Creamy Coconut Rice and sweet mango slices give this healthy salmon bowl recipe a tropical vibe that we adore! With kids in the mix, we often serve “deconstructed meals” at dinner time — like our classic Salmon Bowl and our Salmon Sushi bowl, or even our easy Egg Roll Bowl— and these easy coconut rice salmon bowls are perfect for the nights when you need a fresh, healthy, customizable dinner.
With picky eaters and allergies, salmon rice bowls are a great way to make everyone at your table happy at dinner time. Plus, it’s a great recipe for meal prepping, too. For even more salmon dinner ideas, check out our Best Salmon Recipes!
Salmon Bowl Ingredients
For the salmon bowls:
Salmon. Wild-caught salmon is our favorite (and we love Sockeye best of all), but whatever salmon you love will work fine here.
Coconut Rice. It’s ready in 20 minutes, and it’s just so beautifully fluffy and sweet.
Mango. To check for ripeness, give the mango a little squeeze. Just like avocados, you should feel some yield, but it shouldn’t be mushy.
Persian cucumbers. We always buy these nice little cucumbers, because they don’t have to be peeled or seeded. Phew!
Avocado. Cool, creamy, we love how it adds just a little richness.
Edamame. Nutty and healthy, they add a nice texutre to the rice bowl.
For the sauce:
Full fat coconut milk. The low-fat stuff is just too watery.
Fish sauce. A Southeast Asian staple, and one of ours, too, it adds a huge depth of flavor to this rice bowl sauce.
Brown sugar. Just a hint of sweetness to balance out the other powerful flavors.
Soy sauce. Low-sodium soy sauce, or regular are both fine. If you’re gluten-free, it’s fine to use GF tamari.
Lime. Fresh lime only, please! You’ll need the zest and the juice.
Sriracha. If you’re worried it’ll be too spicy for the kiddos, just skip it or serve it on the side.
How To Make Salmon Bowls
Rice first! Making the coconut rice takes the longest, so tackle that first! Allow about 30 minutes start to finish. You could make the coconut rice a few days ahead of time, if need be, and store it in the fridge.
Cook the salmon. We bake it in the oven until the salmon flakes apart easily with a fork. Exactly how long it takes will depend a little bit on the thickness of your piece of salmon, but generally speaking, it’ll be done after about 15 minutes.
Make the salmon bowl sauce! This yummy, coconut milk sauce will go on the salmon while it bakes, and you’ll use some of it as a dressing for the entire salmon bowl, too. Meal prep folks: You could easily mix this dressing a few days ahead of time, too.
Slice, dice, chop the cucumber, mango, avocado, pepper and scallions.
Assemble the salmon bowls! Lay out all of the salmon bowl ingredients, and then let everyone assemble their bowls with the rice bowl toppings they love best.
Variations + Tips For The Best Salmon Rice Bowls
Make this salmon bowl even more kid-friendly by leaving the sriracha out of the salmon sauce and simply serving it on the side for the grown ups. You could even double up on the mango, too, since kids go crazy for fruit and we don’t mind if they gobble up lots of healthy mango.
Salmon rice bowls are perfect for meal prep, particularly if you don’t mind if the salmon isn’t piping hot. Cooked salmon will keep for a day or so in the fridge, and the coconut rice does, too, so you can easily make both of those a day ahead of time. Then, a few minutes before you're ready to serve the rice bowls, just do a little slicing and chopping, and dinner is served.
Quick tips for cooking salmon to perfection: Checking the thickest part of the salmon with an instant read thermometer, watch for 140°F on an instant read thermometer. When it hits 140°F, pull that salmon out of the oven!
Got leftover coconut rice? Congratulations! You can make Coconut Fried Rice for dinner tomorrow.
More Easy, Weeknight Salmon Recipes
Dinner Ideas, Plus So Much More
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