Mexican Sushi With Roasted Poblano Peppers

You can make homemade sushi with just about anything!
A great dairy and gluten free meal.

Follow Foods For Long Life on Facebook and Pinterest.

What a month!
It's been a crazy busy month here on our farm. First we harvested 5 tons of Pinot Noir, then a little Sauvignon blanc for my private stash. We've also been harvesting lots of veggies, putting in a Zen garden, getting ready to paint the outside of our house, and enjoying visits from our son and daughter-in-law (Vaughn and Karina), as well as our daughter and her fiancé (Linda and Jim), and our nephew Cody. Later today, we look forward to a visit from my cousin Lisa and her husband Rob. On top of it all, I broke my toe last Thursday so I guess I'm going to slow down a bit whether I want to or not!

Part of our Pinot Noir harvest

Poblano Peppers
With the end of summer come lots of peppers. One of our most delicious and prolific is the poblano pepper so today we're going to mix two of our favorite cuisines - Mexican and Japanese by making sushi rolls with roasted poblano peppers and topping them with a spicy red sauce made from jalapeños and serrano peppers. 

See my post, "Make Your Own Hot Sauce" for the homemade hot sauce recipe.

Homemade hot sauce.

Sushi Rolls
Japanese sushi rolls are very versatile. You can roll just about anything in a sheet of Nori and call it a meal. Roasted vegetables are perfect, especially when paired with a creamy avocado and rice. If you enjoy fish, you can make a smoked salmon and avocado roll for breakfast instead of lox and bagels. The combinations are endless.

No need to use sushi rice as any short grain white rice can be sticky enough to be used in a roll. My favorite is Tamaki Haiga, which is white rice that still has the germ. Traditionally the rice is seasoned with rice vinegar and a bit of sugar.


                        *                                *                                *


Roasted Poblano Sushi
Vegan, Gluten and Dairy Free
[makes 4 rolls]

Requirements
Sushi matt

Ingredients
For the rice
1 cup uncooked sushi or short-grain white rice
2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
For the sushi rolls
3 or 4 large poblano peppers
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 sheets nori
1 avocado, cut into strips
1 cucumber, peeled and cut into strips
Hot sauce to taste

Directions
Cook rice according to directions on the stove, in your rice cooker, or in your Instant Pot. Make sure the rice is rinsed well before cooking.

While the rice is cooking, clean and cook the poblano peppers. Remove seeds and cut into slices. Heat the oil in a fry pan on medium heat. Add the peppers and sauté until they blister and soften, stirring occasionally. Set aside. 

The peppers tend to splatter so cover with a cooking screen.

Prepare the rice vinegar by warming the vinegar, sugar, and salt until all is dissolved. Stir this into the cooling rice.

To make the sushi rolls, place all of your ingredients nearby.

Place a sheet of Nori on the bamboo mat. Put one fourth of the prepared rice over the Nori starting one inch from the bottom. 

Place one fourth of the peppers, avocado, and a long strip of cucumber over the rice.

Using the sushi mat, roll from the bottom up. After the bottom edge is over the filling, squeeze it gently with the mat and then roll to the top. Wet the top of the Nori and complete the roll. The moisture will seal it. 

Cut the roll with a very sharp knife into 6 to 8 equal pieces. 

Dap a bit of hot sauce of each piece or serve with a tiny bowl of hot sauce.

Enjoy with a Mexican or Japanese beer!

Vegetarian Brown Rice Sushi with Roasted Eggplant, Peppers and Shitake Mushrooms

Sicilian eggplant, banana peppers and fresh shitake mushrooms.

Vegetables in large, shallow roasting pan.

Sushi being rolled on a bamboo mat.

A Sushi Dish that Appeals to All

This delicious, warm sushi roll has broad appeal. Besides the traditional raw fish lovers, this is a good sushi option for vegans and vegetarians. It is also a sushi alternative for pregnant women who are avoiding raw fish.

Brown Rice Sushi

The first time I had brown rice sushi was at a restaurant in Palo Alto that was actually named "Brown Rice Sushi". I was quite excited to think that I could eat one of my favorite foods and not have to eat white rice. It's not that I don't enjoy white rice, in fact I do. But from a nutritional point of view, I always opt for whole grain. Even though white rice is often fortified with many of the vitamins that were stripped out during the manufacturing process, cooked brown rice has much more fiber, about 4 grams per cup. White rice only has 1 gram per cup. We should all aim for at least 25 grams of fiber per day for optimal health and this recipe provides over 11 grams per roll. Fiber helps keep weight under control and can lower the risk of certain cancers, help prevent heart disease and diabetes while maintaining the health of the digestive tract. Besides being high in fiber, brown rice is also a very good source of magnesium, manganese and selenium. Although I know brown sushi rice exists, I've always just used short grain brown rice for making sushi and it comes out fine.

