Poke is one of my favorite summer meals and I used to get it at one of my favorite restaurants in Portland – Flying Fish. This recipe replaces raw tuna with a more accessible and affordable canned tuna that gets tossed in a sesame soy dressing that adds most of the flavor to the bowl. Cucumbers get pickled in some vinegar and soy sauce and then you use the juices from the cucumbers to spoon over the rice and veggies. It’s so good and really hits the spot on a hot day!
Ingredient Highlight
Tuna! Wild tuna is an excellent source of protein, omega-3 fats, vitamin B12, selenium, iron, and potassium. Tuna does contain mercury, so it’s important to not go overboard with it. Skipjack tuna is lower in mercury than albacore, if you can find it.
Servings 4 People
Prep Time 15 minutes 
Cook Time 15 minutes Ingredients
- 2 cups jasmine rice
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tsp grated ginger
- 2 cup thinly sliced scallions
- 4 cans (5 oz) tuna packed in olive oil (about 3 cups crumbled)*
- 4 cup thinly sliced or shredded veggies**
- 1 avocado, chopped or sliced (optional)
- Sriracha (optional)
For the cucumbers:
- 2 cucumbers, peeled, thinly sliced (about 3 cups)
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
- *If using tuna packed in water, add 2 tablespoons olive oil to the poke dressing.
- **Cabbage, carrot, radish, and/or fennel all work!
Instructions
To cook the rice:
- add 1 cup rice to a fine mesh strainer and rinse, using your hands to agitate the grains, until the water runs clear. This gets rid of the extra starch so your rice isn’t mushy. Add rice to a medium pot along with 1 ½ cups water. Cover and turn the heat on high. Once the water starts to simmer rapidly, reduce the heat to low and simmer gently, covered, for about 12-15 minutes, or until the water is evaporated and rice is cooked. Don’t remove the lid until the timer goes off!
- In a large bowl, whisk together the soy, sesame seeds, sesame oil, vinegar, ginger, and 1 cup scallions. Add the tuna and toss to coat, breaking the tuna up into chunks.
- In a medium bowl or container with a lid, add the cucumbers, vinegar, and soy sauce and toss to coat. Let sit for at least 10 minutes (overnight is best).
- Assemble your bowls! Add a scoop of rice, tuna, cucumbers, veggies, and avocado. Spoon some of the liquid from the cucumbers over the rice and veggies. You can top with more scallions, sesame seeds, and some sriracha, if you’d like.
Items you can prep ahead (optional)
- Cook 2 cups jasmine rice
- Make the poke dressing
- Thinly slice 1 cup thinly scallions
- Thinly slice or shred 4 cups veggies
- Peel, thinly slice, and marinate 2 cucumbers
- Make the tuna poke
Substitutions:
- To make it vegetarian, substitute tuna with 3 cups of edamame or crumbled tofu.
- Substitute the tuna with canned salmon or bake/grill about 1.5 lbs worth of salmon and flake it up for the poke.
- Substitute cilantro from scallions.
Storage:
-
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge or freezer:
- Tuna poke: up to 4 days in the fridge
- Rice: up to 5 days in the fridge or 2 months in the freezer
- Cucumbers: up to 7 days in the fridge
Leftovers + Repurposing:
- Warm up leftover rice and assemble your bowls. Make sure to spoon that cucumber liquid all over. Top with fresh herbs and sriracha.
- Top with a fried egg!
