Vegetable Sushi
Cucumber Carrot Scallion and Avocado Sushi
Vegetable Sushi and Vegetable Miso Soup
The first photograph is of mixed vegetable sushi. There are a few avocado and veggie sushi in the middle, and then cabbage, carrot, scallion, daikon radish, and cucumber filled sushi around the edges. I grated all the veggies and placed them in bowls around my work space, and filled each sushi roll with a different mix of the veggies.
In the second photograph I am standing with Mellon with some sushi i made in July 2009. I was very proud of them, because it was the first time i got the filling centered and the nori rounded just right. These sushi are all filled with avocado, cucumber, carrot, and scallion.
Pretty sushi takes a little practice, but the results are delicious whether they are rolled well or not.
It’s best to use a sushi mat, which is a thin bamboo mat that you roll the sushi in to get it tight and round. But when we first made sushi, although i had one, i couldn’t figure out how to use it, so i just rolled the sushi up without it, and they looked okay.
You can use most veggies that you would eat raw in a salad, or you can cook some of the veggies like carrot and daikon radish. You can grate the raw veggies or cut them long and thin, depending on the bite you want.
Vegetable Sushi
Makes about 4 servings of about 8 pieces each
Preparation about 80 minutes but gives yourself 2 hours the first time
Can be made ahead, but should be eaten within a day
4 c. cooked brown rice
½ c. rice vinegar
4 t. sugar
½ t. salt (optional)
About 6 toasted nori sheets
4 scallions
2 carrots
1 medium cucumber
1/8 head red cabbage
5 inches of daikon radish
1 stalk broccoli
¼ – 1 avocado
Cook the rice. Heat the vinegar, sugar, and optional salt in a small pan until the sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes. Stir the mixture into the warm rice. Set aside to cool.
Prepare the vegetables. If you want to have some vegetables cooked, cut the carrot and daikon into long thin strips slightly longer than a nori sheet, and cook in a pan large enough for them to lie fairly flat while cooking, about 5 minutes.
Cut the cucumber and scallions slightly longer than the nor sheet, and cut into thin strips.
Shred the cabbage and broccoli and any other vegetables that you want.
Peel the avocado and slice into thin pieces.
Set a large cutting board down in front of you and arrange the cut vegetables in bowls or plates or other cutting boards around your work space.
Lay a sheet of nori on the large cutting board. Along one side of it place about 1/3 c. of the rice mixture, and flatten it. Place whatever veggies you want in the middle of it. I put layers of the grated veggies and then a thin piece of scallion in my first sushi roll. Place about ¼ c. more rice carefully on top of the rice and veggies and press down gently to cover the veggies.
If you are using long thin pieces of veggies, lay them side by side or on top of each other. If you are using avocado, lay the slices lengthwise along the rice, slightly overlapping.
Roll up the nori starting with the rice and veggies side. Place the rolled nori on a sushi mat and roll up. Press all over the roll firmly and roll it from side to side a few times while squeezing gently. Unroll and put the roll on a board.
Take a large serrated knife and cut the ends off the roll. You may need to experiment a few times to find how much you need to cut off to keep the rest of the roll’s edge straight. You can eat the cut pieces as you work or save it all in a bowl to be eaten later with the wasabi and tamari. Cut the roll into about 5 pieces about 1 inch wide. Put the cut sushi rice side down on a large serving platter or platters.
Continue making sushi, filling the platter and stacking the sushi as necessary.
Adapted from Recipes from the Heart
Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:
Using ¼ avocado
Per Serving – 288 calories/8.4 g protein (11.6%)/4.4 g fat (13.6)
Wasabi
Wasabi
You can get a delicious wasabi paste in a tube in many places, but it has oil in it. If you can find it, wasabi powder also comes in a small can, and different brands have different ingredients. We like the Hime brand with mustard in it. Mix up a small amount with water, usually about 4 t. wasabi powder to 3 t. water. Let it stand a few minutes.
Set out tamari and pickled ginger too, with small plates to dip the sushi in the tamari. Some people mix the wasabi and tamari on their plate. I dab a tiny bit of wasabi on about three points of the sushi with a fork and then dip it in the tamari.
Some people eat their sushi in one bite. I take two or three. If you have family and friends who eat a whole sushi at a time, you can make the next ones smaller, though the smaller ones are harder to cut straight edges on.
If you have never had wasabi, take a teeny tiny bit of it, no larger than a pin head. It is very, very hot. But it really is delicious, and you might find you like the heat in larger quantities. The canned powder is a little hotter than the premixed tube of wasabi.
Wasabi in less than ¼ t. servings (which is a lot unless you really like hot food) has no calories.
Vegetable Miso Soup
Vegetable Miso Soup
Vegetable Miso Soup
Makes 4 servings
Preparation about 25 minutes
Can be made ahead except for the last minute addition of miso
7 c. mild flavored vegetable stock or water
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 3 inch pieces wakame or kombu
4 carrots
1 bunch greens
2 scallions
2 T. miso
Cut the seaweed into tiny squares with scissors. Cook the stock, garlic and seaweed over low heat about 15 minutes until the seaweed is tender.
Meanwhile, chop or slice the carrots into thin pieces or you can grate them, but then you only cook them a couple of minutes.
Chop the greens into small bite sized pieces. I used gai choy, but almost any green will work. Collards are a favorite of mine in miso soup.
Slice the scallions into thin rounds, including the top green leaves.
When the seaweed is done, add the carrots and greens and cook until tender, about 4 minutes. Stir in the scallions and turn off the heat.
Ladle a little of the broth into a small bowl and mix 1 ½ t. miso thoroughly in it for each serving you will eat right away. If you are going to eat all the soup at once, you can add the miso and broth back to the pot. If you are going to have some of the soup later, mix only the miso for the soup you will eat now. Stir the miso and broth well into the rest of the soup, especially if the miso is a little old and doesn’t melt easily into the warm broth. You can mix the miso and broth into each individual bowl if you aren’t going to eat all the soup soon.
You can add buckwheat soba noodles, whole wheat pasta, or brown rice noodles to the soup before the vegetables if you want a heartier soup.
Vegetable Miso Soup was adapted loosely from various Japanese restaurants bowls of miso soup and from La Dolce Vegan by the inimitable Sarah Kramer.
Nutritional information – not guaranteed to be accurate:
Per Serving – 67 calories/3.1 g protein (18.3%)/.2 g fat (3 %)
