Vegan Poke Bowls
Everyone loves a Poke bowl, especially in summer when you just want fresh and cool meals that require minimal cooking and heat. The beauty of this dish is you can prep everything in advance, placing it all into separate containers, ready to be assembled at a moment’s notice and either taken with you for lunch or eaten at home. This is a vegan version where I’ve used watermelon in place of raw tuna, but you can obviously use any protein you wish. The below topping ingredients and sauces are also a guide, simply use whatever you have at home or love. Personally I like to make sure I have a variety of flavours and textures: sweet, pickled, fresh, spicy, crunchy etc, so I’ve used things that are currently in season that fit these profiles!
Serves: 4
Ingredients: Minimum 15
Cooking Time: 25 minutes prep, 5 minutes assembly
Skill Level: Easy
Ingredients
Marinated spicy watermelon
- ¼ watermelon, cut into small cubes
- Pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon of sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons of rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon of your choice of hot sauce. I used Apostle
- 1 stalk of spring onions, finely sliced
- 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds, roasted
Other toppings
- 2 cups of rice, cooked. Head to my ‘RICE’ highlight to learn how to cook rice perfectly
- 1 mango, cut into small cubes
- 1 jar of pickled ginger
- 4 radish, finely sliced
- ½ cups of quick pickled carrot, simply shredded and soaked in a brine of equal parts sugar, water and white vinegar (¼ cup each)
- 3 small cucumbers, sliced
- 1 bag of frozen edamame beans, defrosted
- 1 avocado, sliced
- Seaweed/Nori sheets, sliced
Your choice of sauce toppings
- Hot sauce
- Wasabi
- Soy Sauce
- Pinch of salt, using David Jone’s Hawaiian Black Salt
Watch the process
Method
- To make the marinated watermelon, place all ingredients into a bowl and mix until the watermelon is coated and tastes salty and spicy. Set aside to marinate for 10 minutes.
- Prep all of your ingredients as above and feel free to add in whatever ingredients you love. You want a nice mix of flavours and textures: sweet, pickled, fresh, spicy, crunchy. Other than the avocado, you can prep all the ingredients in advance storing them in containers in your fridge and pantry, ready to be assembled at a moment’s notice making it the perfect quick meal.
- To assemble, place a bed of rice into a bowl and begin placing each ingredient into a mound on top of the nice.
- Top with your favourite garnishes; a sprinkle of sesame seeds, a squeeze of hot sauce, a dollop of wasabi, a pinch of salt, whatever you like!
- Enjoy for lunch or dinner!