This dish is super easy to make for lunch or dinner, refreshing and full of flavor! You could also use tuna for this recipe but I LOVE salmon and decided to make this for lunch on one of my days off. One thing I really like about bowls like this is you can use a variety of toppings, a great fridge cleaner! For this recipe I used carrots, cucumbers and a little kimchi in my bowl along with the spicy salmon and white rice.
Poke Bowl Origin
Poke is an original Hawaiian dish, sushi originates from Japan. Hawaiian food does take a lot of influence from a variety of Japanese dishes but poke is Hawaiian. Traditional poke seasonings have been heavily influenced by Japan and other Asian cultures. These include, green onion, soy sauce, sesame oil, seaweed and chili pepper (crushed or dried). The dish is traditionally made with fresh tuna or octopus that has been lightly seasoned with whatever was on hand, like sea salt and seaweed. The arrival of immigrants from China and Japan brought ingredients like sesame oil and soy sauce to poke, and slowly the simple, seasoned dish of raw fish evolved into what we know as poke today. Always enjoyed on the islands, poke’s popularity really skyrocketed in the 1970s and ahi shoyu poke is probably the most popular of all. Serving poke over a bed of rice—the simplest form of a poke bowl—was a no-brainer way to make the seasoned raw fish into a much more filling dish. Thus, the poke bowl!
Because yeah, making a colorful, fresh, gorgeous salmon and ahi poke bowl at home is pretty darn impressive! It’s also not too hard to do. You’ll need a bit of time—like any bowl recipe, there are lots of little components and sauces—but none of the steps require much in the way of special knowledge or technique. You’ll also need access to really great, high-quality raw fish—ahi tuna and salmon is the poke bowl combo I love most—but you don’t have to live close to a fancy store for that. Buying any sushi-grade fish is pretty easy these days. I know markets near me like Joong Boo, HMART, and Fresh Thyme all have a variety of sushi grade fish to cut up, sometimes they even have the fish already chopped into little cubes!
Now lets get into the recipe!
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