Avocado Tuna Poke Salad Bowl

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This Avocado Mango Tuna Poke Salad Bowl recipe swaps out sushi rice for greens and is essentially a ‘how-to’ build your own healthy ahi poke bowl! Complete with optional toppings, add-ins, and a ridiculously easy to make mango dressing, this salad is perfect for lunches or easy, light dinners!

Update: This post was originally published in July 2018. I’ve updated the post below to include more information about poke salad. Plus, I’ve included all the delicious poke bowl toppings you can try!

Hi, virtual friends! Craving a refreshing dish that will cool you off AND actually tastes good?

Today we are doing it up with a healthy, colorful, protein packed, power bowl of YUM. That’s right! I am sharing my tuna poke recipe with avocado and it’s INSANELY delicious!

It has everything you could want…it’s cool, refreshing, and packed with lots of yummy flavors. Plus, it’s a great way to up your salad game!

About this poke salad

Fresh, sushi-grade tuna tossed with sweet onions and a flavorful Asian-Hawaiian fusion marinade. Served on a bed of crisp lettuce tossed with savory seaweed salad, crunchy cucumbers, and creamy avocado; then generously drizzled with a tropical, fruity mango poke dressing.

Basically, this tuna poke salad bowl is giving me ALL the summer feels.

It’s fresh, healthy, packed with good for you ingredients and it’s downright scrumptious too!

Not to mention, this tuna poke recipe with avocado is like eating the rainbow! I mean, just look at that jewel-tone-colored tuna with pops of green and a drizzle of vibrant yellow mango sauce!

Eating food this pretty is impossible to pass up. 😉

Why you’ll love this recipe

• 20 minute recipe! No long drawn out processes here! Just simple, easy ingredients that are tossed together and served fresh. You can seriously make it in minutes.
• Protein packed! There are 22 grams of protein in every serving of this poke salad recipe. Eat up!
• Unlimited poke bowl toppings! The options are endless when it comes to toppings. Some ideas are sliced jalapenos, sesame seeds, wonton chips, macadamia nuts, and MORE!

What is Hawaiian tuna poke bowl?

Hawaiian tuna poke salad bowls have become a popular food trend and for good reason. Hawaiian poke bowls are quick, healthy, and perfect for satisfying a sushi craving on a lower budget.

The main component of this poke salad recipe is tuna poke. Poke (pronounced “POH-keh”) literally means “to cut or slice” in Hawaiian, and the word refers to bite sized pieces of raw fish – most commonly tuna – which is marinated in a soy sauce mixture.

Traditionally poke bowls consist of poke served over sushi rice, then topped with various vegetables, sesame seeds, and umami-spiked sauces.

In this tuna bowl, we are nixing the rice and opting for healthier greens while 86-ing the spicy, creamy sauce and substituting a mango based poke dressing.

Ingredients needed for this poke salad recipe

There are four parts to this tuna poke recipe with avocado: tuna poke, salad, poke dressing, and poke bowl toppings. Don’t let that scare you! They are all easy to work with and taste fantastic too.

Tuna Poke

• Onions: I prefer to use a combination of sweet onions and green onions that are very finely diced. They add flavor and a touch of crunch with each bite.
• Soy Sauce: To keep the sodium low, I recommend sticking with a low sodium soy sauce. It will taste just as great.
• Mirin: One of the reasons why this poke salad has such a great Asian flavor is from the Mirin. It’s a tasty rice wine that elevates the flavor of this salad.
• Sesame Oil: Nutty and delicious, the perfect oil to add to this poke bowl.
• Hawaiian Sea Salt: You won’t need a lot, just a pinch or two to enhance the flavor of the other ingredients.
• Tuna: The key here is using sushi-grade tuna. Go to your local seafood shop or ask your grocery store to snag some.

Salad

• Seaweed Salad: If you haven’t enjoyed the toasty flavor of seaweed salad yet, this is the perfect recipe to try it on. It’s downright heavenly!
• Spring Lettuce Mix: Adding a lettuce mix will give you even more nutrients and bright colors!
• Avocado: I prefer thick slices of creamy avocado. It balances out the poke bowl beautifully.
• Cucumber: It’s best to use an English cucumber for this dish because they don’t have all those pesky seeds.

Poke Dressing

• Mango: You’ll need to peel it, core it and chop the mango into bite-sized pieces. They will get blended so it will be smooth, so don’t worry too much about the size of the cuts.
• Lime: Fresh lime juice is the best option! Don’t go for the bottled juice because it won’t taste as good.
• Honey: A little bit of honey adds the right amount of sweetness to the dressing and pairs great with the spice of the sriracha.
• Sesame Oil: Adding some oil will add flavor as well as a little bit of body to the homemade dressing.
• Sriracha: Feel free to add more or less sriracha depending on how much spiciness you would like your dressing to have.
• Water: You will only need to add water if the dressing is too thick for your taste. Otherwise, you can omit it.

