Sushi rice and california rolls

Vegan

Vegetarian

Gluten-Free

Simple, delicious, sushi – made at home – with a punch of plant protein. Plus, the unprocessed ingredients give this the DCW seal of approval

Vegan

Vegetarian

Gluten-Free

About the recipe

This recipe checks all the DCW boxes: it is delicious, simple (we promise! you really can make this at home!), packed with plant protein and a perfect option for a small family meal or a party where you can impress your friends with an elegant, nutritious meal.

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This meal truly hits all the food combinations to create the perfect plate – it uses 90% (or more) whole, unprocessed plant foods, features a whole grain – thanks to the short grain brown rice that yes, is still sticky and exactly what you expect from a sushi roll! – and is sweetened with 100% fruit sugar. The Edamame appetizer is quick and simple to make and adds an extra punch of whole plant protein.

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Plus, taste testers give this a 10/10 for flavor and enjoyment, and Dr. Cheryl gives it her seal of approval because it helps you naturally lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure and reduce inflammation in your body. This is a true example of a meal that heals — food as medicine at its best while eating the foods you love!

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Ingredients Directions Nutrition facts

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Ingredients

Makes 8 rolls | Serves 4 | Portion size 2 full rolls per person

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‍Ingredients for Perfect Sushi Rice:

2 cups Short Grain Brown Rice
2 1/2 cups water

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Sushi Vinegar:

Make your own sushi vinegar by combining the following 3 ingredients and heating over the stove to dissolve the date sugar before adding to the cooked rice.

4 Tablespoons rice vinegar
2 Tablespoons date sugar
1 teaspoon salt (I use sea salt or pink Himalayan salt)

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Ingredients for California Rolls:

2 avocado (ripe but still firm), sliced into long pieces
2 mango or 2 peaches, peeled and sliced thin
1 cucumber, peeled and sliced into long julienne strips
2 carrots, peeled and cut into julienne strips
1/2 cup pickled ginger pieces
8 nori (toasted seaweed) sheets

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Optional Ingredients/tools:

2 Sushi rolling mats (or you may use parchment paper instead)
Toasted sesame seeds
Baked tofu
Cashews

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Ingredients for Sushi Rolls Dips/Sauces:

Soy sauce (regular or low sodium)
Wasabi paste
Spicy mayo: mix 1 Tablespoon of mayonnaise (I used a vegan mayo) mixed with 1 teaspoon Sriracha hot chili sauce (adjust hot sauce to taste).

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Edamame:

1 cup of water
1 teaspoon of salt
10 oz of edamame (frozen or fresh in pods)
Salt, course ground option for serving

Directions

How to Cook Perfect Sushi Rice (Rice Maker and Stove-top versions):

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P.S. do not add salt while cooking rice!

Wash the rice with cold water until the water runs clear. Drain well.

Rice maker method: If you have a rice maker (way easier!), follow rice maker instructions. I added 2 cups of rinsed and drained short grain brown rice with 2 1/2 cups of water - the amount of water that works best for a stickier sushi rice and how I wanted it in my finished rice. You can add more or less water, but the goal is to create a sticker rice for Sushi Rice. Cook on the brown rice setting on the rice cooker and keep on arm for 15 minutes or more until ready to prepare Sushi Rice.

On the stove method: Put drained rice in a heavy saucepan and add 2 1/2 cups cold water. Cover tightly and set the pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Once it boils, reduce heat to medium and let cook covered until all the water is absorbed (7-8 minutes). Do not remove the cover to check, but listen for the bubbling to stop. Once you hear a faint hissing sound, reduce the heat to very low and cook another 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand for 15 minutes (covered). This is a longer cook time because it is brown whole grain rice.

Transfer the hot rice to a large bowl and break it up to get rid of all the hot clumps.

Let the rice cool down until it is just warm, then stir in your cooled sushi vinegar. Stir this into the rice very well until you begin to see a glaze form on the rice giving you a delicious Sushi Rice ready to make into rolls.

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Assembling your California Rolls:

Wrap your sushi mat in plastic wrap before using it (this makes it reusable and you don't even have to wash it!). You can use parchment paper if you don’t have a sushi mat.

