Name: Hawaiian Spicy Creamy Poke
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 1 lb. ahi tuna cut into half inch pieces; 1 Tbsp. coconut aminos (or gluten-free soy sauce in a pinch); 1/2 Tbsp. sesame oil; 1/4 C. chopped green onions; 1 chopped shallot; 2 Tbsp. sesame seeds; 2 Tbsp. homemade mayo; 2 Tbsp. siracha; Salt

This Spicy Creamy Hawaiian Poke recipe is easy and quick to make, super healthy and as tasty as it gets! A must-make for sushi lovers and great for a light dinner or lunch.

This year Brad and I decided we weren’t going to take a vacation this summer since we’re planning to remodel our kitchen this fall. Man, it sucks growing up and making grown-up decisions.

And when June rolled around and I started seeing everyone’s vaca photos pop up on social media, I really hated being a grown-up!

So I’m thinking this post will be a little like my virtual vacation to Hawaii this summer. Come with me and enjoy.

As you know, I’ve partnered with SF Bay Coffee several times in the past (for my Jamocha Almond Milk, Mustard + Shallot Salmon, and Grain-Free Mocha Granola) and I just love their company and what they stand for.

So when it came time to partner up with them for National Coffee Month, it was a no-brainer.

Why I love SF Bay Coffee:

As a food blogger you come in contact with so many companies and some have a message that resonates with me beyond the product and one of those companies is SF Bay Coffee.

Owned by the Rogers family, SF Bay Coffee is not only concerned about the quality of their product but the entire process.

From farm to cup and even down to the compostability of their single-serve One-Cups, each step of the process is conscious. Socially and environmentally. In fact, their motto is, “Coffee with a conscious”.

From ensuring farmers are paid fair wages i.e. fair-trade, to achieving carbon negative status and using earthworms to create organic, nutrient-rich fertilizer you can see how this mentality plays out in all steps of the process.

As well, through the Rogers Chairtable foundation they have built over 50 schools, dozens of kitchens and provide hot meals to families of farmworkers. You can see why supporting SF Bay Coffee is an easy choice for me and can learn more about how they’re helping famers HERE.

Who wants to go to Hawaii?

As part of our celebration of National Coffee Month, SF Bay Coffee is hosting a giveaway to visits Kona, Hawaii. Make sure to head over HERE now and enter to win. There’s nothing you need to purchase, just an old fashioned contest! Good luck!

Kona has a long tradition of coffee and SF Bay Coffee took a huge step in buying it’s own coffee farms there and more recently have opened it’s first coffee bar there. You can see more about the history of Kona and coffee HERE. I loved watching and learning from this video. I find it interesting that something we drink every day (coffee) we actually know very little about.

Hawaiian Poke recipe – a tropical mini vacay in a bowl!

When it came time to create a healthy recipe that I felt represented SF Bay and their Kona story I thought back to my last trip to Hawaii and what I ate.

Two things came to mind… this banana freeze thing I had and poke. The banana freeze that I had was what we all now know as “n’ice cream”. It’s literally frozen banana pressed through an industrial juicer and it comes out like frozen yogurt. But banana ice cream has already been done and I (and most likely you) don’t have an industrial juicer.

So I thought about the poke bowls I had. And it was a lot of poke. We were staying at a house so we grocery shopped and I loaded up on the stuff. I was also struck with how many varieties there were. My favorite was a creamier, spicy one.

I felt like a fresh, healthy poke bowl recipe would perfectly represent the kinds of food I make while representing the Hawaiian cuisine and the story of Kona.

What is Hawaiian Poke?

Poke is a famous Hawaiian raw seafood salad. A bit like a cross between sushi and ceviche. It is made with marinated sushi-grade rare tuna which is tossed with some kind of marinade.

Poke (pronounced “poke-ay”) gets its name from the way it is prepped. In Hawaiian, Poke means “to slice or cut” in Hawaiian. This healthy raw tuna dish was ‘invented’ by fishermen, who would toss the cut-offs from their daily catch with some condiments whilst still on their boats, and eat them.

What is a poke bowl?

A poke bowl consists of the marinated fish (poke, see above) served with some veggies, seeds, fruit and brown rice. Think of it as a deconstructed spicy tuna sushi roll served in a bowl.

My recipe is without rice, so just the poke. But you can feel free to serve it as a bowl with rice. Or go low-carb and add cucumber noodles or even cauliflower rice.

So easy and quick to make, super healthy and as tasty as it gets! A must-make for sushi lovers and it’s great for a summery light dinner or lunch.

How to make Hawaiian Spicy Creamy Poke:

I have to confess, when I first decided to make a poke I was a little nervous. I’m not sure if it was the raw fish or the fact that I hadn’t made one before.

But I’m here to tell you this is one of the easiest dishes I’ve ever made. Pretty much all you do is chop the ahi tuna, add the additional ingredients and toss it together. That’s it!

It’s absolutely perfect for warmer months when turning on the oven isn’t an option. If you love sushi this poke bowl recipe is a must-have.

Tips for making Hawaiian poke:

I recommend making your own mayo for this poke recipe. You can find my 30-Second Mayo recipe HERE.
And lets talk siracha. Fortunately there’s a few different types of clean searches available now. Whole Foods Market has several. Make sure to read your labels and find one with ingredients that you’re comfortable with. Most will have a bit of sugar in them, rendering them NOT compliant for your Whole30. However, if you’re doing a WHole30 and you’d still like to try this poke recipe out, just add any hot sauce that IS compliant. Trust me, there are plenty!
For Whole30, make sure to stick with the coconut aminos and NOT the gluten-free soy sauce.

I hope you give this easy Hawaiian poke recipe a try and make sure to check out SF Bay Coffee to join their Kona Giveaway Sweepstakes!

Variations on this Hawaiian Poke recipe:

This poke recipe works really well with salmon, crab, octopus, albacore or yellowtail.
If you are not huge on raw fish, try this poke bowl with cooked shrimp.
For a vegetarian poke, swap the tuna for tofu.
Freestyle it and add some avocado, radishes, mango, pineapple, watermelon etc.
Turn this into a poke bowl my serving the poke over rice.

overhead shot of a creamy and spicy Hawaiian Poke Bowl

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