Alternate title:
“How a First-Time Sushi-Making Food Blogger Celebrating Meatless Monday
Plays Sushi Chef!”
Yeah, I figured that was a bit of a mouthful! 😉
Put your paws up for not eating anything WITH PAWS (or hooves, or wings, or fins, or pinchers…) on MEATLESS MONDAY! Be sure to head on over to my namesake’s blog at Better with Veggies to see what everyone else is whipping up for the
first official week of MMAZ!
Anyone happen to notice the cabbage-filled sushi rolls in yesterday’s collage? Well, those just happen to be my very FIRST homemade sushi rolls! I was a little nervous making these so I was sure to make out a list so I didn’t leave anything out…
Step 1: Go to the International supermarket and buy a pack of chopsticks and an Asian-y plate for the sole purpose of this post.
Also, grab a pack of seaweed salad “just in case” you need it as a food prop.
Step 2: Load up your veggies and roll them up in a nori sheet. Then UNROLL them, straighten your asparagus, re-stack your avocados, and curse a little under your breath pick off rogue bits of carrot so you can take a picture.
Step 3: Hold your breath as you slow roll your roll BACK up and use a bread knife to SAW it into pieces since your “good knife” is at the bottom of a sink full of dirty dishes.
And if WHEN you have a few rejects?
Step 4: Laugh at yourself and take a picture.
Then eat destroy the evidence!
Step 5: Take 56 pictures of your sushi masterpiece all the while realizing you know absolutely NOTHING about food styling for sushi rolls. After 15 shots, ditch the bowl of soy sauce and break out the emergency seaweed!
Um, I SAID ditch the soy sauce!
You’re not listennnnnnnnning.
Thank you!
Step 6: Be sure to strategically place your new shiny chopsticks so that they are included in nearly every shot.
Except for the one where you actually have to PICK UP the sushi…then go with the kiddie ones you stole from the Japanese restaurant.
Step 7: Laugh at yourself and take a picture.
Step 8: Try to get fancy and play stack-a-sushi.
Be sure to include those chopsticks in the frame.
Step 9: Pat yourself on the back when you accidentally get a “cool looking” shot.
Decide that you better not press your luck much more, pack everything up, shut off the camera and enjoy dinner at the kitchen table while standing in front of your lightbox.
And as you wipe your mouth on your sleeve and look down at the THREE plates and a FORK you just dirtied up for ONE person for dinner (not to mention the mess in the kitchen)…
Step 10: Laugh at yourself and take a picture.
Avocado Cabbage Sushi
by
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Keywords: steam roast entrée vegan vegetarian avocado Japanese
Ingredients (Serves 1)
- 1 cup shredded cabbage or coleslaw mix
- 2 nori sheets
- 1/2 avocado, sliced
- 4 spears asparagus
- 1/4 cup shredded carrots
- soy sauce for dipping
Instructions
1. Set oven to low broil.
2. Spread cabbage on a baking sheet, lightly mist with cooking spray, and roast for 6-7 minutes or until wilted.
3. Steam asparagus by preferred method.
4. Remove cabbage from oven and allow to cool until able to handle.
5. Arrange nori sheets on a flat surface.
6. Add cabbage, asparagus spears, avocado, and carrots.
7. Using your hands, carefully roll nori around the veggies (I spritzed a little water on the end to help it seal).
8. Cut into slices using a sharp knife with quick strokes (or carefully saw into it with a bread knife ;))
9. Serve with soy sauce.
Pretty darn MARVELOUS if you ask me…especially since it’s of the sushi variety that even Baby G can enjoy! 😉
Have you ever made your own sushi?
What’s in your favorite roll?
This recipe rocks… but I already know mine wouldn’t turn out as pretty as yours!
YES! A sushi mama and baby g can enjoy for sure! LOVE it! Love the seaweed salad on the side too! You are marvelous! I have nori wraps and I bought imitation crab to go in them, I had sushi yesterday! No fish of course, Mike did and I was drooling! So soon I will have my sushi rolls back!
This is a awesome combo, yum!
Happy Monday beauty! Hope you are feeling good and hope you had a good easter too! <3
haha love it!!! we love our sushi! we are not the best at taking ‘pretty’ pictures of our sushi rolls either, we need to keep working on it haha
I am impressed! Eric and I got a sushi-making kit for Christmas but I am way to intimidated to actually try it. One day though!