Place your piece of nori on the sushi mat.

Prepare your veggies and fruit and any other optional ingredients you are adding to your California rolls.

Assemble and /or prepare your favorite dips/sauces for your Sushi California rolls (soy sauce, soy sauce/wasabi combo, spicy mayo, etc.).

If you are using sesame seeds, toast your sesame seeds in a skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly until golden.

Spread a generous handful of sushi rice onto the sheet of nori. Use your WET FINGERTIPS (keep your hands wet to prevent sticking) to spread the rice evenly over the entire surface of the nori.

If you want a traditional California roll with the rice on the outside, flip the rice covered piece of nori over so the rice is facing down (this way, your rice will be on the outside).

Place your fillings across the center of your rice in the middle of the sheet (don't overfill or the roll won't seal). I add the ginger pieces inside the roll, and we enjoy adding the spicy mayo inside the roll as well. Find your favorite fillings as you make your own delicious Sushi rolls.

Start rolling away from you using your mat to firmly keep the roll in place. Apply some pressure to make a tight roll. If it's not tight enough, it will be difficult to cut. Once the roll is complete, you can sprinkle the roll with toasted sesame seeds while it is still on the mat so you can turn it easily.

Run your sharp knife through a damp paper towel before slicing so the rice won't stick as much. Cut the roll into slices of 1-inch rings. I have found that using a serrated knife and dipping the knife in water between cuts made this even easier.

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Preparing the Edamame Appetizer:

Add water to a saucepan with a lid and bring to a boil. Add salt and continue boiling

Add 10 oz of edamame to the boiling water and cook, stirring once in a while. I use cooking tongs to toss the edamame and serve it.

Cook 4 to 5 minutes after the water returns to a boil for al dente Edamame. (Note: Edamame from Japan comes precooked and may only need 1 minute of cooking time so be sure to read the package if you are using frozen Edamame to see if you have pre-cooked Edamame from Japan and reduce the cooking time to 1 minute.)

Drain the Edamame in a colander and keep warm until serving.

Serve warm or room temperature and top with coarse salt.

To eat the Edamame, remove the soy beans from their inedible pods and enjoy.

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Serving a Family Style Sushi Meal:

Create a board or platters and serving bowls with all the sushi ingredients to make your own Sushi California Roll. I created a wood board for all the prepped vegetables and fruits and optional fillings for the Sushi Rolls and place on the table. The Sushi Rice is in a serving bowl. The Nori Sheets are on a plate. The ginger is in a small serving bowl. Bring the dips and sauces your family enjoys. We like small bowls for each person,with soy sauce for dipping and small bowls of spicy mayo. My family is not a fan of Wasabi, but if you enjoy it, bring that to the table as well. I serve Edamame that has been steamed and drained. Now you are ready for a family/friends Sushi Night that is sure to bring lots of fun and involve everyone in making delicious Sushi California Rolls that promise to become a family favorite (plus, take comfort knowing that you are serving a meal that will be the best of food is medicine!).

Tips

The heart of sushi is the rice. Without rice there would not be sushi. The very word "sushi" means "vinegared rice." There are a number of important factors to successful, delicious sushi rice. First, sushi rice is traditionally made using white, short or medium grain rice which will give you a soft, sticky consistency. This Sushi Rice recipe is made with short grain brown rice bringing whole grains to the meal. I also replaced the processed sugar used to make sticky sushi rice with 100% fruit sugar (date sugar) as the sweetener for the Sushi Rice. I was so excited to see how this Sushi Rice turned out and with this shift from traditional Sushi Rice, the meal met my DCW seal criteria.

Secondly, you will love a rice cooker if you are a sushi fan and if you want to make eating whole grains easier. An electric rice cooker delivers perfect, no fail rice for sushi even when making sushi rice with the short grain brown rice. I have just purchased my first Zojurishi rice cooker and used it to test this new Sushi Rice recipe, and I already love this machine. Previously I have used either my electric pressure cooker on rice mode or made it on the stove top and these methods both work fine. But the rice cooker is worth every cent to me because I want to make perfect rice every time and most of my days are very busy and I don’t have to babysit this machine - I simply add 2 ingredients - rinsed rice and water – the rice cooker does everything else. It is just so easy and convenient. I will make rice much more often now that I have this amazing rice cooker. You can make white or brown whole grain rice and in my rice cooker there is an option for steel cut oats and options for types of rice and how you like your rice cooked. I am excited to try all the variations of rice and grains in my rice cooker from Zojurishi.

