Brown Rice Vegetable Sushi with Cucumber, Bell Pepper and Radish

Rose and I were chatting about the health benefits of seaweed the other day and then Debra made vegetable sushi. This was followed by one of the guys my husband works with wanting sushi restaurant recommendations. This all seemed like a message from above to make brown rice sushi to me.

Sushi is one of those things that both my husband and I love. We are lucky enough to have restaurants here that serve many varieties of vegetarian sushi. However those restaurants don’t sell brown rice sushi. This is why I started making my own sushi at home. It was a little fiddly the first few times I made sushi but it became easy after 3 or 4 rolls.

You can add any combination of ingredients to the interior of your sushi that you like. Sometimes I add avocado, sometimes wasabi it all determines on my mood. When you are new to making sushi, or a little rusty, they are easier to roll if there isn’t too much veg on the inside.

Brown Rice Vegetable Sushi with Cucumber, Bell Pepper and Radish
Makes dinner for 2

Rice Ingredients:

2 cups short grain brown rice
2 ¼ cups water
1 pinch salt
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
½ tablespoon mirin
½ tablespoon agave
1 teaspoon salt

Sushi Roll Ingredients:

4 sheets nori
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1 cucumber, thinly sliced
2 radishes thinly sliced
2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Sauce Ingredients:

1 tablespoon liquid aminos
1 teaspoon toasted sesame seed oil
1 tablespoons mirin

Directions:

Rinse the rice thoroughly until the water runs clear. Drain the rice and add it to your pressure cooker. Soak the rice in the water, with the pinch of salt for one hour. After one hour cover the pressure cooker and cook on high pressure for 25 minutes. Release the pressure from the cooker and move the rice to a large bowl.

Combine the vinegar, mirin, agave and salt and whisk to combine. Put the vinegar on the rice and gently toss the rice in the vinegar being careful not to mash the grains. Fan the rice until it is a little warmer than room temperature.

Prepare the vegetables for the rolls.

Cover your sushi mat with plastic cling film. This isn't necessary but it makes certain the mat stays clean. Get a bowl of water for your hands ready.

Place the nori on the sushi mat and add ¼ of the vinegared rice to the nori and spread it evenly on the nori except for the top inch of the nori. This clean edge is necessary to seal the nori. You may find it easier to handle the rice if your hands are wet.

Sprinkle ½ teaspoon of the sesame seeds on the rice. Place ¼ of the raw veggies in the middle of the rice. Begin rolling the sushi from the edge closest to you. Use the mat to hold the sushi and continue to roll and press firmly. When you get to the end of the roll use the water to wet the nori and continue to roll and press firmly. Enclose the sushi roll in the plastic cling film that you had on the sushi mat. Make the other three sushi rolls the same way.

To prepare the sauce combine the ingredients and whisk. Pour into two separate containers for dipping.

To serve use a very sharp knife to cut the sushi into 6 to 8 pieces from each roll. It helps the sushi to not if the knife is cleaned and dipped in water after each cut.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 453.92
Calories From Fat (13%) - 58.28

Total Fat - 7.13g
Saturated Fat - 0.6g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 1668.92mg
Potassium - 505.36mg
Total Carbohydrates - 98.49g
Fiber - 11.01g
Sugar - 5.87g
Protein - 10.27g

Comments:

We both enjoyed our veggie sushi tonight. It was mild in flavor but still quite yummy. My only complaint is the amount of sodium most of which came from the dipping sauce. I don’t know that it is possible to make an Asian dipping sauce without soy (or liquid aminos in this case). However if I can think of a way to reduce the sodium next time I will.