Maki sushi with black rice and marinated carrot
Before I turned vegetarian, if you were to ask me what my favourite food was, I´d answer without hesitation: sushi. Not only was it the perfect combination of flavours and textures, it was also the dish I enjoyed most making together as a family. After abandoning meat and fish from my diet, I found making sushi to be a bit less fun for a while. Since I simply continued making my favourite maki sushi – rice, cucumber, raw carrot, avocado and tuna, but now minus the tuna, the result would be okay, but not overly inspiring.
But as I soon realised, being a vegetarian or vegan isn´t about missing out on the food you used to like, it´s an opportunity to get creative and discover flavours, ingredients and preparation modes you never thought of before. Enter my new favourite dish: sushi 2.0, starring black rice and marinated roasted carrot. Vibrant, healthy and full-flavoured.
Black rice is one of my recent discoveries and since, I´ve been trying to sneak it into as many dishes as I can. It has the health benefits of regular wholegrain rice, but after cooking it has a caramel-like sticky finish and such a deep rice flavour you´ll happily eat it straight from the pan without additional flavouring. The stickyness and flavour make it a suitable as well as a very easy base for sushi, because there´s no need to infuse it before use. The gorgeous, autumnal looks are just an added bonus.
The marinated carrot is inspired by the many recipes for carrot lox you can find online. In these recipes thin slices of carrot are marinated to mimic the looks and flavour of smoked salmon, usually as a topping for bagels and mock salmon sandwiches. Generally I don´t really see the need for vegetarian food to try and imitate meaty dishes, but I do love the creative way in which these recipes turn a humble carrot into the star of a dish.
For this autumnal sushi I´ve been experimenting with different marinades, ranging from bold, smoky, miso-based mixtures to light and fresh flavours and ended up with a firm favourite. In this one, the carrots are roasted whole, then cut into long, thick strips and marinated in a simple mixture of soy sauce, rice vinegar, rapeseed oil and sea weed flakes.
The sea weed gives the carrots a hearty, bold umami punch without being overpowering. In fact, it´s so good you might want to skip the sushi making and just serve the carrots in smaller chunks with nibbles and drinks. But if you stick to the original plan, the carrot strips combine wonderfully with the cucumber and avocado, lifting up the result from okay to plain YUM.
I hope you´ll enjoy it as much as I (and my girls – and their playdates) do. And I´m curious: how do you feel about vegetarian food mimicking meaty dishes? Do you have any favourites when it comes to that?
Have a great day, all of you.
Maki sushi with black rice and marinated carrot – makes about 30
Ingredients
- 2 large carrots, unpeeled
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
- 2 tsp. rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp. rapeseed oil
- 1 tbsp. sea weed flakes (ao nori), or 1 crumbled nori sheet
- 200 g Tuscan black rice
- 2 avocados, peeled, stoned and cut lengthwise into thick strips
- 1 cucumber, halved, deseeded and cut lengthwise into thick strips
- pack of cress, snipped
- 4 sushi nori sheets
- soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger, to serve
Preparation
Start by preparing the carrots, preferably a day beforehand.
Heat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas 6. Cover the carrots with aluminium foil and roast them, depending on their size, for 30-45 minutes until just tender.
Meanwhile, whisk the soy sauce, vinegar and oil together and stir in the sea weed flakes. Take the carrots out of the oven and leave them to cool a bit. When cool enough to handle, peel the carrots and cut them into long, 1x1cm thick strips. Pour over the marinade and leave to cool, then cover and chill for at least 3 hours or overnight.
Tip the rice into a pan, along with 400 ml of cold water. Cover the pan, bring to a boil, then simmer for 30-35 minutes until the rice is tender and all the water has been absorbed. Turn off the heat and leave the rice to stand for 10 more minutes. Now cool down the rice quickly by spreading it onto a baking sheet or a large plate and covering it with a slightly damp tea towel.
Cover a sushi rolling mat with cling film or slide it into a ziplock bag. Place a nori sheet on the mat, shiny side down. Spread a thin layer of rice evenly over the sheet, leaving the top third uncovered. Place the filling ingredients across the middle of the rice: a strip of carrot, a strip of cucumber, a row of avocado strips and a generous amount of cress. Rolling the mat away from you, encase the filling in the rice. Dampen the top border of the nori with a little water, then roll up the sushi and seal.
Repeat with the remaining ingredients.
Using a sharp knife, cut the rolls into neat rounds, rinsing the knife under hot water before every piece to prevent sticking.
Enjoy with a little soy sauce, pickled ginger and a dollop of wasabi.
