Recently I’ve noticed poke bowls on menus. And I became intrigued. Traditionally, a poke bowl is raw marinated fish that been cubed and layered with rice and pickles. Its origin is from Hawaiian where fishermen would season the cut-offs from their daily catch eating it on their boats. Poke is considered their national dish. On a days it is such a diet staple that it is freshly made in most convenience stores.
I’ll be honest, but the idea of raw fish is not appealing to me and my guys. And that these days being mostly plant-based, I’m not eating a lot of fish. But you can still have a plant-based poke bowl. It is a lovely way to pack in amazing flavors and textures. And a poke bowl is all about different textures in every bite. It isn’t a boring meal.
To make a plant-based poke bowl is easy and quick. Swap out the fish for tofu or tempeh, You can use white or brown rice though I like the nuttiness of brown. Pickled items are important so adding picked red onions and sauerkraut. I always have picked red onions on hand, but I’ll share a 5-min pickled recipe that you can do while making this dish. Instead of using white cabbage, I prefer to use red cabbage beet carrot sauerkraut as it add a nice flavor and a burst of color. To bring a different sense of texture, add a sliced cucumber, cherry tomatoes, micro greens, and cilantro. Adding a can of kidney beans gives it more nutrition. The sauce for this dish is sweet chili sauce and tamari. The tofu or tempeh and beans are cooked in the sauce with garlic and ginger.
This recipe is based on The Happy Pear’s “Easy poke for weight loss in 5 min” recipe. I encourage you to check out the recipes.
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked brown rice
- 1/2 cup Sauerkraut
- Block of Tempeh or Tofu - If using tofu then drain well
- 12 tbsp sweet chili sauce
- 4 tbsp tamari
- 1/2 tsp ginger paste
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- Small red onion
- 50 ml rice vinegar
- Cucumber
- Coriander
- Handful cherry tomatoes
- 1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
Preparation
- Rice
- - Prepare brown rice. You can use pre-cooked or make it in rice cooker like I do.
- Picked Red Onion
- - Slice red onion thinly placing in glass jar then add the rice vinegar and water if need to make sure the onions are covered.
- Tempeh or Tofu
- - Slice up tempeh or tofu
- - Head pan on medium high.
- - Add tempeh or tofu until it browns
- - Add garlic and ginger then the sweet chili/tamari sauce mixture coating
- - Remove onto plate then add the kidney beans coating them until they are warm
- Ensemble the bowl with all the goodies.
Hello! I'm Ann Marie and I wear the well-worn apron. Join me as explore plant-based eating while I live on an island off the U.S. state of Rhode Island.