This Easy Tuna Rice Bowl takes just under 30 minutes to prepare. With a garlic fried rice base, this recipe adds a Filipino-flare that’s both flavorful and filling!

Ingredients

This rice bowl uses garlic rice, flaked tuna, and a simple sauce made with sriracha, soy sauce, ketchup, calamansi (can substitute with lime or lemon juice), brown sugar, and black pepper.

instructions

Start by making your garlic rice by first frying garlic until golden and mixing in cooked white rice until combined. Then combine the garlic rice, flaked tuna, and the sauces together. Mix, top with a fried egg, cucumber, chicharon, and serve!

Quick Tips

For greater ease, you can choose to skip the garlic fried rice step and just use plain rice right away. You can also add mayonnaise to the rice to make it creamier and rich!

Storage

This can stay good for up to 1-2 days stored in an airtight container in the fridge.

Ingredients and Substitutions

Cooked white rice, garlic: We’ll be using these ingredients to make our garlic fried rice.

Substitutes: You may also skip this step and just use plain rice right away!

Flaked tuna: Go for any brand of your choice. You can also go for tuna soaked in either water or oil.

Substitutes: Tuna can be replaced with any fish of your choice such as salmon, cod, haddock, or mackerel.

Sriracha, soy sauce, banana ketchup, calamansi juice, brown sugar, black pepper: These will make up the rice bowl sauce that’s lightly sweet, savory, and tangy.

Substitutes: You can omit the sriracha if you’re not a fan of spice, or replace it with chili oil if desired. Banana ketchup can be replaced with standard western ketchup. Calamansi juice can be replaced with lime or lemon juice. You can also adjust the brown sugar to taste.

Fried egg, cucumber, chicharon: These are the toppings to elevate your rice bowl! The egg yolk adds richness, the cucumber provides freshness, and the chircharon lends a textural crunch that pairs perfectly with the soft rice.

*You might notice in the photos that I used tomatoes, but you can omit this since I found it might add too much moisture to the rice.

Filipino Spicy Tuna Rice Bowl with cucumbers, calamansi, and tomato

Instructions

Prepare the garlic rice by heating the oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add in the garlic and fry for 1-2 minutes, or until golden in color. Add in the rice and stir to combine. Fry for an additional 1-2 minutes and set aside.

*Note: You may also skip this step and just use plain rice right away!

In the same pan you can also fry an egg, if desired, for the topping. Set aside.

To assemble, add in the garlic rice, tuna, sriracha, soy sauce, banana ketchup, calamansi juice, brown sugar, and black pepper in a medium-sized bowl. Mix well until evenly combined. Taste and adjust according to preference.

Top with the fried egg, cucumber, and chicharon. Enjoy!