If you love sushi, I believe It is hard not to enjoy this vegan sushi, even though this one going to be a complicated recipe, I hope you are up for it!
I love getting inspired and creating something wholly crazy and huge out of it. A video on youtube inspired this vegan quinoa sushi, and I thought that would be amazing. Quinoa is healthy, and they even look like miniature rice — what a perfect idea.
At this recipe, I put about five different fillings for the sushi. You don’t have to use all of them if you don’t like one of them, choose the one that you prefer.
Among the five fillings, chickpea bean egg is my favorite one so far. I was looking at some recipes using chickpea flour and one even made it look like a scrambled egg, so I gave it a try and guess what? It worked!
Well, the taste wasn’t exactly like an egg, but it can so be a great replacement, as it’s flavourful as well. I might make more of those in the future.
The key reason to use the chickpea egg is trying to make it as yellow as you can, so use broth that’s light and yellowy rather than dark colors. I used Nature’s Promise brand, which I love. If you can’t find it, you can use water.
Another thing I loved doing was making the tofu steaks. If you don’t like tofu, you can use tempeh or anything that’s got a similar texture.
For the carrots, you may want to boil some water and briefly soak the carrots inside it, if you don’t like hard raw carrots. I know when I have too many raw carrots, my stomach gets pissed off.
Good luck making the sushi and don’t forget to dip it in some soy sauce.
- 1 packet Nori roasted seaweed sheets
- 1 cup quinoa
- 2 cups water
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon pure maple syrup
- A sprinkle of Himalayan/sea salt
- 5-6 baby carrots or 1 small carrot
- 1 cucumber
- ½ avocado
- ½ block extra firm tofu (or tempeh)
- 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon pure maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon Sesame seeds
- A pinch of red pepper flakes
- ¼ cup & 2 tablespoons garbanzo and fava flour
- ½ cup vegetable broth (with a light yellow/orange colour, I used Nature’s Promise)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 teaspoons nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon golden flaxseed meal
- ¼ teaspoon Himalayan/sea salt
- Sauce (optional, choices of): Tabasco, vegan mayonnaise, soy sauce.
- Dipping Sauce: Soy sauce and wasabi
- If using tofu, do this first (not for the tempeh though): Preheat oven to 225°F (107°C).
- Open the packet. Cut half the block and leave the other half in the packet. Drain out all the water, and press down firmly (without breaking it) to get rid of more water. Once you’ve pressed all you can to remove the water, get some paper towels and pat it dry.
- Lay the block on an oven tray and bake at 225F for about 2 hours, turning over to the other side after an hour. This will make the tofu nice and hard for later.
- To cook the Quinoa: In a small/medium saucepan, add the quinoa and water and bring it to a boil on high heat for about 6-8 minutes, then turn it to medium low (3-4) and simmer for about 18-20 minutes until the water is gone and the quinoa is nice and puffy.
- Once the quinoa is cooked, add the rice vinegar, maple syrup and salt. Stir until everything is well mixed and set aside.
- To cook the Tofu/tempeh: Chop the tofu/tempeh into small, rectangular strips and put them in a shallow plate or dish. Add the marinate sauce, including the soy sauce, sesame oil, paprika, maple syrup, sesame seeds and red pepper flakes. Carefully try and stir the sauce and even it out and let the tofu/tempeh soak in the marinade for about 5 minutes.
- Spray a frying pan with non-stick cooking oil and turn the heat to medium high (5-6). Lay the tofu steaks/tempeh slices on the frying pan without overlapping and drizzle the sauce on top. Let it cook for about 4-5 minutes on one side until it darkens and crisps, then flip and cook the other side. Do this until most of the sauce is dry and you’re left with darkened, dry tofu/tempeh steaks. Set them aside.
- To cook the Chickpea Bean egg: Mix the garbanzo and fava flour with the vegetable broth, corn starch, nutritional yeast, onion powder, garlic powder, golden flaxseed meal and salt. Stir until all the flour has dissolved and you don’t see little lumps anymore. (Looks like eggs, right?)
- Spray some non-stick cooking oil in the frying pan and pour the mixture on it, make a large circle shape and let it cook for about 4-5 minutes until you start seeing little bubbles and the bottom is dry enough to move around with a flat spatula. You may have to move the pan around as sometimes, it cooks things unevenly. Once the bottom doesn’t stick, carefully flip it over without breaking and cook for another 4-5 minutes until the bottom has turned golden. Take it out and cut it into thin strips like you would an egg used in sushi.
- To prepare the other ingredients: Cut the avocado in half and remove the giant seed, scoop it out with a spoon and slice it thinly.
- Chop the carrots and cucumber in long and thin pieces. Have everything ready.
- Assembling the Sushi: Prepare a small bowl of water near you. Lay one sheet of nori on a flat surface, preferably a large, wooden cutting board. Spoon the quinoa enough to cover the surface, without overloading it or putting too little.
- Align your choice of filling, such as tofu/tempeh, avocado, carrot, cucumber and chickpea bean egg in the centre, and roll it up from one side. Dab a little water on the end of the nori sheet on the other side so it sticks. If you want to add a sauce, do it now.
- Use a knife and cut the sushi carefully in small pieces and serve with soy sauce/wasabi.
[su_note note_color=”#fffabb”]Check my reviews:
- Recommended Juicers for Making Carrots Juice
- Top Vacuum Blenders to Avoid Oxidation
- The Facts Between Juicing versus Blending
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