In my post the other day about Caribbean Inspired Meals and Recipes, I asked everyone what types of ethic food you like, and also what you’d like to make more of on your own at home. One thing I’d like to try my hand at is making sushi at home and reader Beth mentioned that the raw chef Karen Knowler has a good sushi making video (raw vegan sushi) that does not require a rolling mat. Katie has told me she doesn’t use a mat, either. And Alisa just posted yesterday about her vegan sushi hand rolls that don’t need a mat, as well as her recipe for brown “sushi rice”. Cute video and really, she’s just making a wrap. It’s not rocket science. There is no rice and she just puts the fillings into the nori and rolls it up. Seems simple enough! I have made the following 3 wraps using the lay it down and wrap it up method. No fancy rolling mat required: 1. Raw Vegan Cabbage Wraps I make about a dozen Cabbage Wraps at a time and store some for later. They seem to keep very nicely for about 48 hours in the fridge. 2. Raw Vegan Cucumber Wraps Or you could swap out the Cucumber wrappers for zucchini wrappers. Cukes or zukes, doesn’t matter. 3. Fresh Vegan Spring Rolls and 2-Minute Peanut Sauce Dip with 2 Minute Peanut Sauce So that’s how I Wrap. From my picture filled post yesterday with the sights I saw on my neighborhood walk, thanks for the compliments on the pictures. Playing with my new camera is so fun! Questions 1. What foods do you like to wrap up? I like to wrap up any kind of veggies. I like rice paper the best because it seems to hold the best but most times sometimes I am too lazy to be bothered with wrapping things and I just eat them as a salad in a bowl, topped with a nut pate and the sauce drizzled over. 2. Have you ever made sushi at home? Or any other types of wraps that are veggie-based? I think adding in the rice + nori sheets is where my brains says, ok that’s “sushi” and everything else is just a wrap. I want to try to make “sushi”, not just wraps. I have also heard that sushi rice is quite an art to perfect, so in addition to the rolling part, I need to learn how to cook sushi rice. 3. For those of you who have made sushi (with rice + nori) at home, should I still get a sushi rolling mat? Not like they are that expensive but just trying to not buy anything I don’t absolutely need. I do notice that the cucumber rolls, the cabbage rolls, and Karen’s version of nori rolls in the video, all seem to fall apart a bit because it’s impossible to get them really “tight”. So I can imagine that real sushi would be tricky to get really tight so it stays together with the proper tools, i.e. a mat. With my spring rolls, those stay together very well because the rice paper holds everything in and seals together like “glue”. 4. Weekend plans? I’m working and also trying to spend some time with the family when I’m not working. Hopefully the weather stays nice and I can get a nice outdoor walk or run in, too! See you later on with a Give Away!
