Poke bowls, a Hawaiian dish influenced by Japanese and other Asian cuisines, have evolved into a versatile and customizable culinary experience. Traditionally featuring raw, marinated fish over rice, modern poke bowls now include cooked fish, vegan protein options, and a diverse array of toppings and dressings. This article explores the keto-friendly adaptation of the poke bowl, offering a delicious and healthy low-carb alternative.
What is Poke?
Poke is raw fish cut into bite-sized pieces and marinated and/or served with a sauce. Poke is very easy to make. While it may SEEM complicated, the truth is that Poke is very easy to make. All the work for this recipe happens when you’re shopping, because with Poke, the Tuna is the most important part! Poke can be made with a wide variety of seafood: crab, shrimp, mussels, squid, octopus, abalone, not to mention all the different species of fish. The most common, however, is ahi - or yellowfin tuna.
The Versatility of Poke Bowls
Poke bowls are incredibly versatile and customizable, acting as a blank canvas for culinary creativity. Whether you prefer crunchy veggies or creamy avocado, you can tailor your bowl to your exact preferences.
Building Your Keto Poke Bowl: A Step-by-Step Guide
Here's a rough guide to creating your perfect keto poke bowl:
- Base: Traditionally, poke bowls feature piping hot rice. To lower the carb intake, opt for cauliflower rice, shirataki rice or noodles, zucchini noodles, or a bed of salad greens.
- Protein: The protein source can be anything from fish, shrimp, scallops, or tofu. If using raw seafood, ensure it is high-quality, fresh, sashimi-grade. For a cooked salmon poke bowl, pan-fry, bake, or air-fry the salmon. Smoked salmon is another convenient option.
- Toppings: The options are endless, including cucumber, radish, jicama, shredded cabbage, carrots, peppers, onions, mushrooms, avocados, mango, pineapple, seaweed, pickled ginger, nuts, and seeds. This is a good way of using up whatever vegetables you have left in your fridge!
- Dressing: Mix and match mayonnaise, coconut aminos, miso, garlic, rice vinegar, and/or sesame oil to create your perfect dressing. For a spicy salmon poke bowl, add wasabi, sriracha, or chili slices. Use whatever you have in your pantry!
Effortlessly Delicious and Convenient
In today's fast-paced world, convenience is paramount. The Keto Salmon Poke Bowl is incredibly easy and efficient to prepare. With minimal cooking required, this dish is a breeze to put together, making it an ideal one-pan option for busy weeknights or lazy weekends. Only the cauliflower rice (and optionally the salmon) requires a quick sauté.
Read also: Your guide to a healthy keto meal at Chipotle.
Meal Prep Friendly
This recipe is also meal-prep friendly, provided you use cooked fish or tofu. Simply cook a larger batch of salmon and cauliflower rice ahead of time, and you'll have a nutritious meal ready to enjoy whenever hunger strikes.
A Keto-Friendly and Nutritious Choice
This recipe is keto-friendly, making it a perfect choice for those following a low-carb lifestyle. Instead of regular rice, cauliflower rice keeps carbs low while providing a satisfying base. Salmon is an excellent source of omega-3 rich protein.
Keto Poke Bowl Recipe Inspirations
Easy Keto Spicy Ahi Tuna Poke Bowl
Making Poke at home may seem intimidating but with my Easy Keto Spicy Ahi Tuna Poke Bowl Recipe, you’ll be shocked at how easy making your restaurant favorite dish at home can be!
Achieving the Best Flavor: Tuna Quality and Sauce
Becuase Poke is made with raw tuna, the quality of the tuna is of the utmost importance. It’s imperative that you are choosing high quality and safe raw tuna. The best fish to purchase for poke is fresh, sashimi-grade tuna. However, if you only have access to frozen, that can work too. The struggle is finding a trustworthy source. It can be tempting to reach for the first bag of frozen ahi tuna you find at the local grocery store but trust me it’s just too risky. You want to specifically speak to the fish monger at the store and confirm that what they are selling is indeed sushi/sashimi grade tuna.