Toppings

All of these poke bowl toppings are ideas to add variety to this poke salad recipe. So feel free to add what you like.

• Quick Pickled Onions
• Sliced Jalapeno
• Tobiko
• Sesame Seeds
• Fresh Mango Salsa
• Wonton Chips
• Cilantro
• Chopped Macadamia Nuts
• Shredded Carrots
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Sliced Radishes
• Pickled Ginger

How to make a poke bowl

You only need a few minutes to whip up this salad and you’ll have a fresh lunch or dinner! Plus, they are great for entertaining too.

(Scroll down for the detailed measurements and instructions in the printable recipe card at the bottom of the page.)

1. Prepare the dressing: In the bowl of a food processor, add the mango, lime juice, honey, mirin, sesame oil, sriracha and 1/8 tsp salt. Process until completely smooth. With the motor running stream in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency is achieved*. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
2. Prepare the tuna poke: In a medium bowl, combine the onion through the sesame oil. Season with a generous pinch of salt and whisk well to combine. Add the cubed tuna and toss gently to combine.
3. Serve bowl style or salad style: In a serving bowl, add the lettuce, seaweed salad, avocado and cucumber. Top with the tuna poke mixture and optional toppings. Drizzle with dressing. Enjoy!

Tips for the best success!

1. While the recipe below calls for sushi-grade tuna, you can absolutely substitute the tuna with any seafood you would like. Just make sure you are using sashimi quality fish, or cooked seafood. Sushi-grade salmon, octopus, scallops, or cooked crab are delicious options for this poke salad bowl!
2. The tuna poke will keep covered in the refrigerator for up to one day, however, it is best if eaten on the same day it is prepared.
3. The add-ins for the avocado mango tuna poke salad bowl are pretty limitless. I have included a ton of options in the recipe below, but feel free to use your imagination and top your bowl with whatever your heart desires!
4. The amount of water needed for the mango dressing depends on your preferred consistency for dressing. I recommend starting with 1 tablespoon and adding more water, an additional tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is achieved. For reference, I used 1 1/2 tablespoons of water in my dressing. The same note applies to the honey and sriracha in the dressing. Always make a recipe your own by adjusting the measurements of ingredients to your taste.

FAQs: frequently asked questions

Are tuna poke bowls healthy?

While Hawaiian tuna poke is healthy, calorie counts can go up depending on what is added to the bowl and what it is topped with.

A tuna poke bowl loaded with sushi rice, avocado and spicy sauce is going to have a lot more calories and be considerably less healthy than this Avocado Mango Tuna Poke Salad Bowl recipe.

However, no matter how you load-up, layer, or garnish your poke bowls, they are nutrient dense and do contain a high amount of protein and healthy fats, such as Omega 3.

The main key to keeping your poke bowl super healthy is to make sure you are customizing yours to include more greens, fruits, and vegetables and less processed ingredients.

How do I choose the right tuna?

Sushi-grade tuna means you don’t have to cook it. The biggest thing you need to do is find a reputable place to buy it.

If you have a seafood market or Asian market nearby that is likely your best bet. Some grocery stores have it as well, so you’ll want to ask.

The color should be bright and never dull. When you prepare the salad, make sure that the tuna doesn’t have any odors or a texture that is slimy. Those are signs it has started to go bad.

Serving suggestions

Perfectly refreshing and tropical, this poke tuna bowl pairs well with Asian, Hawaiian, and Caribbean flavors.

Below are some of my favorite pairing options to get your creative juices flowing:

• Transform your poke into a hearty main dish by serving it over seriously delicious coconut rice.
• Mangoes: Lean into the mango component of this salad by serving it with mango cucumber salsa, or Thai mango salad and spicy margaritas with mangos.
• Take a trip to the east and pair your tuna poke with your favorite Asian favorites, like this recipe for Japanese cucumber salad, roasted brussels sprouts with peanut sauce, and honey sesame salmon grain salad.

This Avocado Mango Tuna Poke Salad Bowl is healthy and hearty, plus packed with both nutrients and flavor! Easy on the eyes and even easier on the taste buds, this poke bowl is salad goals!!

Until next week, friends, cheers – to sushi in a bowl!

Cheyanne

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More delicious tuna recipes! 

• Tuna Salad Macaroni
• Best Tuna Salad (with fresh tuna!)
• Spicy Tuna for Sushi
• Tuna Sesame Crusted

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