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.

Another home run for Eric Kim! I (like other commenters) added a squirt of sriracha, and added sliced cucumber and red bell pepper on top of the rice before adding the tuna salad. I like it with both scallions and furikake. Note - Kewpie mayo really does make a difference! I've made this several times ... once I had some leftover salmon so used that instead of tuna - great!

I went in thinking this would taste awful and it is surprisingly nice! Great thing to do when you have leftover rice and not enough will to cook. Will definitely add other toppings next time as well.

Super easy and a hit with 3/4 of us. Leftovers were great with eggs with runny yolks and crisped up leftover rice for a super-proteinaceous breakfast.

Finally made this. It's delicious!! The only changes I made from the recipe as written is tuna in water and brown rice.

Eric Kim, you food magician you! This is another amazing dish, taking something seemingly mundane and making it special. The addition of soy sauce and sesame oil to the dish adds a punch that tones down the fishiness of the tuna. Very comforting recipe.

Terrifically satisfying and yummy meal. I strayed from Eric’s ingredients by using Massa Organics brown rice and including a bit of sliced avocado. Superb results!

Did it (again) tonight - thinly sliced celery in the mix and toasted sesame to finish- over spouted short grain brown rice- home run all around!

Chopped celery leaves on top for garnish- oh yeah!

Excellent variation of the tuna and rice bowls I ate pretty much every day as a broke college student (never mind how many decades ago), and still enjoy today. High quality tuna in water works just fine; I don’t miss the oil, because kewpie mayo (more than 2T for sure!), and the sesame and furikake are the perfect flavor direction. Scallions on top of course. Love the suggestions about flavoring the mayo with kimchi etc. and will definitely experiment many times.Thanks Eric!

Simple, comforting, delicious. Used the basic recipe as a starting point and took the suggestions of the other cooks in the comments section to enhance it. Layered on a plate: arugula, rice, tuna. Thinly sliced cucumbers and avocado around the sides. Topped with minced red onion, cilantro, homemade chili crisp and a splash of rice wine vinegar. Love, love, love. Will be in the “I just worked 13 hours and the last thing I want to do is cook” rotation. Thanks for sharing.

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!