Low Carb Tuna Mango Poke
Recently, we’ve been on a bit of a sushi - and poke - kick.
We found a sushi restaurant near us that is SUPER cheap - and really good! - and the poke place reopened. Life is good.
Of course, sometimes you need to alter a concept for whatever reason - for taste, dietary reasons, to avoid leaving the house... whatever. That’s where this Low(ish) Carb Tuna Mango Poke comes in.
One of our favourite sushi rolls ever is the Tuna Avocado Mango Sushi roll. We thought it would make a great base idea for a poke bowl, and set about to make it so.
Oh, it was fantastic. So, we had to share the recipe with you ! 🙂
What is Poke?
Poke (“Poke-eh”) is a Hawaiian dish of seasoned raw fish. It started out with fishermen seasoning and snacking on raw cut-offs from their catch, and eventually became popular in a mainstream sense.
Generally, raw fish is seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil, and/or green onions. Sometimes shredded nori (seaweed), sesame seeds, hot peppers,etc are added, to further enhance the flavours.
This is marinated for a little while - fish doesn’t require a long marination time - and served over warm, seasoned rice.
When served as a meal, rather than an appetizer, you can add all kinds of vegetables to bulk it out a bit and make it a more filling, nutritious meal.
The Fish
Food Safety
You will need to use sashimi grade tuna for this, which means it’s been commercially frozen before use.
Fresh fish - no matter how fresh and high quality - is a high risk for parasites, and the commercial - “flash” - freezing kills that all off.
No one wants raw fish related food poisoning, trust me on this. (Related: I’ll never buy sushi from a grocery store again. TWICE I got sick from sushi made in a high end grocery chain in Minneapolis!)
To thaw frozen sashimi grade fish, place it in the fridge overnight, and use it the next day. When using it, it should LOOK fresh - and smell like the ocean. If it has a heavy fishy smell, don't use it.
A Couple Notes on the Marinade
Gluten-Free: If you need this to be gluten free, simply use gluten-free soy sauce, tamari, or coconut aminos in place of the soy sauce in the marinade. That’s it - everything else is naturally gluten-free!
Calamansi Juice: I LOVE Calamansi juice in general, and it works really well in this marinade. I love the tropical flavour it brings to it, it just compliments the tuna, mango, and other flavours SO well.
But, there’s a caveat: While seasoned rice vinegar based marinade makes for a gorgeous, transparent sauce... calamansi juice makes the fish kind of an ugly, cloudy colour - as pictured.
Personally, I’ll use it anyway, as I’m definitely more about the flavour than the appearance. You mileage may vary, however, so I figured I should but that warning out there!
Traditional Poke Rice
Traditionally, poke is served on warm seasoned rice.
If you’d like to use sushi rice for this, see my post How to Make Sushi Rice. You’ll only use about ½ a batch worth, heads up!
This Poke “Rice”
I’m trying to watch my carbs, and white rice is pretty much nothing but carbs - it doesn’t really add anything nutritionally.
So, I tend to make my poke with alternative “rice” - cauliflower or celery root.
In this recipe - and the photos - I used cauliflower rice. While I prefer celery root - or “celeriac” - rice in general, I find that cauliflower works better with the flavours in this Tuna Mango Poke bowl, specifically.
While this recipe isn’t actually keto - the mango and the mango sauce prevent it from being SUPER low carb - this version has a much lower carb count than it would if we used rice.
Not a fan of cauliflower rice? Feel free to serve this over shredded, zoodled, or ribboned cucumber. These are popular low carb “rice” options at our favourite poke bowl restaurants.
The Fruit and Veggies
As the source material roll is a colourful roll to start, we decided to go all out on the colours for this one, and do a rainbow.
Colourful food is not only a treat for the eyes, after all, it’s usually packed with a variety of nutrients that are associated with each of those colours:
Beta carotene from the carrot’s orange.
Anthocyanins from the purple cabbage.
Lycopene from the radishes
Honestly, this is all side benefit, for us. I love having a ton of colours, flavours, and textures in any meal, and that goes double for something like poke.
The Sauce
This whole bowl is tied together with a healthy drizzle of my Mango Sushi Sauce . It’s a quick and easy sauce to make - just a couple minutes of effort - but it’s SO tasty and pretty.
Keep a bottle on hand - it’s got about 3 weeks worth of life in the fridge - and use it on sushi as well!
More Recipes
While this is my first poke recipe here, I DO have a few poke-adjacent recipes for you!
DIY Sushi Birthday Cake
How to Make Sushi Rice
Mango Salad
Matcha Green Tea Pavlova
Pepper Crusted Tuna with Wasabi Cream Sauce
Potluck DIY Sushi Party!
Spicy Tuna Maki
Sushi Sauce Recipes - Dynamite, Eel, and Mango
Tuna Avocado Mango Maki
Note: This site is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for the site to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites. While I’ll only ever link to items that I, personally, wholeheartedly recommend, I do need to put that disclosure out there!
Now, on to that Tuna Mango Poke Bowl Recipe!
Tuna Mango Poke
Equipment
Ingredients
Marinated Fish
- ½ lb Sashimi grade Tuna
- 2 Tbsp Soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp Calamansi juice* or rice vinegar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
Low Carb Sushi “Rice”
- 1 small head cauliflower
- 2 Tbsp Seasoned rice vinegar
- 2 tsp Sugar
- 3/4 tsp Salt
For Assembly:
- Avocado
- Carrots shredded, julienned, or ribboned with a veg peeler
- Edamame defrosted and salted
- English cucumber sliced
- Green Onions thinly sliced
- Jalapeno slices
- Mango peeled and sliced
- Nori cut into small ribbons
- Purple Cabbage thinly sliced
- Watermelon Radish thinly sliced
- Sesame seeds
- Mango sauce
Instructions
For Marinated Fish:
- Trim tuna, if needed. Using a sharp knife, slice tuna into small chunks - ½" cubes or so. Place in a glass bowl.
- Mix together Soy sauce, juice, and sesame oil, pour over fish. Stir well to coat.
- Cover with plastic wrap, chill for 30 minutes.
For Low Carb Sushi “Rice”:
- Chop cauliflower into small florets, transfer to a food processor.
- Blitz until cauliflower resembles rice. Transfer to a microwave safe dish.
- Microwave for about 5 minutes - stirring every once in a while, until hot and cooked through.
- Mix together rice vinegar, sugar, and salt. Pour over hot “rice”, stir well to combine.
To Assemble:
- Divide warm “rice” between two bowls. (I like to use wide, shallow bowls for this).
- Arrange fruit, vegetables, and marinated tuna on top of the rice.
- Drizzle with Mango Sauce, sprinkle with sesame seeds.
- Serve immediately
Gosh this poke bowl looks amazing! I am a huge fan of mango with raw fish and mango rolls are some of my favourite sushi rolls. I need to find some sushi grade tuna because now I'm craving poke!
These looks great! I'm not brave enough to make raw sashimi at home