What Is Poke And Why You Should Try This Dish

Poke is a Hawaiian dish made with fish, rice and vegetables. Today, learn about the health benefits of this popular fish salad and how to make it at home.

The Hawaiian dish, poke, is all the rage , and there is a reason for that: it’s very nutritious and healthy! In today’s article you will learn interesting facts about the delicious fish salad, which is also becoming increasingly popular in Europe and throughout America. It’s made with raw fish and various other ingredients that you can customize to suit your own tastes.

What is poke?

This Hawaiian word means “cut into pieces” and refers to the raw fish used in this recipe. Traditionally, the fish is marinated with soy sauce, sesame seeds and various other spices and then mixed with vegetables.

Different traditional variants are Aku, a recipe with yellowfin tuna and He’e, which is prepared with squid. But poke also tastes delicious with raw salmon or seafood .

Fresh vegetables, such as cucumber, seaweed, avocado, and onions , are typically used for this recipe . You prepare the fish salad in a bowl and then preferably serve it with white rice.

Poke can be prepared with seaweed, among other things. One of the main ingredients, however, is raw fish.

Interesting facts about the history of poke

The fishermen of various Hawaiian islands traditionally ate this dish, for which they used the freshly caught fish. After cleaning and peeling off the skin, they cut the fish into pieces by hand and preserved it in salt. They also seasoned it with limu algae and typical spices such as inamona (roasted and salted kukui nuts that are then ground). After a while in this marinade, they mixed the fish with vegetables.

In the course of time, the traditional recipe changed due to various influences from other places and different variations emerged. Japanese and Indian cuisine played an important role in this in the 1970s, as many immigrants from these two countries came to Hawaii at this time.

As a result, the recipe with salmon, soy sauce and rice became very popular. Today, poke is often found with almond milk, quinoa, kale, tofu, chia seeds or poppy seeds. Many other ingredients can also be combined excellently.

Poke, a delicious, nutritious dish

The Hawaiian fish salad not only tastes very refreshing, it also provides many different nutrients thanks to the healthy combination of ingredients. There is scientific evidence of the benefits of fish and seafood, which are excellent sources of protein and also provide very healthy fatty acids from the omega-3 family.

On the other hand, dried fruits and seeds also contain omega 3, 6 and 9, while the different vegetables provide fiber, iron and calcium. If you use chia seeds, the proportion of healthy fatty acids is particularly high.

For the vegetarian variant, you can use tofu instead of fish, which also provides important proteins. We definitely recommend trying this Hawaiian dish and adding it to your healthy eating plan on a regular basis.

How can you make poke?

There are different ways to prepare it, but today we went for a very simple recipe that comes from the book “The Poke Cookbook: The Freshest Way to Eat Fish”. Buy the ingredients you need and try this delicious recipe!

ingredients

For the marinade of the fish you need the following ingredients:

1 tablespoon sesame oil or 1 tablespoon white sesame seeds (soaked in water for 2 hours)
The juice of one lemon
1 slice of fresh ginger
1 tablespoon of soy sauce

To make poke you need the following ingredients:

3 tablespoons of cooked rice
100 g salmon
5 nuts
1/4 of a cucumber
1/4 of a purple onion
5 slices of a radish
1/2 avocado

As a seasoning and flavor enhancer, use three strips of the green part of a spring onion and a hot sauce.

Marinade the fish

First cut the salmon into cubes and put everything in a bowl.
Then add the lemon juice, soy sauce, sesame oil (or seeds) and the ginger slices.
Mix everything well and let the marinade work for at least 20 minutes.

Cover the bowl and put it in the refrigerator in the meantime.

Since you are processing raw fish, you need to pay particular attention to good hygiene.

You can easily make poke with just a few ingredients.

Preparatory steps

Start by chopping the onion and soaking it in hot water for 15 minutes to reduce the acidity.
Then cut the cucumber, radish and avocado into slices.
Then cut the green part of the spring onion.
Once you’re done, you can prepare the salad.

Preparation of the salad

First, put the rice in a bowl.
Then you put the marinated salmon on top of the rice and then add the cut vegetables.
Finally, you season everything with the hot sauce and garnish the fish salad with the nuts and the chopped onion.

Poke is fashionable and very healthy!

As you can see, making this healthy recipe is very easy. It provides important nutrients and tastes very tasty. Try this recipe and customize it to suit your own tastes. You can create many different variants and surprise your family or friends with them.