20 Easy Hawaiian-Inspired Recipes With Big Island Flavor

Hawaiian food has such a breadth of flavor, variety, and history. Whether or not you're on the Big Island, we've got plenty of Hawaiian-inspired recipes you just might have to put in your weeknight dinner rotation. You're likely familiar with poke bowls (packed with fresh sushi-grade tuna), or even the components of a classic Hawaiian lunch plate, loco moco, and my personal favorite, Spam musubi.

Spam deserves all the recognition it can get. And Spam musubi? It's an ideal beach snack, picnic treat, or anytime snack. The delightful saltiness of Spam and soy sauce mixed with soft sushi rice and nori is a combination that's hard to beat, and you can deep-fry them for an even more delectable mix of textures. Fun fact: In Hawaii, seven million cans of Spam are consumed a year (that's almost five times the state's population!). You might not eat that many cans in a year, but you might get close once you try our Spam breakfast tacos or peanut butter Spam shells.

You're probably no stranger to the deliciously buttery, yet slightly sweet Hawaiian rolls. Hawaiian rolls were actually invented by Robert Taira, a Hawaiian-born son of Japanese immigrants. Today you can find them all over the country and in the hearts of each Delish test kitchen editor. They make the best ham and cheese sliders, buns for Hawaiian-inspired hot dogs, and these killer Hawaiian roll s'mores. Do you see our obsession now?

And pineapple! We could write a whole novel about how much we love it. We cannot get enough of pineapple desserts, and the fruit makes an incredible sweet addition to any chicken marinade. We love all these savory dishes with pineapple, especially when it means we can add pineapple to pineapple fried rice.