Saturday, February 14, 2009

Raw Sushi .. LOVE IT

I'm sure we've all been asked by one friend or another "If you could eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?" My answer is always an enthusiastic, 'SUSHI!'

I love sushi... especially avocado rolls. But I'll take cucumber rolls or tofu, carrot or just about any other veggie sushi roll they can dream up. Who is 'they'? Well, the sushi chefs, of course.

We made amazing RAW SUSHI tonight and I'll share the recipe here. But I'll warn you - we're not, not, not sushi chefs. So, ours are never as pretty or fancy as those you'll get at a restaurant. However, they're super cheap to make - and super tasty, too.

Normally sushi is made with sticky white rice. Raw sushi, however, is made with a raw rice substitute - the underappreciated parsnip. It actually makes a GREAT raw rice substitute, by the way. It is great cold (even better than white rice) but it's crunchier than you expect. I'm not sure if there's a way to soften them, to make them more squishy like rice... I'll work on it and post it if i find a way. (Or please comment below if you already know!! I don't need to reinvent the wheel here.)

Ingredients:
Nori rolls
Parsnips
Carrots
Avocado
(Also, cucumber if you want cucumber rolls)
NOTE: 1 avocado made 3 sushi rolls

It was quite easy. A food processor makes this super easy.. but if you don't have one, you'll have to grate or finely chop your parsnip. Essentially, you're just making it tiny and rice like.

I've never worked with Parsnips before... All you have to do is peel them and throw them in your food processor:



Chop:



Get your other ingredients together - sliced avocado, julianne carrots and sprouts, if desired:



Rolling sushi can be tricky. I know it still is for me! And with the raw sushi, I've learned that you can't use as much parsnip-rice as you would regular sushi rice. So, your sushi will be smaller (which I actually prefer):



After you've laid your nori roll on the sushi roller (they're inexpensive and can be found at any Asian market), just lay out some parsnip-rice and the other veggies you want in your sushi and roll, using the sushi roller:



Now slice into desired size and number of pieces:



Dip in a bowl of Nama Shoyu (raw soy sauce) or soy sauce, if you prefer:



I love sushi. I'll take it raw or made with regular sticky sushi rice. Just give me sushi!

Other fillings we'll try next time:
Raw, sprouted quinoa, wild rice or sunflower seeds

4 comments:

  1. hi, did this have an extremely parsnippy taste, or did it seem like ordinairy sushi?

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  2. I was actually surprised at how much it tasted like regular sushi! The parsnip is more sturdy than rice, so it's a bit crunchier but the taste is quite similar. That's the only real difference that I noticed.

    I think sprouted quinoa might be great to try next time, to see if it's more soft like rice.

    Either way it's still great.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love it! Thanks for posting this!

    From a fellow vegan cyclist in Vancouver, BC

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am a student in Naturopathy from Perth, Western Australia. We recently made a version of these in my nutrition class, but instead of rice or parsnip, we used cauliflower. I'm not sure how they tasted, I'm personally not a fan of the taste of cauliflower, but my fellow students said they were delicious.

    ReplyDelete

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