I find that the flavor of rice just enhances when it has been cooked and then kept warm for at least 15 minutes but even a few hours it just keeps tasting better. You can use the warm cycle on the rice cooker or pressure cooker or leave the rice in the pan with the lid on and burner turned off to slowly cool down and let the rice stay warmed for 15 minutes or a few hours.

The best flavor for the sushi vinegar is when you dissolve the vinegar, date sugar and salt and heat on low on the stove. You can add this dissolved sushi vinegar to cooled rice and it works great. But when life gets busy in my house, I simply add each of the three ingredients to the “HOT” rice and toss until the sugar is dissolved and the rice looks glazed, and serve! The key here is this quick method only works if the rice is freshly cooked and really hot, and you have to toss until the hot rice dissolves the sugar and combines all the flavors. You know this is done when your rice gets that glazed look that makes Sushi Rice amazing.

The Sushi Rice that is traditionally white sushi rice is switched in this recipe for short grain brown rice that brings whole grains to this meal. The processed sugar traditionally in Sushi vinegar is switched for Date Sugar - a sugar sweetener that is made from 100% whole fruit. This is how I kicked up the healthy on this Sushi Rice and California Rolls meal and made it a healing meal that also checks the tasty and craveable box.

The brown rice enhances the flavor even more when you leave the rice warmed for 20 to 30 minutes before serving. You can even prepare your rice a few hours before serving and just leave on warm in the rice maker or leave in the pan you cooked it in with the lid on and the burner tuned off to stay warm until serving time.

Nori is another key ingredient in Sushi Rice and California Rolls. Nori is a dried edible seaweed made from red algae and used in Japanese cuisine to wrap rolls of sushi. It is considered one of the most nutritious plants on the planet and is considered a 'superfood' around the globe. Nori is a high protein and fiber food that is loaded with micronutrients our body needs. Nori contains Iodine — and iodine is a micronutrient we used to get abundantly from fortified salt but with so many chefs and home chefs switching to specialty salts that are not iodized — a source of iodine in the diet is important and Nori is just that food source of iodine. Nori is also an abundance of zinc and vitamins A and C in some seaweed. Nori contains vitamin B12 that is a key vitamin that especially vegetarians/vegans need to have a daily source; however, there are reports that the B12 in seaweed may not be absorbable for humans so we can’t rely on seaweed as a source of B12. This supports why B12 is one of the few vitamins that I recommend to supplement with either daily or weekly so we are sure to meet our daily recommended goal. If you are not a fan of Nori because of the stronger flavor, you might like these California Rolls because they are made with the rice on the outside and the Nori is hidden on the inside so you bite into the rice first and this weakens the strong Nori flavor – if it is not your favorite yet you want to use a roll up for your sushi that boosts more nutrients your body needs for optimal health.

You can use the bamboo sushi mats or simply use parchment paper.

The soy sauce mixed with a small amount of wasabi makes a delicious dipping sauce. The spicy mayo is also another delicious way to enjoy your Sushi California Rolls.

You can use any filling combination you like. We love the mango, avocado, ginger and also the mango, avocado, ginger with cucumber and carrots for those that love crunch. We drizzle soy sauce and spicy mayo across the filling before we roll it up. It is delicious. You can find your favorite filling combination – just watch out for over-filling because that makes it harder to roll up.

