Teriyaki salmon rice bowl with spinach & avocado. Tender broiled salmon glazed with homemade teriyaki sauce on a bed of sushi rice, with spinach, sliced avocado and a sprinkling of toasted sesame & nori confetti.
I have a thing for rice bowls. There are many delicious rice bowls on Panning The Globe. And though I love them all, I have to say this teriyaki salmon rice bowl is my favorite. As many times as I make this recipe (often!), it’s always a treat.
I also love that this bowl is filled with nutritious ingredients. There’s Omega-3 fatty acids from the salmon and a good dose of iron & fiber from the spinach.
It has the gestalt of sushi but the salmon is cooked, the nori is toasted and sprinkled on top and everything is drizzled with tasty homemade teriyaki sauce.
INGREDIENTS FOR HOMEMADE TERIYAKI SAUCE
Teriyaki sauce has 5 ingredients:
- soy sauce,
- mirin (rice wine)
- sugar
- garlic
- ginger
Simmer for ten minutes until slightly thickened and you’ve got delicious homemade teriyaki sauce.
TERIYAKI SALMON
Once the sauce has cooled, set some aside to baste your salmon. Baste the salmon before it goes into the oven and again halfway through cooking time.
Japan always ranks high for countries with the best longevity. This has been attributed to the fact that their diet is generally low in fat, with fish being the most common form of protein.
The tradition of serving seasonal vegetables with steamed rice, fish and other tasty things from the sea such as nori, has been central to Japanese cuisine for thousands of years.
SESAME-NORI CONFETTI
This sesame-nori confetti is one one of my favorite recipe innovations. It adds great flavor and beauty to this dish.
MAKE AHEAD TIPS
If you want a quick weeknight teriyaki salmon rice bowl dinner, make the teriyaki sauce and toast the sesame seeds and nori in advance – you can keep both in airtight containers in the fridge for a week or so. The rice and salmon are best cooked fresh.
SUBSTITUTIONS
This is a very adaptable recipe. Eat it hot, cold or at room temp. Try it with different vegetables like sautéed snow peas, sugar snap peas or asparagus (cut on the diagonal into bite-sized pieces). Use tofu, chicken or beef instead of salmon. Make a teriyaki salmon rice bowl with short grain brown rice instead of white, for a big boost in fiber.
I’m sure you can think of lots of other variations – let me know if you come up with something really good!
TWO MORE DELICIOUS JAPANESE RECIPES FROM PANNING THE GLOBE
- Yakitori Chicken: Japanese Grilled Glazed Chicken and Scallion Skewers
- Sukiyaki: Japanese Hot Pot with Beef, Tofu, Rice Noodles and Vegetables
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Here’s the Teriyaki Salmon Rice Bowl Recipe. If you try this recipe, I hope you’ll come back to leave a star rating and a comment. I’d love to know what you think.
PrintTeriyaki Salmon Rice Bowl with Spinach & Avocado
This Salmon Teriyaki Rice Bowl has broiled salmon glazed with homemade teriyaki sauce, on a bed of sushi rice, with spinach and sliced avocados. It’s topped with a festive confetti of toasted sesame seeds and nori.
- Prep Time: 45 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 mins
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Lunch, brunch or dinner
- Method: Broil and Sauté
- Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients
For The Salmon:
- 1 pound salmon fillet cut into 4 thin portions (skin on is fine)
For the Teriyaki Sauce
- 3/4 cup soy sauce
- 3/4 cup Mirin (rice wine)
- 1/2 cup sugar (white or brown)
- 1 teaspoon finely minced garlic (optional)
- 1 teaspoon finely minced ginger (optional)
For The Toasted Sesame Nori Confetti:
- 1 8-inch square sheet of Nori, cut with a scissors into 1-inch strips. Stack the strips and cut crosswise into 1-inch by 1/4-inch confetti.
- 2 tablespoons of black or white sesame seeds, or a mixture of both
For the Sushi Rice:
- 2 cups sushi rice (short grain rice)
- 2/3 cup homemade seasoned rice vinegar (see ingredients below) or you can buy seasoned rice vinegar in the Asian section of your grocery store.
Ingredients for homemade seasoned rice vinegar (skip this step if you’re using store-bought seasoned rice vinegar)
- 1 cup rice vinegar
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
For The Sautéed Spinach:
- 20 ounces fresh spinach, washed
- 1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil
- Kosher salt
Garnishes:
- 1 bunch scallions, washed, trimmed, and sliced crosswise
- 1 Avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced
Instructions
- Make the teriyaki sauce: In a small saucepan bring soy sauce, mirin, sugar, garlic (if using) and ginger (if using) to a gentle boil. Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
- Toast the nori & sesame seeds: Toast nori and sesame seeds in a hot skillet for a minute or two, stirring and tossing constantly just until sesame seeds start to get a little brown. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- Make the sushi rice: Rinse the rice to remove excess starchy powder by putting the rice into a large bowl and covering it by an inch with water. Swish rice around with your hands. Pour off the cloudy water. Repeat 2 or 3 times more. Drain rice in a fine mesh colander and cook per package directions. (about 2 1/2 cups water per 2 cups rice and a 15 minute simmer, covered) Remove rice from heat and let it sit, covered, for 10 minutes.
