I run a Pathfinder game every other Sunday. We all bring some food they share for lunch. This week someone said he is going to do poke bowls.
I am looking for ideas of what to bring in place of the fish he is looking to do. I am not a huge fan of tofu, but all the recommendations I am seeing online are with tofu.
Part of the problem, I think, is I have never had a poke bowl. It sounds like they are basically a salad with rice and raw fish normally… which is probably why I never have had one, I have never seen a place that does them with a vegan or even vegetarian option.
This will sound strange, but trust me.
Blanch and peel tomatoes, quarter then and remove the core.
Marinade them in soy sauce, rice vinegar, and seaweed.
Same texture as the flesh of the innocent, but 100% less evil.
I like to think of poke as a sushi salad. I do eat fish, but if sustainable fish is unavailable or whatever, I’d just use Edamame instead. Edamame is a common topping to begin with and it’s literally just soy.
My personal favorite is Edamame, mango, corn, nori, cucumber, and avocado.
I like to think of poke as a sushi salad.
I was actually looking up ideas for sushi bowls before I posted here.
Marinated fish is used to add fat, salt, umami, and a hint of acid, maybe some funkiness, in a soft, lightly chewy texture.
Salt, umami, and savory acid can come from the marinade itself: soy sauce, vinegar, maybe some lactic acid from fermented/pickled vegetables.
Not every component has to come from the same ingredient, and the beauty of a bowl is that you just need to hit all the notes across all the ingredients.
So something like smashed marinated cucumbers, seaweed salad, pickled radishes, vinegared sushi rice, sesame oil, sesame seeds, seaweed flakes, will already hit a lot of the major notes expected in a poke bowl. The satisfying chew of marinated cooked mushrooms, tofu or other processed soy or maybe even edamame, seitan, or whatever your preferred textured protein is (vegan cheese substitutes can sometimes work, test the flavors for complementing the Hawaiian/Japanese leaning ingredients in the bowl).
In the end, poke bowls are rice bowls. Mix some flavors that work together, like modern Hawaiian combinations (drawing on Japanese, Chinese, Korean influence). Or get ambitious mixing stuff from other cultures and flavors.
This person has converted recipes before. I suspect they’ll do it again
Would beans be a good replacement protein?
If the consistency of the tofu is the problem, I find fried tofu to fix it.
Edamame tends to complement the traditional poke bowl flavors pretty well.
If it were me, and I wasn’t looking to use tofu, why not just do the rice/vegetables that would go in one? Things like Carrots, Avocado, Kimchi, cucumber, lettuce, pickled onions?
This is a standard weeknight meal in my house. We do a quick pickle on all the veggies. We add a little nori. No reason not to have a little mayonnaise based sauce, but I would add it at the end so the veggies don’t make it watery.
That is kind of where I am leaning.
Miso aubergine makes for a great star ingredient in a vegan poke bowl, but why stop there on the vegetables when pickled cabbages (red cabbage or kimchi), ginger and seaweed go so well.
I’ve had mushrooms used as a replacement where they are cooked to a dryer, denser texture although it wasn’t my favourite.
Maybe try jackfruit? They’re similar in consistency to meat. Just dont know how fitting they will be in poke bowls.
You can wrap tofu with nori and pour a lemon juice/ soy sauce mix with a little yellow mustard over the top and microwave for a couple of minutes. Chill in fridge while you prep other stuff. Does it wonders.
Gotta have pickled shredded daikon/carrots and toasted sesame seeds on it too.
Tempeh might be worth a try; it’d have a bit of a different vibe but I don’t think it would be bad. (Eggless) tempura sweet potato (or tempura anything really) would probably be bangin, but depending on what they’re already bringing it might be too samey.
I’d use pulled jackfruit.