Top this Sushi Meal with Edamame, lightly boiled in the pod and perfectly salted, a classic Japanese appetizer. They are delicious to snack and add a nutritional punch of quality plant protein to keep you full. Follow the directions to learn how easy it is to prepare these young soybean pods with the authentic Japanese method. Edamame is immature soybeans in the pod. The pods are boiled or steamed and may be served with coarse salt or other condiments. The dish has become popular across the world because it is rich in vitamins, dietary fiber, and isoflavones. Edamame are a great whole plant protein with just one cup of shelled edamame loaded with just under 18 grams of protein and 8 grams of fiber and just 7 grams of net Carbs. It is naturally low in carbs, high in protein and fiber, cholesterol-free, gluten-free and low in calories. They are very mild in taste and can be prepared in a variety of ways. I keep my freezer stocked with bags of edamame in the pod. These simply need to be cooked in a small amount of water and brought to a boil for 2 to 3 minutes and drained and ready to serve. A super quick, very healthy addition to any meal and a great way to add that plant protein that I recommend to part of every perfect plate meal. You can also buy shelled edamame and blanch them quickly and add to any salad or meal to boost the plant protein and fiber at that meal.

These Sushi California Rolls are delicious made ahead for a lunch on the go the next day. You can make one or two rolls of the Sushi California Rolls and slice them up and place in a sealed rubbermaid container packed tight and if you drizzle a small amount of your favorite dipping sauce inside the sushi roll before rolling it up you will have a delicious on-the-go lunch. These will last sealed in the refrigerator 1 to 2 days for the best fresh flavor.

The PLATE: This meal hits all the food combinations needed to create the perfect plate. A meal built on 90% or more whole plant foods not processed. You are getting a whole grain with this Sushi Rice that I made from switching the white sushi rice for short grain brown rice giving you 25% of your plate coming from whole grains. The refined sugar traditionally in Sushi Rice was replaced with 100% fruit sugar using date sugar in the Sushi Rice and this meets the goal for fruit on the plate and the fillings in the sushi roll add more of the vegetables that make up half of your plate. The Edamame appetizer adds the whole plant protein needed at each meal and the avocado and the sesame seeds add the healthy plant fats you need at each meal for the perfect plate that heals. This meal has it all!

This meal also hits all 5 validation steps to earn my Food is Medicine DCW Seal.
#1. Taste: Taste tested with 80% of the taste testers giving this a 10 out of 10 for flavor and enjoyment.
#2. The Plate: The meal meets the food combinations of The Plate. See Tip #11 for more about The Plate. Traditional Sushi misses this mark because it uses refined white sushi rice and adds a lot of processed sugars make the sushi rice sticky. I created my Sushi Rice in this recipe with whole grain rice and a 100% fruit sweetener to check this box, and created a sticky short grain brown rice that was delicious – you will never miss the traditional Sushi rice.
#3. Recipe Accuracy: Recipe is created with ingredients and portions that are accurate and are easy to follow instructions.
#4. DCW Recommended Nutrient Intake: Recipe is analyzed and meets the DCW criteria for nutrition recommendations
#5. Food as Medicine: Making meals that heal the body, reduce inflammation, prevent and treat health conditions, live your healthy weight, and help you live more healthy years. The meal is built to fuel the cells optimally by reducing and delaying the post meal blood sugar response — meaning the meal will not spike your blood sugar above 50 points 2 hours post meal. This is how you improve insulin sensitivity and improve post meal energy - feeling more energy after a meal instead of an energy slump after a meal. It will also cut the cravings and crush the hunger and help you achieve your healthy weight. This meal helps you naturally lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure and reduce inflammation in your body. This is a true example of a meal that heals — Food as medicine at its best while eating the foods you love.

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Lundberg Organic Short Grain Brown Rice, 32-Ounce
Japanese brown rice
Date Sugar - Organic Sugar Substitute Made From 100% Dates by Just Date
ONE ORGANIC Sushi Nori Premium Roasted Organic Seaweed (50 Full Sheets)
Pickled Sushi Ginger
Rice Cooker that I love
Bamboo Sushi Rolling Mat

Nutrition facts

Serving size

2 full Sushi California Rolls with ½ cup edamame appetizer per person

Amount per serving

Calories

501

Protein

Total carbohydrate

Dietary fiber

Added sugars

Total fat

Cholesterol

omega 3 short chain fatty acids

Sodium

926

Potassium

1159

Vitamin c

Iron

Calcium

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