Hawaiian Poke Salad
Recipe Redux- May, 2013: Celebration Brunches
The month of May brings many celebrations: graduations, bridal showers, baby showers, birthdays, and even the celebration of dearest Mom. Here at Healthy in the Kitchen we have many reasons to celebrate, including the fact that this month marks our one year anniversary with the Recipe Redux! It has been a great year of recipe makeovers and we look forward to the many different, exciting food challenges in the year to come.
For this month’s Recipe Redux we are going island-style and will healthy-up a traditional Hawaiian dish often served at special celebrations – Poke salad.
Unfortunately, many Poke recipes have too much sodium. Typical recipes of 4-6 servings often suggest a 1/2 cup of soy sauce or more, which equates to over 7,000 mgs of sodium! With average Americans needing no more than 2,300 mg of sodium for the entire day, and certain groups (including those with high-blood pressure or diabetes, elderly or African-American) requiring a reduction to 1,500mgs/day, this is simply too much in one dish. For previous generations the salt was not used for the flavor, but instead for the preservation of the fish. Luckily we now have refrigeration, so we can reduce the salt and still serve safe, tasty seafood. That’s great news to our heart health and our tastebuds!
This recipe makeover uses tamari, which has a richer taste and less sodium than regular soy sauce. We used a low-sodium version to reduce salt even more. We skipped the rock salt that is also often added for garnish. For a boost of veggies, we added chopped mini cucumber, which nicely complements the tuna and helps to bring the calories down and the nutrition up per serving. Instead of macadamia nuts, for crunch we added chia seeds, to give our dish a boost of fiber (4 grams worth in the one tablespoon!) and Omega-3, an essential fatty acid.
Serve this dish at your next luncheon when it is time to celebrate.
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon Tamari, low-sodium, gluten-free
2 teaspoons Sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon Chili garlic sauce (O 1/2 teaspoon dried chili flakes)
1 teaspoon Ginger, fresh grated
8 ounces Tuna, sashimi grade, trimmed and diced
3/4 cup Mini cucumber, rinsed and diced
1/4 cup Red onion, minced
2 tablespoons Scallions, minced
1 tablespoon Chia seeds
1 tablespoon Scallions, green part only, sliced on the bias
1 1/2 cups Microgreens
PREPARATION
In a medium mixing bowl add the tamari, sesame oil, chili garlic sauce (or dried red pepper flakes) and ginger and whisk to combine marinade. Add the tuna, cucumber, onion, minced scallion, and chia seeds and stir to combine in the marinade with a rubber spatula. Cover and refrigerate at least an hour before serving.
To serve: add 1/4 cup each of microgreens to the bottom of 6 martini glasses. Use an ice cream scoop to pick up the poke salad and place on the greens. Top each salad with a few cut pieces of scallion.
Serves 6.
