Fish was the last thing I gave up before going vegan and the main reason was because of SUSHI. Sushi is one of my absolute favourite foods and having worked in two sushi restaurants for many of my teen years, I was pretty much hooked on this stuff. It also doesn’t help that the vegan options at sushi restaurants pretty much SUCK completely. Don’t get me wrong, I do love my avocado rolls but having that or cucumber rolls as the only options… well, let’s just say I’m not the happiest customer… heh.
But we are in luck! Because you can make your OWN vegan sushi and make it taste pretty damn good too. I found a few different recipes for vegan spicy “tuna” rolls, which I slightly altered. Here’s where I found one of the recipes. It actually tasted quite similar to tuna!! Thanks to the mixture of kelp powder and ginger powder, it created a very nice fishy taste. The texture is pretty good too. Also, with the addition of the spicy cashew mayo, it was even better.
I’m also showing you guys one of the recipes from the Cheap Lazy Vegan e-book, which I called the “Poor Man’s Nigiri”. Simply made with peppers, it is super delicious and also has a nice “raw fishy” texture.
Video here:
For the sushi rice…
For every cup of COOKED sushi rice (about 1/3 cup of dry rice will yield approximately 1 cup of cooked sushi rice), use 1 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tsp sugar (optional) and 1/4 tsp salt (optional). I usually don’t measure how much rice I’m making – I just eye ball it!
Vegan Spicy “Tuna”
Ingredients:
- 2 ripe tomatoes
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tbsp kelp powder
- 1 tsp ginger powder
- Sriracha (Optional: you can leave this out and just use spicy cashew mayo)
Instructions:
- Cut a slit into the skin of the tomatoes and add to a large pot of boiling water for a few minutes until the skin starts to peel off.
- Take it out and place tomatoes immediately into a large bowl of ice water.
- Peel the skin off the tomatoes and cut in half/quarter pieces. Take out the seeds and keep the “flesh”.
- Cut the flesh into smaller pieces.
- In a medium-sized bowl, add the chopped tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and put aside.
Spicy Cashew Mayo
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup cashews
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 tbsp yellow or dijon mustard
- 1 garlic clove
- Sriracha (however much you want)
- A little bit of unsweetened non-dairy milk (maybe around 1/4 cup)
Instructions:
- Soak cashews for about 2-3 hours OR you can boil the cashews in a small pot until soft (about 15-20 minutes).
- Once the cashews have softened, drain and rinse with cold water.
- Add cashews, vinegar, mustard, garlic, sriracha and non-dairy milk into a blender and blend until smooth. Add a little more milk at a time until desired consistency.
Poor Man’s Nigiri (Vegan Nigiri):
Recipe from Cheap Lazy Vegan e-book
Ingredients:
- 1 cup cooked sushi rice
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar (optional)
- 1/4 tsp salt (optional)
- 1 red, yellow or orange bell pepper (red pepper will look more like tuna)
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 450 or 400 degrees F.
- Cut pepper in half and take out the insides.
- Roast in oven for around 30 minutes (1 hour if 400 degrees F) until the sides are burnt and the peppers are shrivelled.
- Take out of oven and let them cool completely.
- Peel off all the skin and cut into 4-5 long pieces.
- In a medium bowl, add rice vinegar, sugar and salt and mix well. Pour over cooled, cooked sushi rice and mix well.
- Wet hands and form small & long oval shaped pieces with the rice.
- Place a roasted red pepper piece on top of each rice ball.
- Serve with soy sauce!
OMG this looks so good! Being from the Gulf, fish was one of the last things I gave up as a vegan as well. And I love sushi, but I do get tired of just avocado and cucumber rolls. Thank you for this recipe; it’s definitely going on my “to make soon” list!