Vegan sushi is really quite easy to make. There is barely any cooking involved (just cooking the rice and the vinegar sauce), but a lot of chopping and preparation goes into this.

Recently I had a craving for sushi, so decided I would make my own. I already had the sushi rice from a previous homemade sushi project, as well as the pickled ginger and wasabi. So, all that was left really was to figure out what vegetables I wanted in the rolls. I settled on grated carrots, green onion, cucumber, sweet peppers, cilantro and avocado.

This really isn’t a strict recipe at all, you can add any vegetables you want with it. Any combination you make will turn out fine!

So without further ado…let us begin!

You will need:

• 2 cups rice sushi
• 3 cups water
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp avocado or walnut oil
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup grated carrots of your choice
• couple stalks green onion
• 1 cucumber
• 1 cup sliced sweet peppers (I used red, yellow and orange)
• 1 cup cilantro
• 1 avocado
• 1 package seaweed paper/nori paper for sushi
• You will also need a sushi kit or bamboo folding mat to prepare the sushi on

Step 1:

Cook the sushi rice according to package directions. Bring the water to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes. Once cooked, remove from heat and let cool

Step 2: 

While the rice is cooking, heat up the rice vinegar, oil, salt a sugar in a small pot. Once it simmers, turn of the heat and wait for the rice to finish cooking.

Use the rest of the time to chop, grate and julienne your vegetables. Cut the green onion stalks in half, then cut lengthwise. Julienne the cucumbers, grate the carrots and slice the sweet peppers. Don’t cut the avocado until you are ready to use it, or else it will start going brown.

Step 3:

Once the rice is done cooking and cooled off a bit, transfer into a large bowl. Take the vinegar mix and slowly pour it over the rice, folding the rice over itself as you mix it in. It will seem watery at first, but the rice will absorb all the liquid.

Step 4:

Once the rice is mixed and cooled, it’s time to start preparing your sushi! If you have a sushi kit, follow the directions that it comes with. If not, then cover a bamboo mat with plastic, and place a seaweed sheet on the mat. The easiest way I’ve found to make it is to spoon the rice on the paper, then either use a wooden spoon or wet hands to press the rice onto the paper evenly.

Once the rice is on evenly, add your vegetables of choice to the middle, then fold over the sushi in half, pressing with the bamboo mat to make sure it sticks together. Once the roll is folded in half, continue to roll the sheet away from your body until everything rolled up.

Step 5:

Once the sushi is all rolled,  transfer to a tray or plate. Wet a knife, and cut the sushi roll starting from the middle. This is important, as if you start from the sides it will squish and be ruined. Slice the sushi rolls starting from the middle, and you will have nice, clean, round sushi rolls.

And you are good! It’s time to eat! Plate your sushi with some ginger and wasabi, get our your chopsticks and dig in!

While this recipe certainly makes you work for your food, there is nothing like eating your own sushi to give you such great satisfaction. All that hard work definitely paid off!

Of course, you can add seafood to this recipe if you want. Note the middle piece of sushi, filled with salmon. If you are eating with friends, it’s always nice to make sure you accommodate everyone!

Enjoy!