Deconstructed Vegetable Sushi Salad

Today has been a reasonably calm day. I love warmish spring days like today when I can putter around and do whatever I want. A little additional sun would have been nice, but no rain so I am not complaining. All is well with my parents, knock on wood. I was actually able to accomplish some of the things on my to-do list. I love crossing items off my to-do list, which I realize is a little crazy. Honestly I am one of those people that will put something on my to-do just to cross it off. If any mental health professionals are reading I can imagine they are cringing now. ;-)

With my extra time I was able to begin reading the second of the two RAVE books that arrived about a week ago. There was also time to get through the second DVD that came with the books. As soon as I finish the second of the two books I will tell you a little about them and give you my review.

For some reason I have not been inspired to cook much lately. Dinners recently have been really easy fare. Today is no exception. Tonight I wanted sushi but I wasn’t in the mood to fiddle with rolling it, which was just more effort than I was prepared to give dinner today. Enter the brown rice vegetable sushi salad, which is destined to become a favorite at our house. If you love sushi but do not love making it this is the salad for you. It hits all the flavors of sushi without the trouble. When Dan came home he said, “Oh deconstructed sushi salad, good idea”. As soon as he said that I knew we had the name. It is much better than the truth, which was “I didn’t feel like making sushi salad.” You can call it whichever name you prefer. ;-) But I am going to stick with Dan’s idea, it sounds more appealing.

Of course I used brown rice since it is healthier than white. Then I seasoned it as though I was making sushi. Next I thought about what goes into my favorite sushi (nori, cucumber, avocado and asparagus) and added those to the salad. Spinach, savoy cabbage, celery and green onion were added for their cancer fighting properties and overall good nutrition. I included red bell pepper for a little sweetness and color. Edamame were added for protein and because we always order them when we get sushi so it made sense to me. The dressing in made of things that say Asian food to me. A little wasabi would also be good in the dressing but my hubby is not a fan. Here is what I did.

Deconstructed Vegetable Sushi Salad
Serves 2

Ingredients:

¾ cup brown rice (I used Brown Basmati)
1 ½ cups water
2 tablespoons mirin (or substitute rice wine vinegar and a little stevia)
6 cups baby spinach, julienned
1 cucumber, thinly sliced (quick pickled or plain)
2 stalks celery, sliced thinly on the diagonal
2 savoy cabbage leaves, julienned
½ cup edamame, steamed and chilled
6 stalks asparagus, thinly sliced on the diagonal
½ bell pepper, julienned
1 tablespoon miso, or to taste
2 tablespoons pickled ginger, or to taste
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar or mirin, or to taste
½ avocado, cut into small cubes
2 sheets nori, julienned into bite sized strips

Directions:

Cook brown rice according to package directions. While the rice is still hot add the mirin and fluff the rice with a fork to distribute the flavors. Refrigerate the rice until needed.

Combine the vegetables (except the avocado and nori) .

Combine the dressing ingredients (miso, ginger and vinegar) in your blender and process until smooth.  Taste the dressing and adjust to your palate.  Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to coat. Add the avocado at the end so it does not get smashed.

To serve, top the salad with rice and then the sushi strips. Serve immediately.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 485.34
Calories From Fat (19%) - 92.22

Total Fat - 12.05g
Saturated Fat - 1.84g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 456.1mg
Potassium - 1812.48mg
Total Carbohydrates - 92.72g
Fiber - 14.04g
Sugar - 8.2g
Protein - 17.79g

Comments:

Would I make this again? Absolutely! In fact I am wondering how often I will make sushi now that I know I can turn it into a salad in less time and get more nutrition. If you like vegetable sushi I think you will like this. It hits the flavor profile with less work. As I said earlier is destined to become a family favorite since we both really liked it. Expect to read about us eating this quite often. It is definitely a great one dish meal. I also think it will be perfect for the summer when I am not in the mood to eat hot food or cook. One of the best things about this salad is that it uses cold rice. I am quite happy I made extra sushi rice today. We will be enjoying this for a few days for lunch.

The nutrition stats are where this salad really shines. Each serving contains approximately 10, 275IU of vitamin A, 85mg of vitamin C, 215mg of calcium, 7.5mg of iron, 410mcg of folate, 512mcg of vitamin K, 455mg of phosphorus, 250mg of magnesium, and 19 mcg of selenium. When you also take into account the potassium, fiber and protein this is great salad nutritionally speaking. Move over taco salad there is a new player in town. ;-)

Unrelated note:

It was so nice to have a day with no unexpected events. I thoroughly enjoyed my low stress day. I was able to focus on things for myself like exercising, reading health books and watching health DVDs. Seriously this is my idea of nirvana.

As usual my hubby worked late. In this economy I realize that it is wonderful that he has a good job, but it would be nice to spend more time with him. There is nothing I like more than spending time with my husband. He is my best friend and we have fun no matter what we do even if it something mind numbing like grocery shopping. I hope some of you are lucky enough to be married to your best friend too.

Since I have received quite few emails asking what we eat on a daily basis I am going to summarize our food day here:

Breakfast: rolled oats cooked in water, topped with cinnamon, frozen wild blueberries, a tablespoon of ground flaxseed and a few walnuts with ½ serving of green drink powder

Lunch: Dinner leftovers from yesterday (the lentil and brown rice over spinach)

Dinner: Brown Rice Sushi Salad above

Snack: Fresh juice (spinach, wheat grass, carrot, apple, celery, lemon and ginger) and a ½ serving of green drink powder

As you can see nothing exciting just healthy food at our house. I try to make certain that we get enough calories and veggies each day while minimizing our fat intake. One thing that I continue to find as I read more about nutrition and health is that the closer your food intake gets to being 100% whole food plant based the better off you are going to be. We have also discovered that whole grains and beans are important in terms of getting adequate calories. When we aren’t consuming enough grains keeping weight on is difficult. If you are trying to lose weight I suggest cutting back on grains.

That is going to be it for me today. I am off to make some fresh juice and clean up the kitchen and enjoy a little time with my hubby. I hope you are having a good evening.