If you love ordering sushi for takeout, you’ll love this Salmon Sushi Bowl even more. It’s loaded with marinated and baked salmon, crisp vegetables, rice, and a vibrant dressing. So fun, customizable, and an easy and flavorful weeknight meal.
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Baked salmon rice bowls
This Salmon Sushi Bowl is a fun, creative, and flavorful weeknight dinner. Just like Sushi Poke Bowls, these light and healthy rice bowls are topped with seafood, dressings, and all kinds of fresh and flavorful toppings. It’s just like your favorite sushi roll but so much easier and more fun to put together!
Making homemade sushi can be messy and difficult, and takeout sushi is not very friendly to our wallets. Thankfully, the ingredients and toppings in this salmon sushi rice bowl are all easy to find, flexible, and relatively inexpensive. It’s made with a few different layers:
- Cooked rice
- Marinated, baked, and shredded salmon
- Two different dressings
- And crisp, fresh veggies on top
The salmon is baked low and slow in the oven, giving you plenty of time to prepare the dressing and all of your favorite toppings. Add anything you like on top – this recipe is completely flexible!
Ingredient notes
- Rice – Any kind of rice will work here but brown rice or sushi rice are the best.
- Salmon – Bon Appetit recommends purchasing a center-cut salmon fillet with an even thickness to ensure it cooks evenly. As always, choose wild-caught salmon over farm-raised for the best possible quality and flavor.
- Salmon marinade – The baked salmon always turns out bright, tangy, and flavorful when it’s seasoned in an Asian-inspired marinade. For this recipe, a mixture of avocado and sesame oil, soy sauce, honey, ginger, and garlic is poured over the salmon before it heads into the oven.
- Soy lime honey dressing – This simple dressing is the finishing touch to add to your sushi bowls. It’s easy to make using sesame and avocado oil, garlic, ginger, honey, fish sauce, soy sauce, lime juice, and sriracha.
- Spicy mayonnaise – Kewpie mayonnaise, sriracha, and rice vinegar mixed together add a little spice and creaminess to the bowls. Kewpie mayonnaise is not only an insanely popular Japanese condiment but also the perfect choice for sushi bowls. It’s made only with egg yolks, rice vinegar, and MSG, giving it added flavors and richness compared to regular or homemade mayonnaise.
- Sushi bowl toppings – The toppings used in this sushi bowl recipe are similar to your favorite seafood sushi rolls. See below for all kinds of sushi bowl topping options.
How to cook salmon for sushi bowls
- Prepare the salmon: Pat the salmon fillet dry with a paper towel and place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Make the marinade: Whisk the avocado oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, honey, ginger, and garlic together in a bowl. Pour it over the salmon.
- Bake the salmon: Bake the salmon until it flakes easily with a fork. Prepare the dressings and vegetable toppings while you wait.
How to make sushi rice bowls
- Make the dressing: Whisk all of the soy honey lime dressing ingredients together in a small bowl or jar.
- Make the spicy mayo: Secondly, whisk the mayo, sriracha, and rice vinegar together in a small bowl.
- Assemble the bowls: Lastly, add the cooked rice to individual bowls and top with shredded salmon. Add your desired toppings, then drizzle with the lime soy dressing and spicy mayonnaise. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds, then enjoy!
Sushi bowl toppings
There is no limit to the amount of fresh and flavorful toppings you can add on top of salmon and rice bowls. Use these ideas to get started:
- Sliced avocado
- Persian cucumbers (or regular cucumbers)
- Green onions
- Packaged seaweed or nori strips
- Sesame seeds
- Pickled ginger
- Pickled red onions
- Shredded carrots
- Cilantro
- Ahi tuna
- Salmon roe
- Shrimp
- Seaweed salad
- Pickled radishes
- Wasabi
- Jalapenos
Frequently asked questions
The thought of sushi goes hand in hand with raw fish. However, these rice bowls aren’t like salmon sashimi. Instead, they’re topped with marinated baked salmon to expand on the depth and layers of flavor.
It’s up to you. The sushi bowls can be assembled immediately after the rice and salmon are done cooking, or you can let all of the toppings and rice chill in the fridge if you prefer cold sushi bowls.
I recommend preparing the salmon, rice, dressings, and toppings and storing them in separate containers in the fridge if you want to make the bowls ahead of time. The toppings will stay fresh for about 2 or 3 days and can be assembled right before serving.
More Asian-inspired seafood recipes
Did you try this Salmon Sushi Bowl recipe? Let me know what you think! Leave a comment or rate this recipe below. Don’t forget to take a picture and tag me on Instagram! I love to share all of your recreations!
Salmon Sushi Bowl
Ingredients
Salmon
- 1 1/2 lbs salmon center-cut
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- ⅓ cup soy sauce or use coconut aminos
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoons ginger grated
- 3 cloves garlic grated
Dressing
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- 1 clove garlic grated
- 1 tablespoon ginger grated
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce or coconut aminos
- 1 ½ tablespoons lime juice freshly squeezed
- 1 tablespoon sriracha sauce or to taste
Bowls
- 2 cups brown rice cooked or use sushi rice
- 1 avocado peeled and sliced, divided
- 2 persian cucumbers thinly sliced on the diagonal
- 3 green onions thinly sliced on the diagonal
- 4.5 g package seaweed halved and thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoon sesame seeds
- ¼ cup pickled ginger divided, optional
Sriracha Mayonnaise
- ⅓ cup mayonnaise kewpie or use regular
- 1 tablespoon Sriracha or to taste
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
Instructions
Make the Salmon:
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
- Pat the salmon dry and place it in a small baking dish lined with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the avocado oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, honey, ginger, garlic, and whisk until well combined. Pour over the salmon to coat evenly. Transfer the salmon to the oven and bake until the salmon flakes easily with a fork, about 25-30 minutes, depending on how thick your salmon is.
Make the Dressing:
- In a small bowl, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients. Set aside.
Make the Sriracha Mayonnaise:
- In a small bowl combine mayonnaise, sriracha and rice vinegar, mix well and set aside.
Prepare the Bowls:
- To serve, flake the salmon with a fork into large pieces. Serve over rice and garnish your bowls with avocado, cucumber, green onions, pickled ginger and nori strips. Drizzle with the dressing and sriracha mayonnaise. Sprinkle it with toasted sesame seeds. Enjoy.
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