 1/4″ width pieces. Now slice as thin as possible from one end almost to the other end without cutting apart, see picture below. Add to cold water for a few minutes and watch the green onions curl.

Yum yum sauce – use your favorite sauce.  Our comeback sauce is a nice mild sauce with just a little kick and not as sweet as yum yum sauce.  You can also mix ¼ cup mayo with 1-3 teaspoons of Sriracha sauce for a quick, spicy sauce.

Make Ahead Tips For Our Ahi Poke Bowl Recipe

Oh, this ahi poke bowl recipe is ideal for making ahead.

Really the only thing that must be done last minute is cutting up the avocado, so it doesn’t brown and then assembling the sushi bowl.  It’s probably best to cut the cucumber closer to when serving to keep it moist.  But I’ve cut the cucumber up 2 days ahead of time without too much loss.

The pickled red onion can be made a couple of months in advance.  Yes, I said a couple of months.  I always have them in my refrigerator to liven up all kinds of things.  Check out our post for pickled red onions and all their uses.

You can boil or steam your frozen edamame and store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

When ready to serve, you can even skip the assembling part and lay out the toppings in bowls and let your diners create their own ahi poke bowl.

The Shoyu sauce marinade can be made up to 2 days ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator.  You can toss the cubed tuna in the marinade up to 24 hours ahead of time.