A couple nights ago my daughter B & I made SUSHI!
It was delish.
Totally vegan, of course.
And mostly from bulk bins or loose produce, or glass/metal containers, with just the tofu & nori (seaweed) in plastic packaging. And the white miso paste – but read below about how it’s “plastic neutral”.
I wish we had access to bulk nori.
We used to have bulk tofu in Santa Cruz but unfortunately it went away. And I’m sure there’s miso in glass but I don’t think we have access to it in our local stores (please let me know if I’m wrong!).
So here’s what we did:
Sushi rice based on Gimme some oven’s recipe (isn’t that a cute name??):
-2 c sushi rice, well rinsed
-¼ c rice wine vinegar
-4T sugar
-1T salt.
We cooked the sushi rice on the stovetop in about 2 ½ cups water – brought it to a simmer, then let simmer until all the water was absorbed. Then let sit with the lid on for another 10 minutes. Then we put the rice in a casserole dish to cool down & sprinkled sesame seeds on top.
Next we added the vinegar, sugar, and salt to a small pot. We cooked it on low heat until the sugar & salt dissolved.
Then we poured the vinegar mixture over the rice and then used a spatula to gently slice through & fold the rice to get the mixture spread evenly around.
While the rice was cooking, we also peeled & sliced a sweet potato into about ⅜” discs (somewhere between a ½” and a ¼”). I placed them in a pot of water, brought them to a boil, and cooked them until they were easy to pierce with a fork (maybe 5-10 minutes).
After draining the sweet potatoes, my daughter B lightly sautéed each side in vegetable oil.
Also once the rice was cooking, we cut up a block of tofu into long thin rectangles – about ½” in diameter, and the full length of the tofu block.
We stirred up a quick marinade of soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar and sesame oil in a shallow baking dish and laid the tofu pieces inside so absorb some flavor.
Once the sweet potatoes were on their way, and the tofu was marinating, we peeled & cut a cucumber into long thin strips (julienne, I believe it’s called 😉), as well as a few small carrots & 2 avocados.
We also julienned the sweet potatoes once we finished sautéing them.
And we whipped up a simple aioli – Veganaise, lemon juice, and soy sauce to taste – whisked in a small bowl to an aioli-like consistency.
We made a little wasabi from Eden wasabi powder, which comes in a little metal tin with a plastic lid (unfortunately – but better than the plastic tubes!). Just mix powder with water until you get the consistency you like!
Next we got our nori sheets and bamboo roller & started assembling the rolls.
We spread a thin layer of rice across about 2/3 of the nori sheet & put the tofu, sweet potatoe, carrots, cucumber & tofu on top of the rice at one end of the nori sheet.
We gently pressed the ingredients & rice towards the nori sheet while also rolling the bamboo mat up & pressing on the outside of the nori sheet through the mat. We basically applied pressure to the whole roll as we rolled it up.
Once we were near the end of the nori sheet, we dipped our fingers in water and spread just a small amount of water across the top of nori sheet to seal it in place. we also put a tiny spread of water on the outside of the roll along the seam to help hold it in place.
Then we gently sliced through the rolls.
Oh, and we made a simple miso soup with miso paste from Miso Master, which is “Certified Plastic Neutral”. I think what this means is that for every piece of plastic they produce, they remove plastic from the environment in exchange. Better than regular plastic products, but not plastic-free.
We added some of the tofu to 4 little soup bowls and then poured the miso broth on top right before we sat down to eat.
It was DELICIOUS!
And we had tons of leftovers for the girls’ lunches. Win win win all around. It was a little time intensive but worth it. If we wanted to speed it up in the future, we could make the rice in advance.
If you make this recipe, tag me on Instagram – @no_trace_shop
Here’s the full ingredient list (mostly from bulk bins or plastic-free!):
Easy vegan sushi dinner
Serves 4+
Sushi rice
-2 c sushi rice
-1/4c rice wine vinegar
-4T sugar
-1T salt
-sesame seeds (optional)
Tofu marinade
-soy sauce
-brown sugar
-rice wine vinegar
-sesame oil
**Mixed to taste in shallow baking dish**
Sushi ingredients
-1 package nori sheets *in plastic*
-1 sweet potato
-2 small or 1 large avocado
-1 cucumber
-2 medium carrots
-tofu *in plastic*
**julienne cut everything except nori**
Miso soup
-miso paste from Miso Master (certified plastic neutral)
-tofu
**Mix paste with water to taste over stove top. Pour over tofu in bowls.**
Vegan sushi aioli
-lemon juice
-Veganaise
-soy sauce
**Mix to taste in small bowl & drizzle over sushi pieces.**