The Sauce: The Second Most Important Part
Now that you’ve gotten your sushi-grade raw ahi tuna. Let’s talk about at the 2nd most important part of a spicy tuna poke bowl; the sauce. For this Easy Spicy Ahi Tuna Poke Bowl Recipe, we’re using the dish served at our favorite local Hawaiian Restaurant as our inspiration. My Keto Sweet & Spicy Asian Mayo Sauce Recipe is an addictively versatile sauce that I actually started making for this spicy tuna poke bowl long before we branched out to using it on my Easy Gluten-Free Crab Kani Salad Recipe. This delicious keto spicy mayo will transform plain-jane raw salmon into a Spicy Tuna Poke celebration of flavors!
Read also: Customize Your Keto Taco Bowl
Keto Spicy Tuna Poke Bowl Assembly
Fill a bowl with your favorite keto poke bowl ingredients then top it with bite sized cubes of raw ahi tuna. My favorite Keto Spicy Tuna Poke bowl includes a base of finely shredded cabbage with a pinch of fermented carrots, topped with shelled edamame with cucumbers and radishes, and Keto Asian Sweet & Spicy Mayo Sauce!
Poke vs. Ceviche: Understanding the Difference
While both seafood dishes come from warm coastal areas, they’re from two different geographical regions, and as such, draw on very different ingredients to shape their flavor profiles. Poke is Hawaii and has Asian flavors. Ceviche is Latin American inspired. Flavors aside the preparation is that truly sets them apart. By marinating raw fish in citrus, the proteins in ceviche resemble more of a cooked consistency.
Quick and Healthy Keto Poke Bowl
This keto poke bowl is fresh meets rich, umami flavors, and offers a healthy, low-carb spin on the traditional poke-over-rice bowl. Keto poke is served over cauliflower rice instead, and topped with fresh vegetables and a creamy, spicy mayo. This poke bowl recipe takes less than 20 minutes!
Low-Carb Swaps
A poke bowl typically contains a mix of white rice or sushi rice, along with the raw tuna (or raw salmon) with fresh vegetables and other toppings. We're making some low-carb swaps, here.
The Importance of Sushi-Grade Fish
The most important thing to know about this keto poke bowl recipe, is that it requires sushi-grade fish (either ahi tuna or salmon). "Sushi-grade" (or sashimi grade) simply means the fish is high quality because it was flash-frozen at some point- often on the commercial fishing boat or by the wholesaler. There's some controversy about whether sushi-grade matters or not (and how it's actually regulated), but essentially, sushi-grade is considered to be the highest quality of fish and the safest to consume raw.
Read also: Healthy Chicken Egg Roll Bowl
Making the Keto Poke Bowl: Step-by-Step
- Make the poke. Use a sharp knife to cut the tuna steaks into ½-inch cubes and place them in a bowl. Add the tamari, sesame oil, sriracha, ginger and garlic (plus some red pepper flakes for heat, if you'd like). Stir the fish until the pieces are evenly coated. Add green onion slices and toss to combine. Set the poke in the fridge while you prepare the rice.
- Make the cauliflower rice. You can opt for fresh or frozen riced cauliflower, but I tend to use frozen cauliflower rice because it's just so much easier. Sauté the cauliflower rice in a bit of sesame oil and add a little tamari.
- Make the spicy mayo. In a small dish, whisk together the mayo and the sriracha until it's blended. You can place it in a squeeze tube or keep it in the dish to spoon out over the bowl.
- Assemble the keto poke bowl. Place the rice into bowls and top with a couple of large spoonfuls of the tuna poke. Add your toppings of choice (I go with avocado, cucumber, edamame beans and more green onion).
The poke is best when served fresh, so I recommend enjoying it the same day you make it. However, you can keep extra poke refrigerated in an airtight container.
Customization Options
Customize this ahi poke bowl however you like! If you're not a fan of ahi tuna, you can easily swap it out for sushi-grade salmon!
Nutritional Information
On average, each serving of this Keto Poke Bowl recipe contains about 350-400 calories, depending on the specific ingredients used and their quantities.
Serving Suggestions and Variations
- Replace tuna with salmon for an amazing twist.
- Add more Sriracha / hot sauce than usual if you’re looking for some heat!