Awww, c’mon!!! Just go for it!! It’s fun…as long as you throw all perfectionism tendencies out the door! 😉
I heart sushi!
Haha your posts always manage to make me laugh.
Love your use of the strategic seaweed salad and chopsticks. But love the kiddy chopsticks you had even more 🙂
It sounds like you had a great time laughing at yourself, and your pictures came out incredible, which doesn’t surprise me at all. My favorite might be the rejects and your stolen chopsticks.
I loves making sushi… But my tools never survive the slicing. The one I posted long ago with
Premature button pushing!!!
And way. I did one with parsnip rice and ended up with like 5 rolls before I finally got one picture-worthy.
Also, you need to actually use your alternate post titles one day. Sheer genius.
This MIGHT be one type of sushi I can get in to!! Im not a fan of fish….at all, so I don’t eat the regular sushi. But this? I can probably do this stuff!! But only if you make it for me 🙂
As long as you give me a go at your punching bag, you’ve got yourself a deal! Oh…and make me some of those bean brownies too! 😀
These look delicious!
I just made my first ever sushi rolls that I posted up on my blog yesterday; snap hehe!
Rejects always need to be disposed of heeh 😉 but you got there in the end…they look so yummy!
No way! That’s awesome! Great minds think alike, huh? 😀
I ate rolls yesterday as well and it occurred to why i never make this at home – you just inspired me! Have a marvelous Monday 🙂 🙂
This looks so good! I am the only one of my friends that won’t eat sushi (unless its vegetarian- raw fish? No thanks.) I am going to have to make these- they won’t miss the fish!
xx Kait
Oooooh you did it!!! Nori rolls and how pretty are they!!! I always make me a base of something moussey like mashed beans, hummus, broccolimousse that holds ’em a bit better together. Still, they don’t look as pretty as yours but we had that before with the pancakes so I get used to it 🙂 happy monday love!!!
Yes ma’am!! And now I want to roll EVERYTHING up in a nori sheet! Lol
Funny, I totally thought about adding hummus, but ended up forgetting. I’ll have to try that soon!
Considering my love for avocado, asparagus, carrots, AND green cabbage, these pretty much sound like the perfect thing for me to make. AWESOME pictures, too!! 🙂
You know what’s marvelous?! YOU! Omigosh you had me laughing hardcore this whole post, especially because I can totally relate to the whole behind-the-scenes picture taking thought process. And the kiddie chopsticks? Uhm… I definitely need a pair of those! The few times I tried to eat with chopsticks were an absolute disaster and I finally gave up and turned to traditional cutlery when I started feeling hungry enough to eat my own arm off. You might say that I know nothing about sushi and you’d be correct. I’m totally not a fan of fish, which is why I’ve been avoiding sushi up to this point, and it wasn’t until a little while ago that I learned there was actually meatless (aka: fishless) sushi to enjoy. I may have to look into it, but no promises that I’ll be making my own any time soon!
I made nori maki for the first time last summer . . . and it was so fun! Since then, I’ve made them a bunch of times, and it’s fun to be creative with whatever ingredients you have on hand. All these pics have me totally craving sushi now!
Oh my gosh, these look amazing! I’ve got to try them out. Especially since I hate all the meat/crab/fish usually put in sushi. Totally not a fan of that.
I’m super impressed with all your shots. You are too awesome. I would for sure fail at this task, but I love how you made this funny to read through:)
Happy Monday!
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I LIKE.
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I usually make homemade hand rolls ( salmon, avo, lettuce, hot sauce) but I’m thinking the addition of asparagus will make it easier to roll & chop. I get so angry when I try making sushi – why is it so hard?! I even took a sushi-making class once and had an aneurysm from trying to get the rice-veg ratio right. My rolls were like the size of those Wagon Wheel cookies. Hahaha I suck.
Bahahaha! Omg, I’m dying Jo!! DYING!
I’ve made my own sushi before! It’s not too hard to make, but it’s hard to make it look pretty – mine always come out a bit smooshed. 😛 Yours look really good though, especially considering you didn’t have any rice to help bind it together. I’m impressed!
My favourite roll is any one with salmon in it!
