Plant-Based with Poke

Restaurants are starting to offer more and more plant-based dishes catering to a variety of specific dietary needs, including gluten-free and vegan-friendly options.

In recent years the Whole Food, Plant-Based diet has gained popularity. One of the major challenges people report when switching to a Whole Food, Plant-Based way of eating is the lack of options when eating out.

If you want to eat out on a Whole Food, Plant-Based diet, you will need to have a bit of creativity, do your research beforehand and be pro-active when it comes to contacting restaurants. You will find that some places may adapt to your needs.

Remember that one of the things on a Whole Food, Plant-Based is to minimize or avoid oils.

This is the major obstacle when eating out. It is relatively easy to find vegan and plant-based dishes (with oil and other processed plant foods), but finding Whole Food, Plant-Based dishes can be difficult. But, we have good news for you!

The one place to find a Whole Food, Plant-Based dish naturally is a Poke bar.

What is Poke?

Poke is actually a Hawaiian-based eating concept that originally included tuna. The tuna is part of the so-called Poke bowls, which is a layered dish with grains, tuna, salad and toppings.

In recent years there have been many variations to the original dish, and one of them is actually a 100% Whole Food, Plant-Based dish!

Note that not all Poke bars and restaurants offer the plant-based option, but you will find that many do! So what is in a WFPB Poke bowl, you may be wondering?

Common ingredients in a WFPB Poke dish

When entering a Poke bar, you will see that you can choose your own ingredients, from the base all the way to the sauces. This gives you lots of flexibility and the ability to opt for a WFPB dish. So what are some of the ingredients?

Starting with the base, you can usually choose brown rice or quinoa. Next is a protein-rich food. In this part of the dish, you can often choose to add tofu instead of meat-based products.

In the meantime you will also be asked which sauce you prefer. Most places offer a plant-based soy sauce (some even gluten-free soy sauce).

The colourful stuff is next, as you can choose from a range of vegetables including carrots, edamame beans, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, red cabbage and more.

To top it off, dried onions, sesame seeds and nori are often part of the options.

Again, note that each Poke bar is different, but in general we have found that it is very much WFPB-friendly. Have you tried it out yet?