How to Make Vegetarian Sushi

With its infinite variety, vegetarian sushi will please the palates of vegetarians and adventurous meat-eaters. You can change up the ingredients in this vegetable sushi roll recipe in many ways, creating a whole host of different sushi rolls. This recipe calls for snow pea pods, red bell pepper, shredded carrots and avocado, but you can experiment with a host of minced or chopped veggies.

First, you'll want to make yourself a batch of sushi rice.

Sushi Rice Recipe

Ingredients You Will Need:
1 cup sushi rice
1 cup water
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon mirin
1 inch kelp leaf

Rinse the rice in cold water until the water runs mostly clear. Pour the rice into a strainer and let it drain into the sink for 45 minutes.

Cook the rice and water in your rice cooker according to directions.

While rice is cooking, combine rice vinegar, sugar, salt, mirin and kelp leaf in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring gently until sugar is dissolved completely. Remove from heat, and let cool to room temperature. Remove the kelp leaf after mixture has cooled.

Let rice sit in rice cooker for 10 minutes after done cooking.

Combine cooked rice with vinegar mixture in a mixing bowl. As you mix the rice and vinegar sauce, fan the rice to removed excess moisture. Mix the rice carefully, trying to break as few grains of rice as possible. Let the rice sit until it has cooled to body temperature, and then prepare it according to the particular sushi recipe you are following.

Vegetable Sushi Roll Recipe

Ingredients You Will Need:
Nori, cut into sheets, toasted
1 cup freshly prepared sushi rice
½ cup snow pea pods, steamed and cooled
¼ cup thinly sliced red bell pepper
¼ cup shredded carrots
½ avocado, peeled and sliced

Lay nori on bamboo mat with the shiny side down. Press a thick layer of sushi rice onto the nori, leaving room at the end to seal the roll. Layer pea pods, pepper, carrots and avocado on the rice. Carefully roll the sushi log, pressing to compress the log. Using a sharp knife, slice the log into twelve pieces. Serve vegetable sushi roll with wasabi and soy sauce.