How to make Tart London's seared tuna rice bowl

This is a ‘clean’ dish, the kind of food we could eat every day for lunch. We love the regimented order of a Japanese bento box — a traditional meal that holds single portions of either rice or noodles, meat or fish and pickled or cooked vegetables, all in separate compartments. The bento box covers essential food groups, from fruit and vegetables to grains and protein.

Taking inspiration from the bento box, we like to serve the components of this dish separately. If you go for a bit of everything, you’ll have a perfectly balanced meal — fresh, with crisp flavours, added creaminess from the avocado, nuttiness from the brown rice and a zing from the citrus.

We would suggest getting sashimi-quality fish for this, either from your local fishmonger or the Japan Centre near Leicester Square. Our next tip would be to prep all your extras — such as avocado, cucumber, sesame seeds, spicy mayo, pickled ginger, tuna or salmon — into little bowls. Then, you’re ready to go.

For the dressing, we’ve mixed ponzu (one of the most useful sauces we have in the cupboard) and shichimi togarashi, a Japanese spice mix of orange peel, sesame seeds, chilli pepper, nori, hemp seed and poppy seed. This is another useful one to keep in the cupboard; we get ours from Rooted Spices. If you don’t have the spice mix, you can use a little wasabi or cayenne pepper to give the dressing a kick.

200g tuna loin

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp sesame seeds

2 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

150g brown rice

Choice of:

Handful of edamame beans, tossed in olive oil and soy sauce

½ avocado, sliced

2 spring onions, sliced

1 red chilli, sliced

Handful of bean sprouts

Handful of cucumber, cut into matchsticks

1 tbsp seaweed

Small handful of coriander leaves and shiso leaves

1 tsp toasted sesame seeds

1 tbsp chopped peanuts

Pickled ginger

Lime wedges

For the dressing

100ml ponzu

½ tsp shichimi togarashi

Cook the rice according to packet instructions, then drizzle over the sesame oil and rice wine vinegar and leave to one side.

Combine the sesame seeds, salt and pepper on a plate.

Roll the tuna first in soy sauce and then in the seasoning, before cooking for 30 seconds each side (or until the sesame seeds are golden) in a little sesame oil over a high heat.

Thinly slice and set aside.

Mix together the ponzu and the shichimi togarashi for the dressing.

Arrange your bowl in sections: the rice, the tuna, then any toppings you wish, followed by the dressing.