- Include sliced avocado which will give creamier mouthfeel plus extra healthy fats.
- To make a fresh salad version, serve the poke mixture on top of mixed greens rather than cauliflower rice.
Meal Prep and Serving Ideas
- Meal prep ready. In different containers, divide cauliflower rice and poke mixture for easy grab-and-go meals.
- Put the cauliflower rice and poke mixture in big bowls then let everyone build their own poke bowls. Different toppings and sauces can be used to create a poke bowl bar where guests can customize their bowls.
- Serve small amounts of the poke mixture on wonton chips as an appetizer.
- Pack a nutritious and filling lunch for work or school with this portable option- keto poke bowl.
Tuna Poke with Avocado
This simple Tuna Poke with Avocado is a healthy, Whole30-friendly no-cook meal.
Finding a Whole30 Version
When you order poke at a restaurant, the sauce is typically made with soy sauce-an ingredient to be avoided while on a Whole30 because it contains soy and gluten. The poke can also be tossed with spicy mayo but that might be made with ingredients that aren’t compatible with a Whole30 either (e.g. However, for this homemade version, you can use my paleo-friendly All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce mixed with my Whole30 Sriracha as a zingy and umami-packed replacement for the sauce. If you have a jar of All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce in the fridge already, you can toss together an authentic tasting poke in minutes because the sauce already contains rice vinegar, toasted sesame oil, and ground ginger.
Sourcing High-Quality Tuna
You should buy sushi- or sashimi-grade fresh ahi tuna or yellowfin tuna at a Japanese or seafood market that you trust. When in doubt, ask the fishmonger for recommendations and don’t be afraid to ask questions about their handling practices, storage, processing, and turn-over. Sushi-grade tuna is pricey (and you don’t want to get sick!) so do your research before buying raw tuna.
Tips for Serving
Traditionally tuna poke bowls are served on sushi rice, but to keep this dish paleo, low carb, and Whole30-friendly, serve the poke as-is or on a bed of salad greens with crunchy cucumbers, shredded carrots, and thinly sliced radishes. You can also spoon the poke mixture over cooked cauliflower rice or wrap it up in toasted seaweed (e.g. SeaSnax is one of my favorite brands) for a tasty hand-held meal!
Tuna Poke Recipe
Ingredients:
- Sushi- or sashimi-grade fresh ahi tuna or yellowfin tuna
- All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce
- Whole30 Sriracha
- Avocado
- Scallions
- Toasted sesame seeds
- Microgreens (optional)
Instructions:
- Whisk the All-Purpose Stir-Fry Sauce and Whole30 Sriracha (if using) in a small measuring cup. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the cubed tuna, avocado, and scallions. Pour in the sauce and carefully mix it together.
- Sprinkle on the toasted sesame seeds and microgreens (if using).
- Serve immediately.
Grain-Free Salmon Poke Bowl
This recipe is grain-free, paleo and low in carbs, which makes it suitable for the ketogenic diet. It's high in healthy fats (omega-3 fatty acids and MUFA), fibre, magnesium and potassium.
Salmon Poke Bowl Recipe
Ingredients:
- Sushi grade salmon, skinless and boneless
- Coconut aminos
- Toasted sesame oil
- Fresh lemon or lime juice
- Sriracha sauce
- Rice vinegar or coconut vinegar
- Salt
- Green onions, chopped
- Sesame seeds
- Cauliflower rice
- Ghee or coconut oil
- Avocado
- Nori seaweed sheet
Instructions:
- Marinate the salmon. Mix coconut aminos, toasted sesame oil, lemon juice, vinegar and salt. Add sriracha and mix until well combined.
- For best results, use a grating blade on your food processor to create rice-like shapes.
- Place the cauli-rice in a hot pan greased with ghee. Cook over a medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes and stir to prevent burning. When done, take off the heat, place in a bowl and combine with the vinegar mix.
- Cut each of the sheets in quarters and then cut each of the quarters in half.
- Crisp up the nori pieces. Place in a hot pan greased with ghee and crisp up over a medium heat for just 30-60 seconds.
- To assemble, divide the cauli-rice equally into two bowls. Add the marinated salmon, crisped up nori and sliced avocado.