Quick Teriyaki Tofu Sushi Bowls

Sushi bowls are the ultimate meal after a busy day – healthy, flavour-packed and FAST to bring together. Try them with teriyaki tofu, teriyaki chicken, or simple tuna and mayo, and use pre-cooked sushi rice for even faster prep!

Why We Love This

Sushi bowls are the ultimate easy-mode dish you crave on busy weeknights. They’re super quick and so much fun to prepare, making them perfect for lunch or dinner. They’re also a great way to use up leftover ingredients while enjoying a super healthy yet flavour-packed meal.

It’s so easy to customise the basic recipe to suit your preferences or match what you have on hand. Use our recipe below as-is, or customise on the fly for a unique sushi bowl experience every time!

The best part? You can enjoy all the yummy flavour of sushi with zero fuss. There’s no rolling and no slicing required. Simply pop all your fav sushi ingredients in a bowl, top with a few garnishes and sauces (our recommendations below) and enjoy!

Related: Ganmodoki Tofu Patties / Hiyayakko Quick Cold Tofu Recipe

What are Sushi Bowls? 

Sushi bowls or sushi rice bowls are essentially deconstructed sushi. Instead of rolling sushi rice and fillings in nori seaweed, simply layer each ingredient into a bowl and top with your chosen garnishes. Easy!

They’re similar in essence to chirashi sushi (pronounced chirashizushi) also known as ‘scattered sushi’, which is often served for special occasions in Japan. The biggest difference is that chirashi sushi usually includes a few traditional Japanese ingredients like lotus root, burdock root, thinly sliced egg crepe (kinshi tamago) and salmon roe. 

Sushi bowls are also similar to Hawaiian poke bowls (‘poke’ meaning to slice or cut). Poke bowls are often made with raw diced fish and rice mixed with sauce.

What You’ll Need

• Rice – Sushi rice is the best choice of course, but you can always use jasmine, basmati or brown rice if you prefer. We like to cook up a big batch of sushi rice and store some in the freezer, making sushi bowls even quicker to prepare. 
• Veggies / Greens – Our favourite base veggies are cucumber, lettuce, carrot and avocado, but feel free to experiment here. We’ll sometimes add tomato, kale, spinach, steamed broccoli, snow peas or beans… the list goes on. It’s also a great way to use up leftover tray baked veggies like sweet potato, pumpkin etc.
• Protein – Go with our quick and easy teriyaki tofu for a vegan sushi bowl, or try it with any other protein. This is a great dish to use up leftover tuna in mayo from homemade sushi or diced teriyaki chicken. BBQ / rotisserie chicken works really well too to save on prep time. 
• Garnishes – We love topping our sushi bowls with pickled ginger, furikake rice seasoning, gomashio sesame salt, toasted sesame seeds or shichimi togarashi chilli powder. You could even try it with wasabi paste, takuan daikon pickles or crispy fried shallots for extra flavour and texture. 
• Sauce – Sarah’s creamy sesame mayo dressing is hands-down or favourite addition to sushi bowls – the salty/sweet/nutty notes in the mix help bring everything together. Otherwise, use kewpie mayo, goma dare, soy sauce or skip it.

How to make Sushi Bowls:

1. Place the sushi rice into serving bowls. Top with cucumber, lettuce, carrot and avocado slices.
2. Add teriyaki tofu or your other favourite protein.
3. Drizzle with sesame mayo and your choice of toppings such as furikake rice seasoning, pickled ginger and shichimi togarashi.

Wandercook’s Tips

• Use What You Have – We always recommend to use up whatever you have on hand before going out to buy special ingredients for sushi bowls. 
• Veggie Prep – 
  • Carrots – Julienne carrots are super easy to do with a julienne peeler like this one. Otherwise, just grate with a regular grater or manually slice them julienne if you’re keen on presentation.
  • Cucumber – No need to peel the skin or cut out the seeds first. 
  • Avocado – Cut into slices or mash with a fork, it’s up to you.

FAQs

Variations

• Sauces – Try it with simple soy sauce or a drizzling of ponzu (citrus soy) for a refreshing zing.
• Add Heat – Add a few drops of rayu sesame chilli oil or slather with spicy gochujang mayo.
• Proteins – Upgrade your sushi bowl with fresh sashimi tuna or salmon, or make it epic with crispy fried chicken karaage or chicken nanban. Use vegan proteins (such as mini tofu patties) to make vegan/vegetarian sushi bowls. 
• Add Vegetables – Serve with kinpira gobo (stir fried burdock and carrot), broccoli or beans.
• Presentation – Instead of dicing the lettuce leaves, leave them whole and arrange them around the edge of the bowl for an artful look. Or swap the whole leaves for slices of nori seaweed. 
• Save Even More Time – Keep frozen sushi rice on hand that you can reheat just before serving. Serve with rotisserie chicken or canned tuna (we prefer tuna in springwater or olive oil so we can add our own flavourings) to cut down prep time. You could even use a food processor to slice or chop the vegetables.

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