This homemade ahi tuna poke bowl is a super fresh and easy dinner! It features sesame marinated tuna, jasmine rice, edamame, juicy mangoes and avocado.

What’s a Poke Bowl?

You’ll probably notice there’s quite a hipe recently on poke bowls. A poke bowl is made with rice as the base, raw fish cut into cubes, garnishes and sauce. Poke means “to slice or cut” in Hawaiian and refers to chunks of raw, marinated fish.

Which Rice to Choose to Build Your Own Poke Bowl?

For a traditional poke bowl: choose sticky rice, such as sushi rice or jasmine rice.
You can also serve your poke with brown rice, quinoa or even cauliflower rice.

Choose Your Garnishes

You’ll find in the ingredients list below, the garnishes I recommend to pair with the sesame ahi tuna. Here are some other ideas to personalize your poke bowl:

Funky garnishes: seaweed salad, seaweed leaves, fried shallots.
Fruits: mangoes, pineapple, strawberries.
Vegetables: cucumbers, shredded carrots, shredded beets, avocado.
Nuts and seeds: sesame seeds, peanuts, macadamia nuts.
Pickles: marinated ginger, shiitake mushrooms, marinated red onions.

Tips to Create The Best Poke Bowl

Use fresh fish: choose sushi grade tuna. Please note that red tuna will always come defrosted if you buy it at the fish market, so make sure it has been defrosted on the same day or the day before.
Marinade the fish in the sauce: for a period of 30 minutes. This will add such a nice taste to the fish.
Make sure the cooked rice is at room temperature. You can easily cook the rice in advance.

What’s Ahi Tuna?

It refers to yellowtail tuna or big eye tuna. And it’s often cheaper than bluefin tuna, with a very similar flavor profile and texture.