Aww, thanks girlie! I have to admit I was a little proud of myself for this one… *pats self on back* 😉
that actually looks very yummy 🙂 I have a few Asian dishwear at my house but now I want to hit up the store in Japantown and get some more. I have made sushi once. Okay everything was prepared for me, I just had to assemble it. So much harder than it looks, but still yummy 🙂
Haha oh my goodness this literally is EXACTLY how my sushi making went down last week. Right down to the pile of dishes…
Hahaha! Nice! Now I don’t feel so bad! Lol
PS, you were totally my inspiration! 😀
This sounds amazing! I would love to try to make sushi at home and no fish sushi would probably be a safe place to start although I know mine would look much less perfect than yours!
YUMMY!! I made my own sushi once.. and haven’t since. I will need to try it again.. It turned out great 🙂 I like your addition of cabbage.
What a great job!!! I’ve never made my own sushi and it’s likely I’d fail miserably!!
I haven’t made my own sushi in years! Yours looks delicious! I love asparagus but have never had it in sushi!
Your first sushi attempt looks BEAUTIFUL!! And I love that you put asparagus in it! My first sushi attempts left me with a very messy kitchen also…back in college, when I had no idea how to clean it all up 😉
And thank goodness you grabbed a pack of seaweed salad just in case. I’d like to live off of that! Plus, you got a really great deal on it (random, but that price is awesome!).
Oh yeah, that’s what I thought too! I ended up getting like three servings out of it!! Score!
Umm yes. All of this in my mouth now, please. Pretty, pretty please???
Yum! I love vegetable sushi, it would be so nice to make it at home! Although, the rolling seems difficult 🙂
It really wasn’t as hard as it sounds! I didn’t even use a rolling mat! Of course, if all else fails, you can always have a bowl of “deconstructed sushi”! 😀
Heather,
I swear I first read that there were blueberries in this sushi roll, and I was really wondering what you were thinking of. This, however, looks lovely, crazy level of food styling or not! Did you roll with an Old Bamboo (my kids’ term for the bamboo rolling mat)? I actually prefer my serrated knives to cut my rolls (wiping the blade frequently because I use rice and it gets sticky).
I make sushi a fair amount in the summer, with whatever I’ve got on hand, but unagi hand rolls are my ultimate favorite. Especially those made at Aloha Sushi near the airport in Honolulu–that was my favorite dive for sushi when we lived nearby.
Thanks!
Actually, I just used my hands! I bought a bamboo mat about a year ago when I had announced to the world that I was going to become a bonafide sushi maker, but then it got stuffed away in a drawer (somewhere!?) and forgotten about! Oops? I’m not sure about trying my hand at rolls with actual rice in them yet…I foresee many a cursing moment as rice gets stuck to any and all parts of my body and my kitchen…but I DO want to give quinoa rolls a go!
Unagi hand rolls? Are those the ones that look like snow cones? Lol
My dad actually makes delicious homemade sushi. I need to learn his ways. My favorite rolls are California, Futomaki, and Cucumber Maki. I need to expand my sushi choices though. Starting with your Avocado Cabbage Roll 😉
Oh, yum!!! I tried making my own sushi rolls once, they were the size of a good sized cookie…didn’t quite get the amount of rice right. And I too laughed at myself in the process. I LOVE sushi, will be having it for lunch tomorrow. Normal sized sushi. 🙂 Have a great Tuesday.
Look at you go! Your sushi rolls are like a rainbow of deliciousness – mine would have looked like a rainbow fell out of the sky ;P
I think that making my own sushi rolls should go on my bucket list. They seem so intimidating, but I bet they are manageable (and delicious) once you get started!
They really aren’t as scary as they seem! I was always intimidated too, but I was surprised with how well they came together…maybe not the prettiest, but hey, it all tastes the same, right? 😉
This post was a FABULOUS mood booster this morning. 🙂 I need to start eating everything with chopsticks again. Seriously, it became a problem for awhile…
I can’t say I’ve ever made sushi, but I do love to spend time at the Asian market. Maybe I can just learn by osmosis.
Your sushi looks great and this post is hilarious! I actually just made sushi for the first time about a week ago, after months and months of procrastination, and was surprised by how easy and fun it was!
Aww, thank you Sasha! And yay for homemade sushi! I swear I couldn’t believe I waited so long to try making it!