This bright and flavorful Thai tuna power bowl is a healthy lunch recipe you can prepare during the weekend for nutritious lunch during the work week.
Confession time.
I rarely ever eat lunch anymore. Many people have this conception that food bloggers must eat really good food all the time. This is both true and untrue when it comes to dessert and baking bloggers. We tend to be elbow deep in cake and pie and that’s usually what we end up eating during lunch. At least that’s what I end up doing. And although cake is delicious, it isn’t exactly a real lunch.
My daughter is easy; she wants the same things every day. A protein, usually chicken or fish, white rice or quinoa, and carrots of broccoli. That’s what she wants every day for lunch and dinner so it’s pretty easy for me to prepare food for her in advance.
I tend to not even think about what I will have until I look up and it’s already 2:30pm and I haven’t eaten anything besides yogurt 6 hours ago. This year one of my guiding words is intent. So I am trying to be more intentional about what I do. This includes being intentional with making sure I eat a healthy lunch that isn’t smothered in chocolate (but I usually do have a taste as a lunch dessert kinda situation).
I’ve taken to trying to do some lunchtime meal planning and have been loving power bowls which are bowls filled with whole grains, veggies, protein, and lots of delicious flavor. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, although I am sure I have, but Thai is my favorite food. I go crazy over Thai food, especially chicken satay and pad thai.
My house is obsessed with tuna. We always have cans and pouches of tuna in the house and heaven help us if we ever run out of tuna. Before when I wanted a decent lunch, I would eat tuna with crackers, but I wanted something more, so I decided to use it to make a Thai tuna power bowl.
And guys, It’s delicious.
It’s the kind of bowl that I can eat for lunch and dinner and not be tired of it. And I am only saying this because that’s exactly what I did for a week. I ate this Thai tuna power bowl for lunch and dinner for exactly seven days straight - and that's only because I ran out of zucchini.
I’m only slightly embarrassed about this cause it’s just too good. It’s got so much texture and crunch and the Thai peanut dressing is creamy and a little spicy and has a nice balance of flavors to bring umami to the bowl.
What really makes this bowl is the Bumble Bee Solid White Albacore. We usually buy Bumble Bee tuna because the quality is really great, especially with their solid white albacore. This is actually the tuna that I tend to reach for at the grocery most of the time because I love the way it tastes.
It’s fresh and meatier and doesn’t have an overpowering scent that I find many other tuna brands have. And honestly, I just prefer the way it looks. I love the white chunks of tuna when you open the can. It is so much more appealing to look at and makes eating tuna feel cool again.
Below is the main recipe for the Thai tuna power bowl. I also included recipes for the garlic roasted chickpeas and the Thai peanut dressing. Both of these additional recipes will give you enough to be able to make this Thai tuna power bowl all week. Provided you don’t have it for dinner all week, too!
Thai Tuna Power Bowl
Ingredients
- ½ cup cooked quinoa cold or room temperature
- ½ cup spiralized zucchini
- 1 small carrot spiralized or cut in matchsticks
- ¼ cup chopped red cabbage
- 2 tablespoons diced red onion
- ¼ cup roasted chickpeas recipe below
- 1 5.5 oz can Bumble Bee® Solid White Albacore drained
- Cilantro for garnish
- Juice of one lime
- Simple Thai peanut dressing recipe below
Instructions
- Place the quinoa at the bottom of the bowl.
- Top with the spiralized zucchini noodles, carrot, cabbage, onion, chickpeas, and albacore tuna.
- Top with cilantro, then squeeze the lime juice over the bowl. Add as much Thai peanut dressing as desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Garlic Roasted Chickpeas
Ingredients
- 1 14 oz can chickpeas
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Pat dry and place in a bowl.
- Mix together the chickpeas, oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
- Place the chickpeas in a single layer and roast for 20 – 25 minutes, or until a nice golden brown.
- Allow to cool completely at room temperature. Store in an airtight container for up to three days. You will have enough for a few more Thai tuna power bowls.
Nutrition
Thai Peanut Dressing
Ingredients
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 ½ tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon ginger paste
- ¼ teaspoon fish sauce
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Water as needed
Instructions
- Mix together all of the ingredients except the water together and whisk well.
- Slowly add the water to the peanut butter until it reaches a nice creamy consistency about the thickness of heavy cream.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week. You will have enough to make enough Thai tuna power bowls for the week!
Karen says
Just made this for lunch- was such a hit!!! Everyone loved it- was delicious, quick, easy and healthy!!! Will def be making again!
Amanda Powell says
Oh, I am so so happy to hear that!! Thank you for sharing, I hope you have a wonderful week ahead!
Cami says
Ok obviously I'm finding this page years after you posted it, but I can't see an actual recipe/post? It sounds super yummy, though, and I'm trying to find ways to use my back stock of canned tuna... help!
Amanda Powell says
Hi Cami! I am seeing the recipe on my end - can you tell me what device you are looking at it from?
Jon says
I'm currently on a Macbook using Chrome, and I can't see the recipe either. When I search the title in google though, google gives a preview of the text in this article, as if there is content but when I open it all I can see is the comments section.
Amanda Powell says
That is strange. When you come to the page, do you see just the comments? Or do you see the body of the post and photos, but not the area where the recipe is? Any information you can provide will allow me to troubleshoot the issue!
Amanda Powell says
Hi! So after some work, we discovered it is due to an issue with ad blockers not loading certain pages. The easiest thing would be to remove the ad blocker temporarily and refresh the page
Spadlo says
Yeah I thought the same thing — where is the recipe?
It’s impossible to read your page it’s so advert heavy. Because of that I probably won’t be back. But thanks for the tips.
Amanda Powell says
Thank goodness there are plenty of other websites to turn to!
Kelsey says
I'm having the same issue. I tried Chrome and Firefox. I just see the 'about' info and the comments.
Amanda Powell says
I am still unable to duplicate the issue, and my tech support needs more information for us to resolve it. Are you using mobile or desktop? Are you using an ad blocker?
Amanda Powell says
Hi! So after some work, we discovered it is due to an issue with ad blockers not loading certain pages. The easiest thing would be to remove the ad blocker temporarily and refresh the page
Amanda Powell says
Hi! So after some work, we discovered it is due to an issue with ad blockers not loading certain pages. The easiest thing would be to remove the ad blocker temporarily and refresh the page
Jeanine says
Hi, I'm also trying to find the recipe for Thai Tuna Power Bowl. I removed the ad blocker and refreshed the page, but it's not showing up. I'm on a Mac using Chrome.
Amanda Powell says
Hi Jeanine, you might have to clear your cache then. Unfortunately, since this seems to only be an issue on this particular recipe, there isn’t much my tech guys can do on their end as we don’t know why the ad blockers don’t like this particular recipe!
marla says
Gonna pick up some Bumble Bee tuna today!
Amanda says
Yay! I hope you like it as much as I did! 🙂
Medha @ Whisk & Shout says
So many pretty colors! This bowl looks so satisfying and I am a sucker for anything with peanut dressing on it 🙂
Amanda says
It is my favorite new lunch! I think the peanut dressing is my favorite 🙂