Tuna Mayo Rice Bowl Recipe (2024)

This is a favorite lunch go-to at our house. I add sriracha to the mayo mixture, add a little rice wine vinegar to the rice, and serve with sliced cucumber and avocado. Toasted nori strips are a great addition too, makes me feel like I’m eating sushi.

This makes a wonderful and filling comfort bowl as is, but if you like kimchi please do yourself a favor and try mixing the tuna mayo with kimchi stir-fried in a bit of sesame oil (aka kimchi bokkeum)!

Wonderfully easy for someone who is just sick of (55 years)cooking. IMO this could be eaten warm or room temperature; any rice will do.

My wife is Japanese and this is Japanese comfort food that is eaten in our household a couple times a week by her and daughter. In Japanese it is called tsuna-gohan. We never use canned tuna stored in oil, only in water. My wife considers tuna canned in oil inedible. I often add chopped dill pickles and good quality canned corn to mine. And more mayonnaise. As in anything, good quality mayonnaise is a must.

Would canned salmon be good instead of tuna?

Microwave rice! It's fast and comes out right every time in 90 seconds! Comes in sticky and brown rice versions. You could use some of the flavored tuna options that are now available and throw in some cooked vegetable. As Jacques Pepin says, "Let the grocery be your sous chef."

Add a little rice vinegar to make this really pop!

This is comfort food for me--my mom is Japanese, and when my first child woke me in the middle of the night the day after her birth, this is what I made for myself. This is a common rice ball flavor in Japan, with the exception of the sesame oil, which I have never used. Also, use Kewpie mayonaise if you can! It makes a difference. Umeboshi (pickled plums) or umeboshi paste provides a contrasting tang, and spooning the rice and some tuna onto nori makes this an improvised hand roll.

At first glance I giggled seeing this recipe. At second glance, I was intrigued. In my bowl I guess I had my third glance, and I swooned. What a lovely and comforting meal we had last night. My base was warmed Sushi rice, and I also fanned some Avocado slices next to the delish Tuna mixture. Eric Kim is a treasure.

I like to add a squirt of Sriracha, and always some chopped green onions. I lived on this through law school.

Add some spring mix, baby spinach, or bok choy to the bowl & you have a perfect meal!

As Caroline mentioned, kimchi is a wonderful addition to this recipe. Other possibilities include thinly sliced cucumber, carrot, and perilla leaves to get your greens in, or a soft boiled egg, Asian pickles, or spicy sauce. Another thing — you can eat this wrapped in nori sheets as an alternative to sprinkling furikake on top if you’re craving that seaweed flavor.

To answer Mary Beth, I'm not sure of Eric Kim's intentions, but I would make the rice like sushi rice, finishing with rice wine vinegar on hot rice, then leave the bowl (covered) on the kitchen counter for 3-4 hours. That way, the rice would be cool enough not to cook the fish or any ingredients or add-ins but warm enough to have a silky texture. If I were using leftover rice, I would warm it for ten seconds in the microwave. The goal is room-temperature.

Never thought I’d see this recipe here! My mom used to make this for me growing up (Vietnamese household), and I still make it today. Incredibly comforting, cheap and easy thing for lunch. I sometimes make a batch of both rice and tuna so I can have an easy lunch for a few days. Looking forward to trying it with kimchi next time!!

This is delightful. Made a quick pickled onion in rice vinegar while the rice cooked. I served it with chopped cilantro, thinly sliced cucumber, and some avocado. The taste of the sesame – delicious! just wish that I had some pickled ginger on hand.

Made it tonight with a can of lightly smoked salmon from Trader Joe’s. Turned out great!

Filling, and not bad. I didn't grow up eating this, so it didn't have the nostalgia factor. Adding rice wine vinegar didn't help me like it better. If I have sandwich bread and dill pickles, I'd rather have a tuna sandwich.

Swapped the rice for some vermicelli noodles and added sriracha. Great meal

A bit dry, but adding some extra mayo helped. Otherwise, quite good.

This is so delicious and easy, and each time I make it, I take a look through the suggestions here while the rice is cooking. Someone suggested adding baby spinach; I wanted something less crunchy (and with less oxalates), so quickly sautéed a bunch of baby spinach as an addition, and it worked wonderfully!

A good basic recipe for a writer on deadline. We're partial to Kewpie or Duke's Mayo. Suggested additions: edamame, shredded napa cabbage, avocado, cucumber, cilantro, and a spoonful of chili crisp if you like it spicy. Season with shichimi togarashi.

I've made this twice now, both times on top of short grain brown rice. The first time I put way too much mayo, and it wasn't great. Second time I added the mayo more carefully, bit by bit, and it was much better. Toasted sesame seeds are a must, as well as roasted seaweed. A funner lunch than my usual, and super fast to prepare in the morning!

I added a bunch of edamame to mine! My grocery store sells them already boiled and salted. So easy and tasty.

What a great, fast lunch! I added some sliced avocados and WAM BAM THANK YOU MA’AM!!

Here’s an alternate seasoning for the tuna: Juice of half a lemon, red pepper flakes, salt, garlic powder, black pepper. The acidity really brightens the flavor!

The caretaker at my home told me he makes a dish with acan of tuna (white albacore) and one container of Jalapeño rice. The rice takes 90 minutes in a microwave. Mix together and voila, a meal!

I wasn’t sure I would like this. I love it. I’m anxious to try the suggested additions. Chef Kim is a treasure.

Added green onions, sesame seeds, and kimchi on top. Delicious and easy lunch!

This also works well on cooked beans, and takes well to also folding in any other Crunchy Things that you may want with the tuna (the end of a can of fried onions, hulled sunflower seeds, etc).

I’ve eaten this for years. It’s my go to meal when I haven’t got much to work with in the pantry. I used to almost live on this when I worked 60-70 hour weeks. I invested in a Zojirushi rice cooker in my twenties so I’d pop a cup of short grain Japanese rice in the pot, mix up my tuna, mayo and green onion, sprinkle furikake over the rice and top with tuna. It’s comfort food. Filling and not that spendy.