Reminiscent. Tasty. Incredible.
Made for 4 Hawaiian Vegan Poke Bowls
Origin of Poke Bowls
Hawaiian poke is the best out of the books, my favorite but biased opinion because I used to work at one. When I turned vegan 2 years ago, I had to beg them to put tofu out on the menu, which they did! Many people liked it and I found other vegans & vegetarians liking the option for their poke bowls. Although, we decided not to flavor it.
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
Poke Bowls are originally raw fish with fresh veggies and fruits with no base. Americanized we put the base of rice or salad or even seaweed salad. The restaurant owner Sarah Abadi of POKE-IT says “poke date back to pre-colonial times in Polynesia, a grouping of islands in Hawaii to New Zealand”(Butler, K). Poke used to just be an appetizer, but now it is going mainstream as a main dish!
Vegan Poke, is that Possible?
Yes, it totally is.
Vegan options for many cultural dishes have sky rocket in the last few years. Vegan seafood is real, and deliciously good. There is a vegan company that produces vegan salmon and ahi. It might not taste like it but marinating it in the right amount of sauce can change the game over all. The company is called Vegan Zeastar. Where you can buy this product is on the online grocery store “GTFO it’s vegan”, click here. However, what I will make today is vegan ahi made out of tomato and vegan eel made out of eggplant. My recipe for the vegan eggplant is on my other blog post Vegan Eggplant “Eel” Nigiri.
Ingredients for the poke bowl
- Rice
- Tofu (optional)
- Tomatoes
- Cucumber
- Eggplant (optional)
- Avocado
- Carrot
- Edamame beans (optional)
- Green Onion (optional)
- White Onion
- Fried Onion
- Furikake
- Roasted Sesame Seeds
- Coconut Aminos
- Maple Syrup
- Arrowroot
- Salt
- Pepper
- Garlic Powder
- Red Cabbage (optional)
- Vegetable broth
- White Ginger (optional)
- Rice Vinegar
- Dried Roasted Sushi Seaweed
- Avocado Oil
Is this Hawaiian Vegan Poke Bowl difficult to make?
We must take into consideration everything we make at home can be either easy or challenging.
Depending on how much toppings you want in the bowl, yes & no. There is a long process to make the tomato ahi, but when it hits your mouth, it is totally worth it! There is a 4 step process making the ahi tomato. For the vegan eggplant eel, there is about three steps to it. Ultimately, if you have time to make the tomato and eggplant I say it is worth it. I would make the ahi tomato and eggplant the day before, and do everything else the next day if it is too much preparation. Down below I will talk about the step-by-step process for each item created homemade.
I believe the more time you work on your food, the more flavor and taste it achieves at the end. Food that takes under 30 minutes to make can be good, only if you are using a lot of store bought ingredients.
In conclusion, you can swap the tomato and the eggplant for tofu, but I swear you want to taste this ahi tomato and eggplant eel in your poke bowl.
This recipe is time consuming but this shows how much love, dedication, & commitment to the people who make this everyday for their customers. When I worked at a poke restaurant, a lot of people question how expensive the bowls were. For a non-vegan poke bowl we prepare almost everything from sauces to the toppings and to the skinning of the fish. There is time and effort that goes into preparing everything that tops off the bowls. For a vegan bowl, there has to be many steps into making a fruit or vegetable to taste like something that is not organically made to taste like fish.
The tomatoes take overnight to marinate to absorb the flavors, and the eggplant requires time to bake. You can always use a store bought unagi sauce but I like making my own.
Alternative for Ahi Tomato
There are so many ways to make vegan ahi, an easy one or a homemade version.
You can purchase the Vegan Ahi from GTFO its Vegan from Vegan Zeastar and skip the cooking process of the ahi tomato. You can just add my marinate to it and leave it for a few hours to over night.
I heard the Vegan salmon is just like the Vegan ahi because apparently they don’t have taste to it. It is also recommended to marinate in soy sauce or coconut aminos & green and white onions.
If you are looking for a vegan tobiko, masago or fish eggs, there are some vegan brands like Tosago who offer it, click here!
