Easy Shrimp Poke Bowl (With Spicy Mayo Sauce)

Why you'll love this recipe

• This colorful shrimp poke bowl recipe is a fabulous mix of textures and flavors that is pure fun to look at and eat, of course!
• A great way to use up leftover rice and veggies in your fridge.
• It is highly customizable so it’s easy to pick and choose the ingredients you like and leave out or replace what you or your family don’t care for.
• This is a perfect meal for sushi lovers! It’s like a deconstructed sushi roll but much quicker and easier to put together.
• A healthy meal using fresh vegetables, fruit and lean protein (shrimp).
• A balanced meal perfect for busy weeknights or meal prep lunch.

What is a poke bowl

Poke generally means raw cubed and marinated fish, typically tuna or salmon. It’s a traditional Hawaiian dish and it’s gained a lot of popularity in recent years. The word “poke” means to “slice” or “cut crosswise into pieces”.  Traditional Hawaiian poke is made with tuna or octopus.

Poke is often served on its own but in my opinion, the best kind of poke bowl is the one that’s a complete meal – served with rice, cooked and raw veggies, garnishes and drizzled with creamy spicy sauce.

Ingredient notes

This poke bowl combines cooled cooked ingredients (great way to use up leftovers!) with fresh fruit and veggies.

• Shrimp: I usually buy large wild caught raw shelled and deveined frozen shrimp which is the most versatile and relatively inexpensive. Just thaw the amount you need and boil in water until they turn pink. Medium shrimp will also work.
• Rice: white or brown rice will work. I used leftover white rice.
• Corn & Shelled Edamame: I always have bags of frozen corn and edamame in my freezer. Just steam them right in the bag and let cool completely. 
• Micro greens: any micro greens or small sprouts will work for this recipe.
• Pineapple: fresh ripe pineapple cut into chunks is best.
• Carrots: I use my julienne peeler to create long thin strips of raw carrot but you can also shred it or use matchstick carrots from a bag.
• Onions: sweet onion such as vidalia is what you’ll want because it has a milder flavor than other kinds of onion. Red onions will also work.
• Avocado: for creamy texture and a dose of healthy fats.

Garnishes and Toppings

• Pickled Ginger: it’s the kind of ginger served with sushi. You can get a jar in the international foods section at most grocery shops or online.
• Wasabi peas (optional): for extra crunch
• Furikake (optional): this Japanese seasoning is made with roasted seaweed, sesame seeds and spices. If you don’t have it, you can use crushed seaweed snacks and/or toasted sesame seeds (white, black or both).
• You can also top your bowl with crispy onions or wonton crisps.

Spicy Mayo Sauce

For this bowl I went with creamy Sriracha mayo that’s made with four ingredients and works very well with the shrimp pineapple combo.

Here’s what you’ll need to make it:

• Mayo: I like avocado oil mayo such as Sir Kensington’s but any mayo will work.
• Sriracha Sauce: the iconic hot sauce.
• Coconut Aminos (or Low-Sodium Soy Sauce): to add some umami flavor to the sauce.
• Mirin or Rice Vinegar: both are made with fermented rice. Mirin is sweetened Japanese cooking wine.

My Gochujang Aioli is another version of spicy mayonnaise sauce that will work great with homemade poke bowls.

Storage and meal prep tips

This shrimp poke bowl is a perfect meal prep dish that you can make ahead. Just arrange all the ingredients in airtight containers, store in the fridge and use up within 4 days.

It’s up to you if you want to add avocado and dress it right away or store the sauce and avocado separately and add to the bowl right before serving. It will be delicious either way.

Substitutions and variations

• If you don’t have a specific veggie, edamame or pineapple, just skip it or swap for something similar. Most fresh crunchy vegetables will work, including bell peppers or purple cabbage.
• For a low carb version swap regular rice with cooked cauliflower rice.
• If you don’t have fresh pineapple, fresh mango will also work well.
• For a vegan poke bowl, swap shrimp for cooked tofu and use vegan mayo in place of regular mayo.
• To make this poke bowl more fancy, use short grain rice and turn it into sticky sushi rice or just mix in a splash of mirin (or rice vinegar) to cold rice.
• For a gluten-free bowl, make sure to skip soy sauce and use coconut aminos or tamari.
• If you don’t like spicy food, replace Sriracha with lime juice in the sauce recipe.
• You can use hot or cold rice for this recipe.
• For a whole grain version, swap rice for quinoa or brown rice.

More healthy shrimp recipes

• Cajun Shrimp Salad
• Shrimp Yaki Udon
• Shrimp Tacos with Mango Salsa
• Creamy Tomato Coconut Shrimp

This post contains affiliate links.