Tuna Poke Bowls!
Man, it has been quite a summer. While I have been cooking a lot, I haven’t done a great job of documenting all of my meals and recipes on here. We just returned from vacation and there was a huge shock when I got on the scale… so I decided to clean it up big time beginning this week, and I was super happy with the scale AND with how I felt.
On Saturday, we were craving a meal out and instead of going to eat bar food, or a blah salad with probably WAY too much fat in the dressing, we decided to go to a fresh seafood restaurant on the water. AMAZING idea, if I do say so myself. I got some chilled seafood, and Kenny got swordfish. Then we got the idea to go to the seafood market attached to the restaurant and get some things to bring home.
Enter: Fresh, beautiful, sushi-grade ahi tuna steaks! Typically, I would sear them and eat with veggies or a side of rice; but last week someone requested that I make a macro-friendly version of a Poke Bowl. Perfect! I had just the ahi tuna steak to fill the bowl with. I also made a sauce to go over top, but you can also just mix the tuna in it and leave the rest of the bowl more “plain”. Or you can leave the bowl completely sauce-free, whatever floats your boat (or bowl).
There are a variety of ways that you can make this lower carbs or higher protein, and I will talk about that at the end of this recipe. For the version I ate, the macros are 31g carbs, 9g fat and 33g protein.
Here is the recipe for the Ahi Tuna Poke Bowl:
- 4 oz sushi-grade ahi tuna steak, cut (with a very sharp knife) into cubes or slices
- 4 oz uncooked zucchini noodles
- 50 g cooked jasmine rice
- 2 oz cucumber (English or with seeds removed), cut into sticks
- 5 g scallions (cut into small slices with kitchen scissors)
- 30g avocado
- 2g sesame seeds
For the Sauce:
- 1/4 tsp ginger paste
- 1 tbsp lower sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp rice vinegar
First, cook your zucchini noodles and drain any water that cooks off. In the bottom of a large bowl, add your rice and zucchini noodles. Layer tuna, cucumber, avocado on top of the rice and veggie base. Sprinkle scallions and sesame seeds on top.
If you want to use the sauce, combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl with a whisk. Either marinate the tuna in this sauce before adding it to the bowl, or you can pour it over top of the whole bowl itself.
The recipe for the bowl is really as simple as that! You can also add other ingredients like edamame, shredded carrots, sliced radishes, or even other sushi-grade fish like salmon or cooked shrimp!
If you would like to reduce the carbs on this bowl, you can swap out all of the rice for more zucchini noodles, and add even more veggies like the ones I mentioned above. You could also increase the protein by adding more tuna, or whatever protein you decide to use. This recipe was super filling, very fresh, and so delicious that I cannot wait until I go back to the market for more fish to make it again and switch up more ingredients!
