Sushi Ain’t Easy
Have you ever tried to make sushi? The professionals make it look so easy don’t they? Well, my kids LOVE veggie sushi and are always wanting me to make it or to go out for it. So I decided to try my hand one weekend night, thinking, “No problem, we’ll be eating in no time.” However, I was wrong! Two hours later I had a giant mess, my sushi didn’t stick together and everyone was annoyed. As a result, I have never tried it again. But later, the Vegan Sushi Bowl was born.
I’m Not a Short Order Cook
Fast forward to dinner a few weeks ago. I was pretty sure the kids weren’t going to like whatever I was making. Because I don’t believe in making separate meals for kids (I am not a short order cook), I always try to have something I know they will eat. When we have Asian or Indian food and they don’t like “all the stuff all mixed together”, I’ll throw some cashews or pistachios and raisins in the rice and they gobble it up. So on this particular night it was rice.
Perspiration Begets Innovation (or something like that?)
Since we had just had rice with nuts and raisins for the previous two nights, I didn’t want to serve that again. And we all get stuck in food ruts sometimes, right? So, I improvised. Above all, my goal is to get as many nutrients as I can into one meal. As a result, I took the rice, poured on a little tamari sauce, threw some diced cucumbers and avocado on top, crumbled up the seaweed from those snack packages my kids munch on and added diced mangos and tofu. After that, I topped it with sesame seeds and voila, Vegan Sushi Bowls were born! Now we can eat vegan sushi at home and I don’t have to roll anything!
The Vegan Sushi Bowl to the Rescue
To sum up, making sushi is hard and I always need a quick meal that is tasty and full of nutrition. One of the many things I love about Vegan Sushi Bowls is that you can’t mess them up! Because you can add almost whatever ingredient you like, they are very flexible. Below I have provided the base recipe for how I usually make it, but I’ve also provided suggestions on how to change things up. For example, my favorite ingredient to add is steamed kale. What would be your go-to ingredient?
Vegan Sushi Bowl
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 20 mins
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Entree
- Cuisine: Asian
Description
Don’t fight with a sushi mat–make a vegan sushi bowl and eat in no time flat.
Ingredients
Base Recipe
- 2 cups steamed rice (try brown, Jasmine or Basmati)
- 4 packages seaweed snacks
- 1 cup diced cucumbers (we prefer English cucumbers as they don’t have seeds)
- 1 ripe avocado, diced
- 1 mango, peeled, pitted and diced
- Soy sauce, Tamari sauce or Coconut aminos to sprinkle on each bowl
- Sesame seeds – black or white for garnish
Options
- 2 cups chopped, steamed kale
- 10 spears steamed asparagus, sliced into 1” pieces
- 1 package of extra firm tofu, cut into 1” squares and browned on the stove top or in the oven
- 1 small sweet potato, diced and roasted or steamed
- Sliced green onions
- ½ pound mushrooms sliced; raw or sauteed
Instructions
- Line each bowl with about 6 pieces of seaweed (or you can crumble it on the top at the end).
- Spoon a half cup of rice into each bowl.
- Add the cucumbers, avocado and any other optional ingredients to each bowl.
- Sprinkle each bowl with Soy sauce, Tamari sauce or Coconut aminos
- Garnish with sesame seeds.
- Eat it up, yum!
Looking for more Asian recipes? Try these:
