do it anyway.
Pomegranate and Basil Rolls (page 77)
Making sushi with friends is a great way to catch up while preparing a delicious meal
Mushroom “Spider” Rolls (page 90)
With every last bit of spunk and chutzpah I had remaining, I boarded a Greyhound bus with a one-way ticket to LA and less than $300 in my pocket. I was practically broke, mostly homeless, and always hungry. But sushi school did not disappoint. It was a magical time of learning and work that I would repeat with no regrets. I soaked up every bit of information available to me. I placed my cutting board as close to the sensei as possible every day. I studied, practiced, and went well beyond my required intern hours before the session was halfway done. And when I finished school, I decided that LA was not the place for a broke, homesick Mississippi girl. I moved to Memphis, Tennessee and began my professional sushi career as the chef of a small local sushi bar.
One of the things I realized while working there was that people wanted to take sushi into their own hands. But it was elusive, and sushi classes often made them feel more intimidated. There were sushi secrets that they wanted to know but couldn’t find. I often thought back to the days when I was trying to learn to make sushi. Why weren’t there simple methods? Why couldn’t people experiment? And why did sources insist that would-be home chefs buy expensive equipment that they most likely would never use? Necessity had truly been the mother of invention with most of my early sushi recipes and methods. I began a blog and series of workshops to help people create sushi in their home kitchens. And in 2012, Sushi Secrets: Easy Recipes for the Home Cook was released.
Why vegetarian sushi?
As soon as I submitted Sushi Secrets, I knew that its follow-up had to be a book that focused strictly on vegetarian sushi. One of the biggest things that appealed to me when writing Vegetarian Sushi Secrets was that it took a few leaps in the direction of debunking that all-too-familiar myth that sushi must contain raw fish.
What can I say? I suppose I like a challenge…or two. When I shared my intentions, well-meaning family and friends voiced a common concern: “How will you ever come up with enough vegetarian recipes to fill a sushi book?” Yet I found just the opposite problem. Unlike our diminishing access to thinly stretched seafood species, fresh vegetables and fruits are highly accessible. Many communities have a corner specialty grocer or a neighborhood farmers’ market. Backyard-gardening enthusiasts are sprouting up everywhere and cultivating that primal urge to dig in and get their hands a little dirty before dinner. With so many options available, it was quite a challenge to look each edible plant family in the eye, so to speak, and deem only some of them sushi-worthy, at least for the purposes of this book.
Edamame Hummus (page 45)
Sushi is serious business, as you can see!
I am not a vegetarian. Beginning in my teenage years, however, I did spend a little over a decade following a vegetarian lifestyle. During that time I learned many lessons—the biggest being how not to feed a vegetarian. Perhaps my experience with living that lifestyle instilled in me a unique vegetarian sensitivity that I carried over into my world of sushi.
In Vegetarian Sushi Secrets, you’ll discover potentially problematic ingredients to avoid when stocking your pantry, learn techniques for creating sushi-bar–style sushi, and gain vegetarian-friendly recipes for recreating some of sushi’s most famous rolls. You’ll encounter some new creations, too, of course. I encourage you to at least read about the different types of sushi before you get ready to roll. Each chapter is organized by sushi techniques, and offers delicious ways to become more familiar with each sushi form. Of course, you can’t live on sushi alone, so soups and appetizers, salads and pickles, and desserts and drinks are presented to help create balanced sushi experiences.
In the end, I hope you’ll use these methods and recipes as a guide to help you create your own unique style of sushi, or perhaps to learn how to recreate that delicious item from your favorite sushi bar. At the heart of all truly good sushi made in your home kitchen is the knowledge that practice makes perfect, but even mistakes taste incredibly wonderful. If there is any one thing to focus on, it would be to have fun.
Happy Sushi!
Types of Sushi
Are you ready to roll?
First things first. Having a basic knowledge of sushi types, proper pantry staples, equipment, sushi-rice making, and recipes for sauces and condiments that you will use over and over again is the foundation of sushi success. Learning about various sushi types can expand your horizons. After purchasing sushi pantry staples, prevent waste by learning to store items properly. Improvising and using tools you already have on hand will save money.
When most people think of sushi, maki, or rolled sushi, is what comes to mind. But sushi takes many forms, each with its own unique flavor and preparation.
NIGIRI SUSHI
Nigiri hand-formed sushi is the crown jewel of sushi. It consists of a bed of rice with a spectacularly simple yet beautiful topping. Even in vegetarian preparations, the most unique and flavorful toppings are draped over a carefully prepared bed of rice. Nigiri is meant to be experienced topping-side first. To eat it, forget the chopsticks! Pick the sushi up with your fingers, flip it upside down, and place it on your tongue topping-side down. If it requires soy sauce, dip the topping rather than the rice to avoid a mess. Many vegetables will require a quick dip in boiling water or a dance across a sauté pan to release their aroma and improve their texture before adorning nigiri sushi.
INARI SUSHI
Fried tofu that has been simmered in a sweetened soy broth forms an edible pouch for sushi rice. The rice can be stuffed inside the pouch, then covered with assorted toppings. It may also be tossed with other ingredients before being stuffed inside the pouches. Unlike most forms of sushi, inari sushi is not meant to be eaten in a single bite. The filling and the delicious casing that surrounds it are multi-bite delights that deliver a big impact for very little effort.
GUNKAN-MAKI
Like nigiri sushi, gunkan-maki begins as a little bed of hand-shaped rice. A wide strip of nori is placed around the rice to form a wall that can be filled. The fillings are usually too moist or loose to be used to fill a cut sushi roll. Gunkan-maki are sometimes referred to as “battleship maki,” the literal meaning of the name.
HOSO-MAKI
These are simple, thin sushi rolls that feature the nori on the outside. Inside, a minimal amount of sushi rice is paired with one or perhaps two show-worthy fillings, like a pickle, or a vegetable simmered in flavored broth.
FUTO-MAKI
If you prefer many fillings at once, these thick sushi rolls will quickly become your
