Buzz
The beauty of the modern poke bowl lies in its versatility. Choose your fish, sauce, and a few pickled ingredients, and you've created a vibrant, appealing bowl of rice, protein, and vegetables. However, for those who don't consume fish, it can be a bit tricky to find a suitable option.
While 'vegan poke' may seem like a contradiction, especially considering that poke originally focused solely on fish, a poke bowl allows for more flexibility. In some cases, chain poke restaurants offer tofu as a fish substitute, and Trader Joe's now carries a beet-based vegan poke.
Instead of cooking and marinating the beets separately, I decided to combine both steps using my immersion circulator. I added cubed beets with a dash of soy sauce and sesame oil, crumbled in a four-ounce package of dried seaweed, sealed the bag, and set it in a water bath at 185℉.
The beets that emerged from the vacuum bag were soft but not overly so—savory with a hint of earthiness and a subtle ocean-like taste, thanks to the addition of seaweed. Although asking a vegetable to mimic fish might be a stretch, I decided to enhance the savoriness further, so I sprinkled in a little MSG to make the beets feel heartier, allowing them to take center stage in the rice bowl without competing with the other vegetables.
Why use sous vide?
While boiling the beets and then mixing them with sesame oil, soy sauce, and other ingredients works, sous vide cooking simplifies the process. The consistent temperature of the water bath cooks the beets evenly, giving them a perfectly tender yet firm texture while gently infusing them with the flavors of the seasonings. Once done, you can leave the beets in the cooking bag until you're ready to assemble your bowl.
This isn't a full-fledged recipe, but more of a guideline.
I purposely kept the ingredient list simple. I appreciate the natural flavor of beets and didn’t want to overwhelm them, but feel free to add anything you like to your vegan poke bag. You could toss in sliced scallions, ginger, miso paste, or even hot sauce. Just remember to top it off with MSG—the glutamate adds a meaty flavor that's absent in root vegetables, turning them from a side dish into the main attraction.
Vegan beet poke cooked using the sous-vide method
Recipe Components:
7 ounces of peeled beets, chopped into 1/2-inch cubes (for a more tuna-like vegan poke, use chioggia beets)
0.4 ounces of roasted seaweed sheets (one package from Trader Joe’s)
2 teaspoons of toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
MSG for seasoning to taste
Start by filling a pot or tub with water and securing your immersion circulator. Set the temperature to 185℉. Toss the beets in sesame oil and soy sauce, then crumble in the seaweed. Vacuum seal the mixture in a bag, ensuring it's spread evenly in one layer. (Alternatively, use a quart-sized freezer bag and apply the water displacement method to remove excess air).
Submerge the bag into the water bath and cook for a minimum of one hour, or up to three hours. Once done, remove the bag, dry it off, and chill it for at least an hour before serving. Adjust the savoriness with a pinch or two of MSG, then serve over rice, complemented by your preferred poke toppings.
Our top picks for immersion circulators:
Best value: Anova Nano
The tried-and-true favorite: Anova Precision Cooker
Stylish and compact with a fun app: Breville Joule
