One of the nicest things about spending time with my older daughter is all of the cooking we do together. Because she is vegetarian her diet is more restrictive than most and she has learned how to fend for herself quite well. She also is always curious about trying new recipes. Oddly there’s nothing new or novel about my vegetarian sushi. I’ve been making it for close to 20 years and it is a mainstay food that gets served as an appetizer or a main course dinner about 1-2 times per week in the Las Vegas house. I thought I’d share some of my stock recipes for making it.
Vegetarian sushi from last night
I happen to love sushi, I mean the raw fish variety, and have since back in my Ohio days when there was only one restaurant in all of Toledo that offered it (en Japanese Steakhouse). I almost always ate alone as none of my friends were willing to try raw fish. My then boyfriend implied that the only reason I liked the stuff was because I thought it was a rich person’s food. He often told me that when he had worked at the meat counter at Kroger as a teenager some poor people would get a windfall of some sort and they’d insist on buying lobster or caviar or some fancy food. He laughed and said almost every one of them realized how disgusting seafood was as soon as they tried it.
Maybe I have an iodine deficiency. I almost never got seafood growing up in Ohio as it was too expensive, though my time in California was much more expansive to my pallet. In Toledo an occassional friend of my fathers would stop by with some freshwater bass or trout caught in the ever questionable waters of Lake Erie, but that only happened once or twice per year at most. My Mother also insisted on having fish on Fridays during Lent, but sometimes that amounted to no more than canned tuna with macaroni and cheese. The first time I tried sea urchin and salmon roe it was like a flavor explosion that was better than any drug to me. I proudly told anyone who asked that I wanted food that tasted as far away from poor people Ohio food as was humanly possible. I suppose I got my wish, though now that some decades have passed I really enjoy my Mom’s home cooking again, even if it is just ground beef and potatoes. Those are pretty expensive now too!
I fell into making my own basic sushi wraps at home and, in hosting a party for many vegetarian and vegan members of Self Realization Fellowhship in Pacific Palisades, I researched options that did not include fish at all. The wraps were a hit and many at the party thought that they contained fish, perhaps because the orange color of the carrots when combined with vegan mayonaise and gari was a similar color to raw salmon. Japanese food is all about presentation and the artistic aspects of colors and shapes. I’m lazy about these things now, but that’s because most of my sushi is eaten before I can even put it on a plate.
Rolls do not need to be elaborate. You do not need to go to the fanciest Whole Foods in town and spend hundreds of dollars on this stuff. I usually just plop any old white rice I can find into the rice cooker and smear it evenly across the wrap with a paddle, leaving empty space on the right for the steam to seal the roll and leaving room on the left for my filling. Two of my on a budget vegetarian sushi mainstay recipes for my wraps are the following:
Japanese eggplant, extra firm tofu, or shitake mushrooms shaped into long thin pieces for the wrap
2 tbsp sesame oil or any other cooking oil of your choosing
1 tbsp rice vinegar
5 or 6 thin slices of ginger root or ground ginger
1 tbsp soy sauce
For this recipe I usually add a pinch of salt to the oil and brown the tofu, eggplant or mushrooms along with the ginger. I add the rice vinegar and soy sauce after I have reduced the heat at the end.
For my salmon looking filling, I shred carrots along with fresh ginger (you can substitute gari and the pink color does add a pop). Sometimes I add in radishes and red cabbage and my daughter has mused that between the orange carrots and the dark purple cabbage we could make some great Halloween themed sushi wraps. I mix this filling in a bowl with two tbsp of mayonaise, 1 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp of wasabi (optional but I like the kick) and maybe 1 tbsp of lime juice (I try to use fresh squeezed). This recipe also works very well for basic drained canned tuna, if you are scared of raw fish but not vegetarian.
I usually add avocado slices, green onion slices, cucumber slices and cream cheese to my wraps from here and then serve alongside wasabi, soy sauce and ginger. If I want to add some pretty pink cooked shrimp or salmon I just add them to the top of the rolls. They get eaten by everybody so fast I have trouble taking a good picture of them.
My random picture of the day is of my tiny house from a storage shed project. I’ve used some old discarded fencing as the flooring base. I have to lock the floor pieces together which is tricky as they are two completely different types. My budget so far is $0. It’s been done so far with what we have laying around in the garage, though if I don’t find door hinges and a few extra 10 feet posts there will be a trip to some hardware or lumber place soon. I have to pop the top and put the door in afterwards but I might be taking a New Year’s break.
Have you ever made sushi?
As a herbivore since conception, it was great to read this! I once had a bf who made the most amazing vegetarian sushi. I need to remember his skills and make what he did. 🍱
I have been vegan since January 1, 2015. I only recently added organic, small farm eggs because of the nutrients in egg yolks. And no animal was tortured, maimed, genetically altered, drugged, or slaughtered to make eggs.