Garden Vegan Poke Bowl with Tofu & Watermelon Radish
A delicious, vegan take on poke bowls. This nutrient-dense, plant-powered Vegan Poke Bowl recipe is gluten-free, packed with plant protein, and easy to make!
Servings: 1 -2 servings
Ingredients
- ½ package Earthbound Farm Organic Rose Blend or roughly 3oz of your favourite salad blend
- ⅓ cup cooked short grain rice optional
- ½ cup extra firm tofu cubed*
- ½ ripe avocado diced
- ½ medium watermelon radish thinly sliced
- 1 mini cucumber thinly sliced (quick pickled if you’d like)
- ¼ cup wakame salad
- ⅓ cup shelled edamame beans
- Sauce optional
- ¼ cup gluten-free soy sauce
- 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- splash of rice wine vinegar
- Garnish
- sliced green onion
- toasted black and white sesame seeds
- shredded nori
Instructions
- To quick pickle cucumbers, thinly slice a mini cucumber with a mandolin and add to a small bowl with a pinch of salt. Let sit, and wait until the juices of the cucumber release (roughly 10 minutes) while you prep your other ingredients. In another small bowl, mix together a splash of gluten-free soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar and coconut sugar. After your cucumbers release liquid, squeeze out excess liquid and then add your sauce mixture to cucumbers.
- In a frying pan over medium heat, cook cubed tofu with gluten-free soy sauce and minced garlic. Using a spatula, make sure all sides of the tofu cubes are exposed to the frying pan and cook until all of the sauce is absorbed and the tofu is golden brown. Set aside.
- Assemble bowls, starting with a base of salad and rice if using. Add remaining toppings, and garnish with green onion, sesame seeds and nori if desired. Serve with sauce on the side if desired.
- (Optional step) To prepare penguin rice balls, prepare short grain, white sushi rice according to package directions. It's typically best to use a rice cooker for best results, and you want to work with rice when it's fresh. Once cooked, scoop out a cup or 2 and let cool down, closer to room temp. Cut seaweed shapes for penguin rice balls, or other animal shape of your choice. Use plain sheets of sushi nori and kitchen scissors. Using slightly damp hands, form rice balls using about 2-3 tbsp of cooked and cooled rice. Press firmly so that rice balls are tightly packed, but do not squish the rice too much (if you break the grains it will turn into mush). Stick seaweed pieces onto rice balls, rough side of the seaweed down. It should stick easily to the rice, but you can add a touch of water to the backside of seaweed pieces if not.
Notes
Secrets to Success
- The steps to making these poké bowls are actually very straightforward. For the most part, we’re simply assembling everything into bowls. How you do that is completely up to you! When cooking for friends, I like to group toppings together and arrange them atop the salad base, but when eating at home, I honestly just toss it all into a bowl. It’s best to mix it up before eating anyway for the perfect bite each forkfull!
- Feel free to add additional toppings and veggies of choice to your dish. Carrots, corn, red cabbage, and other plant-based protein like chickpeas or beans would also work. For more heartiness, you can add brown rice or quinoa as well.
- To prep your tofu, I recommend a quick pan-fry with seasoning of choice, but you can also choose to bake it in the oven if you prefer.
- If you’re interested in quick pickling your cucumbers, you can follow this simple recipe. I personally like to use a gluten-free soy sauce and coconut sugar.
- And finally, to season your bowl, you can drizzle a sauce on top for extra flavor. My personal favorite combo is a mix of gluten-free soy sauce (Tamari), rice wine vinegar, and a touch of toasted sesame oil. You can play around to find the combos you like or refer to the recipe notes. You can also add spicy sriracha sauce to kick it up a notch.