Vegan Quinoa Beet Sushi

Good morning and happy Thursday! I wrote this post last evening, so it is ready to go for you today.

We had sushi for dinner a couple weeks ago to change things up a bit. Yet I bet you can garner from the title that our sushi wasn’t the typical ones you’d find in a Sushi restaurant. I totally thought I was being creative when I first came up with the idea of using quinoa instead of rice, but it turned out that a lot of people have already paved the way for quinoa sushi before me. Darn. But the reason why I decided to use quinoa instead of rice wasn’t because of the sudden hype surrounding the quinoa.

Quinoa, as many of you may already know, is much more nutritious than white rice (which is essentially nothing more than a bowl of refined sugars). Quinoa provides us with protein, fiber, and other nutrients; therefore, it is much better for our bodies than white rice. Quinoa is a complex carbohydrate and isn’t processed, so not only does it provide us with more nutrients, our bodies also burn it much more efficiently for us to use. Complex carbohydrates break down at a slower rate than simple carbohydrates. This, in turn, gives us more energy without the peaks and valleys that simple carbs give us because a small amount of sugar is consistently being released in our bodies throughout the day (very ideal for endurance sports). So go quinoa and complex carbohydrates!

My, my, what delicious veggies we have here!

Ingredients: (You can cut the ingredients in half if you’d like) – we were cooking for 7 people

• 2 cups uncooked quinoa
• 4 cups water
• 1 cup rice vinegar
• 4 teaspoons honey
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 6 sheets Nori seaweed
• 2 ripe avocados (peeled, pitted, and sliced)
• 6 Persian cucumbers (cut into matchsticks)
• 2 medium red beets (boiled, peeled, and cut into matchsticks)
• 1 cup micro greens or sprouts (rinsed and dried)

Instructions:

1. Cook the quinoa by putting the quinoa and water into the pot. Bring the pot to a boil and then lower it to a simmer and cover the pot. Occasionally stir the quinoa and cook it until all of the liquid has been absorbed.
2. While the quinoa is cooking, add the rice vinegar, honey, and salt into a small saucepan. Leave it over medium heat and bring it to a simmer, keep it warm until the quinoa is ready. Once the quinoa is cooked, pour the vinegar mixture into the pot. Mix it well and then cover the pot until the liquid has been absorbed/evaporated. Remove the quinoa from the heat, spread it out on a plate, cover it with plastic wrap, and then let it cool.
3. Lay the bamboo mat on a flat surface to assemble the sushi rolls. Cover the mat with plastic wrap and then place one sheet of seaweed on top. Spread a layer of quinoa over the seaweed while leaving some space at the edges. Arrange the filling ingredients in the center of the quinoa: beets, micro greens, avocados, and cucumbers. The order doesn’t really matter.
4. Start rolling the sushi with the edge that is closest to you. Use the bamboo mat to help you press the sushi as you go, making the sushi tighter.
5. Cut the sushi into about 1 inch thick rolls and arrange them on a plate. Other than the sticky rice texture, they don’t taste very different from regular sushi!

Hope you have an awesome Thursday! Give this recipe a shot, it’ll taste lovely. Promise. I mean, how could the sushi not taste good? They’re jammed with delicious veggies that are power packed with nutrients after all. Have a great day!

Related posts:

Spanish “Rice” Bowl Farro With Mushroom and Spinach (vegan) Healthy Inari Sushi Wild Rice Beet Salad