My Ahi tomato is for those who are on a budget. Look how real it looks! I got my inspiration from Merle Shane O’Neal from Goodful. She is amazing and she also gets her ideas from other vegan bloggers or vegan chefs.
Other recipes you might be interested in! 🙂
Healthy Vegan Filipino Tofu Afritada
Steps to make Hawaiian Vegan Poke Bowls
Rice
Make sure you have at least 4 cups of rice for 4 servings of the Hawaiian Vegan Poke Bowls. I prefer sushi rice, but jasmine rice is perfectly fine for this recipe.
Ahi Tomato
Making the Ahi Tomato is a 4 step process. There is first cutting an X on the tomato, cooking it, peeling & cutting it, then lastly marinating it over night or for 4-12 hours. If marinated more then than 12 hours, it will absorb more of the marinate which is entirely a good thing!
- Cut an X on the bottom of the tomato and cut off the green part of the stem.
- Get a medium to large sized bowl to make an ice bath of ice and water.
- Boil the water first and carefully drop the tomatoes in the water for about a minute or so until the skin is peeling off of the flesh of the tomato.
- Place the tomatoes in the ice bath. Proceed making something else in the mean time. The instructions for the recipe will tell you what to do.
- Once the tomatoes cooled, peel off the skin carefully. cut the tomatoes in quarter sizes. I have all of the pictures down below for reference. Take off the seeds and insides of the tomatoes just leaving the outer part of the tomato.
- Marinate in the marinate over night preferably. If not marinated at least for 5 hours, it will taste like tomato. The tomatoes need to be submerged into the marinate leaving no tomato behind. Use a reusable silicon bag or whatever you have on hand.
- I cut it into cubes once it is fully marinated and top it off on the bowl.
Swipe or press the arrows to see the step by step process of making the tomatoes. If you want to watch a video, I was inspired by merle by Goodful, here is a video start at 5:02, click here to watch on YouTube.
Vegan Eggplant Eel Nigiri
The instructions and recipe to make the eggplant eel is on my other blog post, click here for the Vegan Eggplant “Eel” Nigiri. There are more ingredients that you need to buy and have. If you do make the eggplant, skip making the unagi sauce. The left over marinated sauce for the eggplant taste just like unagi sauce.
Vegan Unagi Sauce
The unagi sauce is really easy to make. The base of the sauce is normally sugar and soy sauce but I am making a soy free & sugar free unagi sauce by using coconut aminos & maple syrup.
In a small pot add all of the ingredients except the arrowroot or cornstarch slurry. It says that they are 1:1 ratio so If I am using 1 teaspoon of arrowroot use 1 teaspoon of corn starch. The sauce will thicken if the heat is on medium to high heat depending on your burner. Although, you need to keep continuously mixing it so that it doesn’t burn. For arrowroot, you might think the sauce is not thickening, but right before your eyes it will thicken. Arrowroot takes a while to thicken because it must reach a high temperature to thicken. When using arrowroot, don’t under estimate it.
Fried Tofu
Frying tofu is fairly easy, but it takes a while to be crispy. Using a flour like potato starch, cornstarch, arrowroot, or flour, can help it reach a nice crunchy exterior.
Vegan Spicy Mayo
Making vegan spicy mayo is the easiest. If you want you can only use two ingredients which is a hot sauce (sriracha or chili sauce) and vegan mayo. I also like to add sesame oil and maple syrup to deepen the flavor if I have the ingredients on hand.
Prepare Toppings
Preparing the toppings is definitely based on how you like your vegetables or fruits to be cut. I like to cut cucumbers in circles, see below.
Hawaiian Vegan Poke Bowl
Ingredients
- 4 cups cooked rice jasmine or sushi rice
- 1 cucumber cube chopped
- 2 avocados or 1 depending on each person
- 1/2 carrot or small carrot
- 1/3 cup fried onion store bought gluten free
- 4 tablespoon seaweed furikake or chopped seaweed
- 1/3 cup white onions better than yellow or red onion personally
- 4 teaspoon roasted sesame seeds make sure it is roasted!