- Make seasoned rice vinegar: (skip this step if using store-bought seasoned vinegar) in a small saucepan bring rice vinegar, sugar and salt to a gentle simmer. Cook, stirring, until sugar and salt are dissolved. Transfer rice to a large nonmetallic bowl. Measure out 2/3 cup of seasoned rice vinegar and slowly pour it over the rice, while tossing and mixing it. Cover bowl with a clean cloth and set aside.
- Cook the spinach: Heat 1 tablespoons sesame oil over medium heat in a large skillet. Add spinach and 2 tablespoons water to the pan. Cover pan and leave it for 2 minutes. Uncover and stir. Spinach will be mostly wilted. Cook, stirring for about a minute more until it is completely wilted. Sprinkle with a pinch or two of salt. Remove from heat.
- Cook the salmon: Preheat oven to broil and set the rack 8 inches from the top. Place salmon skin-side down on a foil-lined jellyroll pan. Pour 1/4 cup of teriyaki sauce into a separate small bowl to use for glazing the salmon. Brush salmon with teriyaki sauce and cook for two minutes under the broiler. Pull salmon out of the oven and brush more teriyaki sauce on top. Return to the oven and cook for 1-3 minutes more, to your desired doneness. Better to undercook it slightly as it will continue to cook a bit even after it’s out of the oven. Remove from oven.
- Assemble rice bowls: Put rice and spinach in the bottom of a bowl. Lay salmon on top. (skin will peel off easily, if you prefer it skinless) Garnish with avocado slices. Sprinkle with scallions and nori-sesame confetti. Drizzle with teriyaki sauce. Repeat for each bowl.
Notes
Nutrition Note: This recipe makes a generous portion of rice and teriyaki sauce. You will likely have some left over. The nutrition label assumes you will be consuming all the rice and teriyaki sauce. For special diets, calories, carbs and sodium levels can be lowered substantially depending on the amount of rice and sauce you add when assembling the bowls.
Keywords: teriyaki salmon with spinach and sushi rice, salmon bowl with sushi rice, spinach and avocado
[Published April 8, 2014; updated May 15, 2018 – Same delicious recipe with added nutritional information]
We were inspired by a friend who made this meal. It was delicious. When we made it we decided to add a few additional ingredients that we love about poke bowls—small mango cubes, edamame, and pickled ginger. We also substituted barley for the rice—totally works for texture and it absorbs the teriyaki sauce perfectly. Will be making this again over and over. Thanks Lisa…perfect.
★★★★★
I love the additional ingredients you used – especially the mango. And I’m intrigued with the idea of using barley. Thanks for your note Ross. I’m so happy you enjoyed!
Astonishingly easy and delicious! Even my husband, historically not a fan of salmon, gave compliments. The teriyaki sauce was more than enough for this recipe and I will happily use the rest to make chicken, vegetable, and other entrees.
★★★★★
I’m so glad to hear this Rekha! Even won over your husband despite his lack of enthusiasm for salmon – that’s success 🙂 Thank you for letting me know. I hope you enjoy all your other Teriyaki creations.
My daughter in law requested this type of recipe for her 38th Birthday dinner! I came upon your recipe and it looked so beautiful and adaptable. It turned out delicious and everyone raved about it! It was my first time making a rice bowl. I substituted Bok choy for the spinach, and added pickled julienne carrots too. The seasoned rice was phenomenal! Oh ya, I did take a short cut and bought a jar of Furikake! Thanks so much for the recipe!!
This looks like such a hearty bowl of salmon, great for comfort food!
★★★★★
This is a delicious dish! I didn’t season the rice, but followed the rest of the recipe. My son said, “I’m angry that I’ve spent 17 years on this earth and am just now eating this for the first time..” 🙂 Adding it to the rotation. Thank you!
★★★★★
Merry, this is my favorite comment of all times – your son has a way with words! I’m really glad you all enjoyed 🙂
I now know how to make white rice flavorful, thank you. The teriyaki sauce was wonderful, very light and not too sweet compared to most, though I may reduce the sugar even more next time – definitely something we’ll re-use in other meals. I should note, the mirin was hard to find so we substituted with half rice vinegar and half drinking white wine.
I had no trouble understanding the recipe and I usually struggle with that, but I will warn any other lazy cooks out there: you may have more than one pot going at a time. We’ll avoid this next time by buying seasoned rice vinegar and easier to make/precooked rice and see if it comes out as tasty.
The Teriyaki sauce is wonderful. So light and great flavor. THANK YOU.
★★★★★
One of my favorite go-to recipe and so flexible too. I add whatever I have on hand – shredded carrots, julienne daikon for added color, edamame beans, micro greens etc. thank you for sharing!!
★★★★★