Oven Roasted Eggplant

Although eggplant is not a nutrient powerhouse, it is low in calories and high in fiber. Instead of the popular deep purple, elongated pear shaped "globe" eggplant, I like to use some of the smaller, lighter colored or streaked varieties available. They tend to be less bitter. I used 2 small streaked Sicilian eggplants also known as "zebra" or "graffiti" eggplants, when I developed this recipe. The long, thin Japanese or Chinese varieties would be really good to use also. One of the things to be careful about, when cooking with eggplant, is its affinity for oil. If you were to fry a slice of eggplant, it would soak up oil like a sponge so avoid fried or tempura eggplant in restaurants. They will be very high in fat and in calories. In this recipe, the vegetables are tossed in just a few teaspoons of sesame oil mixed with a few other seasonings and roasted with jalapeno and banana peppers, and shitake mushrooms. This gives the dish lots of flavor and not many calories.

***

Vegetarian Brown Rice Sushi with Roasted Eggplant, Peppers and Shitake Mushrooms [makes four 8 piece rolls]

For the Sushi

2 cups cooked short grain brown rice

5 teaspoons seasoned rice vinegar

2 teaspoons sugar

1/3 teaspoon sea salt

For the Marinade

2 cloves garlic, grated

2 teaspoons unrefined sesame oil

2 teaspoons agave syrup

2 tablespoons soy sauce

For the Sushi Roll

2 small eggplants (1 pound), cut into thin strips

3 red or green banana peppers (3/4 pound), cut into strips

8 fresh shitake mushrooms (1/4 pound), cut in half

4 small jalapeno peppers, cut in half

16 basil leaves (optional)

4 sheets Nori

Cook rice according to directions. While rice is cooking, prepare vegetables. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly grease a shallow, 12" x 14" roasting pan and set aside. Prepare the marinade by combining garlic, sesame oil, agave syrup and soy sauce. In a large bowl, toss the eggplant, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers and shitake mushrooms with the marinade until they are evenly coated. Spread all of the vegetables evenly in the lightly greased roasting pan and bake for 30 minutes, turning them after 15 minutes. Remove roasted vegetables from oven and set aside. When the rice is cooked, prepare the sushi rice. Heat vinegar, sugar and salt until it dissolves. Fold into the cooked rice while fanning it until it's sticky and no longer wet. To prepare the sushi rolls, place a sheet of Nori on a bamboo mat. Put 1/2 cup of rice over the Nori starting one inch from the bottom. Place one fourth of the eggplant, banana peppers, jalapenos, shitake mushrooms and basil leaves over the rice. Using the sushi mat, roll from the bottom up. After the bottom edge is over the filling, squeeze it gently with the mat and then roll to the top. Wet the top of the Nori and complete the roll. The moisture will seal it. Cut the roll with a very sharp knife into 8 equal pieces. Serve with extra soy sauce if desired.

Per roll: 235 calories, 3.8 g fat, 0.5 g saturated fat, 0 g cholesterol, 8.5 g protein, 43.4 g carbohydrates and 11.3 g of fiber.

Veggie Sushi Rolls—Healthy, Easy To Create And Delicious

Placing the veggies across the Nori before rolling.


Day 9 of our “One Month Raw Food Cleanse”
Once you get the hang of making a sushi roll, this is one of the fastest meals you can put together. Especially if you make a raw roll and skip the rice. This recipe can use up whatever veggies you have in the frig. Just keep Nori sheets on hand in case you need a quick sushi fix. They seem to have a long shelf live and don’t need refrigeration.

This recipe is very low in calories and saturated fat. If it’s just part of a main meal, one roll a person is enough. You may want two if it’s a dinner entrée. Even though it’s low in calories, it’s surprisingly filling. You can dip them in Nama Shoyu or mix up a little sauce with almond butter, rice vinegar, cayenne, Nama Shoyu and a bit of sweetener (honey, stevia or sugar). Experiment and see what you like.

***
Veggie Sushi Rolls [makes 4 rolls]
4 sheets of dried (not toasted) Nori
1 avocado, in slices
1 small red pepper, in strips
1/2 medium cucumber, peeled and in strips
1 cup clover sprouts
4 butter lettuce leaves, green part only
8 stalks asparagus, tough bottoms snapped off

Place a sheet of Nori on a bamboo sushi mat. Put one piece of butter lettuce over the Nori starting one inch from the bottom. Place the strips of pepper, cucumber and avocado across the lettuce. Put two asparagus spears back to back so the heads peak out of the roll. Cover the veggies with sprouts. Using the sushi mat, roll from the bottom up. After the bottom edge is over the filling, squeeze it gently with the mat and then roll to the top. Wet the top of the Nori and complete the roll. The moisture will seal it. Cut the roll with a very sharp knife into 8 equal pieces. Serve with Nama Shoyu or a sauce.

Per roll (without the sauce): 85 calories, 5.3 g fat, .8 g saturated fat, 0 g cholesterol, 3 g protein, 8.5 g carbohydrate and 3.8 g fiber.

Menu for Day 9
I started the day with a few pieces of fruit and snacked on raw nuts. Even though I had this for dinner last night, I’m going to have a veggie sushi roll for lunch. For dinner, I’m making Mango Avocado salad with lime chia seed dressing (se April 9, 2009 posting) and Lemon Basil Pesto (April 20, 2009).