Quinoa Vegetable Sushi

There was a health food store in my neighborhood that sold nori sheets in bulk but sadly, the store closed a few months ago. Therefore, I have not had nori sheets OR homemade sushi in months! Yeah, that's huge. I love making sushi at home since I eat it alot, it's just cheaper and healthier to make at home. So (duh) I searched on Amazon and I found a pack of 50 sheets (yay!) When they arrived, I got right to work using up my sushi rice and making avocado sushi. After I ran out of rice, I started researching quinoa sushi.

I am vegan for almost five years now and I can say that I am not crazy about quinoa. It is one of those foods that you need to dress up and I haven't found a taste that I like. I bought tricolor quinoa from Trader Joe's a few weeks ago so I had it on hand to try this. Did you know sushi rice is mixed with vinegar and sugar to make it sticky? So, it would be better to make sushi rice at home or to use something in place of rice in order to make your sushi as healthy as possible. White sugar is probably used in sushi rice, and how much of it, we can only guess. My first try at quinoa sushi ended up wonderful, my second attempt not so much.

So, grab your rice vinegar and coconut sugar along with your quinoa. For the dip, I had just made a pesto sauce and, believe it or not, the pesto sauce was so yummy on the sushi. My other favorite sushi dips are umeboshi paste, coconut amino sauce and ume vinegar. 

For this recipe you will need:

1 cup of quinoa

4-5 nori sheets

2 tbsp of rice vinegar

2 tbsp of coconut sugar

Cucumber slices

Carrot slices

1 avocado

Other veggies

I cooked the quinoa in my rice cooker and it was perfect. I put 1 cup of quinoa in the rice cooker with 2 cups of water. After the quinoa is finished, transfer it to a bowl and combine it with the vinegar and coconut sugar. Mix well, it will begin to kind of stick together. You MUST make the sushi while the quinoa is still warm, straight out of the rice cooker. DON'T let it cool. The warm allows it to stick and not crumble.

After mixing the quinoa with the vinegar and sugar, spread it on a nori sheet, leaving room at the ends so you can roll the sheet. Add thin slices of carrot and cucumber (pictured) or any other veggies you want. Using a bamboo sushi roller or wax paper, roll the nori sheet, wet the ends where you are going to close it and press the ends down gently so the two sushi roll ends stick together. Transfer the sushi roll to a cutting board and using a SHARP knife, cut the sushi roll into pieces. Use up all of the quinoa, I think one cup made me 3 sushi rolls. For more sushi making pictures, click here

I had some leftover quinoa that I heated up again in the rice cooker and when I made it using the method above, it fell apart. When making quinoa sushi, I would make it fresh, when it's done, mix in the vinegar and sugar and use all of it up. I have also seen (and bought) sweet brown rice that is sticky so you could also use that as well. I'm also going to try using lettuce or avocado in place of rice. That will be another recipe! 

Comment if you try this recipe or if you have your own recipe! What do you use in place of rice?