Optional
- 1/2 cup red cabbage chopped finely
- 1/4 cup green onion for garnish
- 4 tablespoon white ginger store bought
- 1/2 cup edamame
Eggplant "Eel" nigiri
recipe for eggplant here optional. use the remaining sauce from this recipe for unagi or use the unagi sauce down below
Unagi Sauce
- 1/3 cup coconut aminos + 2 tablespoon coconut aminos
- 3 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon arrowroot slurry (+ 1 tsp of filtered water) or cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt Himalayan (add more if you want)
Ahi Tomato
- 4 tomatoes medium sized, almost ripe. do not get squishy tomatoes.
- 1/3 cup coconut aminos
- 1/2 sheet dried seaweed sushi seaweed one, not snack
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil optional
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1.5 tablespoon rice vinegar
Tofu (optional if not soy free)
- pinch of salt
- .5 teaspoon garlic powder
- pinch of pepper
- 2 tablespoon coconut aminos
- 3 tablespoon avocado oil
Instructions
- Make sure to have at least 4 cups of cooked rice, so 1 cup for each serving or more or less.
- AHI Tomato: Boil warm water on high heat in a medium sized pot to be able to fit 4 medium sized tomatoes. Wash the tomatoes and create an X on the bottom where the stem is of the tomato with a knife. Get a medium-large boil to make an ice bath for the tomatoes. Plop the tomatoes in for 2 minutes or until you see the skin lifting off. Place the tomatoes in ice bath and wait until it cools.
- Optional: You can start making the Vegan Eggplant "Eel" Nigiri, click here for instructions. ONLY follow how to make the eggplant( optional if you want the sweet potato too) and unagi sauce. If you want a healthier unagi sauce use the one in this recipe.
- AHI Tomato: Once the tomatoes are cool, get a cutting board and peel the skin off. It should be easy. Cut the tomato into quarters like how nigiri looks like. You will see the visible line from the stem & cut there. Remove the seeds and excess off of the flesh of the tomato. If you would like to see a video, Merle from Goodful shows how to do it, click here and go to where she first skins the tomato @ 5:02. OR you can scroll up and find pictures of how I did it. Place the tomatoes in a reusable silicon bag or whatever you have on hand (zip lock), add the coconut aminos, rice vinegar, pieces of the half sheet dried seaweed, & salt. Add 1 tablespoon of sesame oil optional.
- If you want tofu, proceed to instructions. Fry tofu on a non stick pan on medium heat with 3 tablespoons of avocado oil. Fry until golden brown, then sprinkle on the salt, pepper, & garlic powder. Cook for another 30s-1 minute. Then add the 2 tablespoon of coconut aminos to the pan and tofu.
- Unagi Sauce: In a small pot, add everything except the slurry in last. Whisk until thickens. Takes about 3-5 minutes. Keep it on medium – high heat, but continue whisking until it thickens. Watch it because it can burn easily. Transfer to a little bowl or container.
- Cut: Cut the avocado in half horizontally or vertically. Cut into cubes. Cut the cucumber in circles or cubes. Cut the green onion for garnish. Cut 1/4 of the white onion, in thin slices. Cut the carrot julienne style or use a peeler to peel it thinly. Optional to add red cabbage but cut thinly.
- Assemble: Build the bowl with the base first. If you want a healthier alternative than rice, couscous, quinoa, salad, or cauliflower rice would be great options. Then just assemble the bowl with all of the toppings. Dry toppings last. Enjoy with the left over unagi sauce from the eggplant or the one you made, with the spicy mayo!
Notes
Nutrition
References
Butler, K. (2020, July 9). Here’s The History Behind the Trendy Poke Bowl. Chowhound. https://www.chowhound.com/food-news/205765/heres-the-history-behind-the-trendy-poke-bowl/.
Looks delicious. I am always up for anything with fried tofu. The sauce looks amazing, I bet it would be good on a lot of stuff. I’m going to have to try it out.
Girl!!! You are so talented! This looks incredible. When I saw it on insta I didn’t even realize you had combined your eggplant eel with it ? I am so making this. Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ?
Dang girl! This is seriously next level! Like something I’d order from a fancy restaurant! I’m so impressed. Eggplant “eel”?? You rock! And I’m always down for fried tofu lol!
Your poke bowl looks really amazing!
such beautiful pics and sentiment…thanks for the ride:)
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Thank you!!
Wonderful blog
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