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Tuna Poke

Sashimi-grade tuna with sweet onion, seaweed, soy, sesame, and honey. Twenty minutes total — and best eaten almost immediately.

15 min prep · 5 min cook · 20 min total · 5 people
Quick Family favourite

Adapted from Serious Eats (J. Kenji López-Alt)

Ingredients

people
  • 12 oz sashimi-grade tuna (lean akami from the back/sides), cut into 1/2-inch cubes
  • 2 tsp dried wakame (~1 g)
  • 1 tsp dried hijiki (~0.5 g)
  • 3 oz sweet onion (Maui or Vidalia), cut into 1/4-inch dice
  • 1 scallion, thinly sliced
  • 1 tsp sesame seeds (white, black, or a mix)
  • 4 tsp soy sauce (more or less to taste)
  • 2 tsp toasted sesame oil (more or less to taste)
  • 1 tsp honey (more or less to taste)
  • 1 pinch crushed red pepper (optional, to taste) (to taste)
  • 1 pinch kosher salt (to taste) (to taste)
  • 1 steamed rice, to serve (optional) (to taste)

Steps

  1. Rehydrate the seaweed. Place the wakame and hijiki in separate small bowls, cover with boiling water, and let sit ~5 minutes until tender. Drain, press dry with paper towels, and roughly chop the wakame. Add both to a large mixing bowl.
  2. Combine everything. Add the tuna, onion, scallion, sesame seeds, soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, optional red pepper, and a small pinch of salt to the bowl. Gently fold to combine.
  3. Taste and adjust. More soy for salt, more honey for balance, more sesame oil for richness, more pepper for heat.
  4. Rest 5 minutes at room temperature so the flavours meld. Serve on its own or over steamed rice.

Notes

  • The tuna is the entire recipe. Use sashimi-grade fish from a market with high turnover (Japanese markets are best). “Sashimi-grade” isn’t regulated, so trust the source. Look for deep red lean cuts (akami) with little white connective tissue — those membranes turn chewy in cubes.
  • Sweet onion, sharp knife, don’t dice too small. Pungent compounds form when the onion’s cells are crushed — a dull knife or a too-fine dice turns sweet Vidalia into something acrid. Squat/flat onions are sweet; round/globe onions are pungent.
  • Don’t make ahead. Poke marinates badly. The fish gets mushy and the flavours muddy. Toss right before serving and rest only ~5 minutes — that’s the whole point.
  • Seaweed swap: if you can’t get hijiki or wakame, a sprinkle of furikake or torn nori works in a pinch.
  • Dressing variation — sub in homemade ponzu for the soy + honey combo. The citrus brightness plays especially well with tuna. See Homemade Ponzu Sauce — about 2 tablespoons of ponzu in place of the 4 tsp soy + 1 tsp honey works as a starting point.

My Notes

(your own tweaks go here)

tunaseafoodsaladhawaiianno-cookraw