What's The Best Tuna For Homemade Poke Bowls?

The poke bowl, which was once a simple Hawaiian dish of seasoned raw fish, has become super trendy and chock full of all kinds of delicious ingredients, like avocados, mango, rice, and a variety of raw veggies. But at its core, fish remains the anchor from which the recipe is built. Whether you plan on using seared tuna or raw for your homemade poke bowl, finding the right kind of tuna is absolutely vital. What you need is yellowfin tuna, also known by its Hawaiian name: Ahi tuna. But more than that, you need sushi grade yellowfin tuna.

Yellowfin tuna, which is not to be confused with bluefin, is milder in flavor, leaner, and has a firmer texture than its fattier cousin bluefin. While both types of tuna are used for sushi and sashimi, for your poke bowl, we recommend yellowfin for its texture and flavor. And it needs to be sushi or sashimi grade for safety reasons.

Sushi and sashimi grade are designations that let the consumer know the fish is safe to eat raw. But, strangely, there's no federal agency in the U.S. that determines which fish can be labeled sushi or sashimi grade — so if you see a label marking tuna as sushi or sashimi grade, that grade has been decided by the seller, not the government. Although it doesn't deal with the labeling, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does have guidelines for handling raw or undercooked fish. In the U.S., most fish that's served raw needs to first be flash frozen to kill any parasites. Yellowfin tuna is one of the exceptions, but if you do get it fresh, be sure it's sushi or sashimi grade and that you're buying it from a reputable source like a local fishmonger.

Even if you're lightly searing the yellowfin tuna for your poke bowl, it still needs to be sushi or sashimi grade. A light sear only cooks the outside of the fish, leaving the center still raw. And if it's raw, it really needs to be sushi or sashimi grade. Another bonus of choosing yellowfin tuna is that it tends to have less mercury — a neurotoxin that collects in fish — than bluefin tuna.

The name yellowfin describes the color of the tuna's actual fins, and not its flesh, which is pink or red. But don't be fooled into thinking the tuna's color indicates its freshness. Some tuna is cold smoked using carbon monoxide to keep its bright color, and may actually be less fresh than tuna with a brown tinge. Fresh yellowfin tuna shouldn't have any overly fishy smell and the flesh should be shiny and moist.

If you buy yellowfin tuna frozen, be sure the package is labeled sushi or sashimi grade and also look at the ingredients to make sure it doesn't have any additives or preservatives, such as sodium tripolyphosphate, which affects the tuna's texture. Once, the fish has been thawed, be sure to give it the same smell test you'd give fresh yellowfin tuna. If it smells off, don't eat it. Now that you know what kind of tuna you need and where to get it, you can elevate your homemade poke bowl with a quick, delicious addition of Trader Joe's Everything Bagel Seasoning Mix to your seared yellowfin tuna.