It’s rare that I spend time with the Japanese half of my family; I visit my dad’s hometown of Hamamatsu every other year if I’m lucky. So I cherish the meals we do share together, hoarding memories for the stretches between visits. Among my favorites are the glorious, always chaotic lunches around my aunt’s and uncle’s kitchen table with my grandma, cousins, and their two little kids crowded around, making temaki sushi, also known as hand rolls. My aunt will lay out sliced raw vegetables from a local farm, a few pieces of sashimi, dry-grilled shiitake, a stack of nori sheets cut to size,shoyu(soy sauce), and rice straight out of her electric rice cooker. Then the mob descends, everyone handing plates of goodies around. Sheet of nori, fill, wrap, dip in shoyu, repeat.
This is the spirit of sushi at home, never precious and always delicious. Far from a rarefied luxury, homestyle sushi—literally “sour rice”—is affordable soul food, an ideal canvas of lightly seasoned starch for simple ingredients. As some of the most popular fish used in sushi are inarguably unsustainable—whether that’s due to overfishing, bycatch, or irresponsible aquaculture—there is all the more reason to return to sushi’s roots, which require no fish.
Fishmongers know that seafood has its seasons, and that demanding the same salmon year round is not only unsustainable but not as delicious. Traditional Japanese cuisine, in general, is attuned to slight changes in flavor based on the time of year. This means that people anticipate both uni and melon in summer, or Pacific saury and kabocha in the fall.
The same flavor-focused approach to picking produce for home cooking applies, so there is no need to be limited by sushi-roll standbys like avocado or cucumber. “We select vegetables for their flavor, texture, hue, and the natural transitions of Japanese seasons,” says Katsumi Yoshida, a chef at Sushi Gonpachi G-Zone Ginza, a Tokyo restaurant noted for its vegan sushi set, which currently includes nigiri of charcoal-grilled shiitake, Kyoto-style pickled raw eggplant (shibazuke), and fresh chives, among other selections. North of Ginza in Akihabara, the trailblazing chef Yuki Chidui of Nadeshico Sushi (she’s the first woman sushi chef in Japan) also offers a daily changing vegan set—a challenge she views as a creative opportunity, not a limitation. “My philosophy is to design different sushi each time, according to the customer’s image,” she says. “The same sushi never exists again.”
As with sushi made with seafood, sushi made with produce relies on rice. “The rice is the most important part of sushi,” stresses Jesse Ito, the James Beard–nominated sushi chef behind Philadelphia’s Royal Sushi & Izakaya. Good sushi rice has individual grains that hold together but are not broken, which causes stickiness. A blend of rice vinegar, a little salt, and a little sugar brings acid to what would otherwise be plain starch, making your mouth water and anticipate the next mouthful. Making sublime sushi rice requires technique, but you can make perfectly delicious homemade sushi rice at home if you remember two simple principles: treat the rice gently (fluff and fold, rather than mash and mix) and taste as you go.
For homestyle sushi, try temaki sushi, which diners assemble as they go, or temari (“handball”) sushi—small rice balls pressed with assorted toppings. They’re popular among home cooks for a reason: they’re less fussy than nigiri and norimaki and are especially fun for groups, as you can prep a bunch of vegetables and rice and turn it into a party.
Temaki寿司特别快,像做哟ur own taco. Take a half-sheet of toasted nori in the palm of one hand and scoop about a tablespoon of rice into its center, shaping it with your chopsticks into a row. This will form the backbone of your temaki. Then pile on as few or as many toppings as you like (less can sometimes be more, and easier to hold), then wrap it up into a cone, dip it in a little soy sauce, and eat it immediately.
With sushi rice as the unifier, you can experiment with a variety of toppings. Aside from the rice, there are no hard and fast rules. (Think about how two well-known sushi fish, maguro and toro, have entirely different flavors and textures, one metallic and lean, one melt-in-your-mouth fatty.) You’re building one unique bite at a time, but there’s always the next. Think in terms of seasonality and freshness, size and texture (it would be unpleasant to bite a whole raw carrot in a handroll, but fine to bite an uncut leaf of shiso), and dryness (drain or dab excess liquid off your ingredients to avoid making the roll too soggy). It can be helpful to think about mixing contrasting textures and flavors—something crunchy with something creamy (avocado and cucumber is a classic for this reason), something charred and savory with something acidic or herbal. Beyond this, a vegetarian temaki sushi party is about giving you and your friends options, not prescriptions.
Slice raw carrots, radishes, jicama, or cucumbers into strips or matchsticks. Amandolinecan be handy here, but is by no means essential. For more tender vegetables, consider keeping them more intact to showcase their appearance and preserve their texture, as Chidui does at Nadeshico, where, she says, “items with beautiful cross sections, such as okra, are cut and expressed.” The same approach works well for luscious summer tomatoes. Cleaned and dried supple greens like butter lettuce can be rolled into temaki as is.
To help lend produce a more savory profile, think in terms of fat and char. Sesame seeds are wonderful, but even scallions or leeks, sautéed on high in a skillet, can bring a beautiful depth to sushi, says Ito. Depending on taste, you might take a purist approach—grilling and roasting in minimal oil to preserve naked flavors, as Ito suggests—or layer on umami with sauces. Think about vegetables you’d ordinarily grill, like thinly sliced summer squash, mushrooms, bell pepper, and eggplant, which gain meaty depth through char and caramelization. If you want to add more savoriness, try brushing these vegetables with soy sauce and mirin or a mixture of soy sauce and miso paste. Scoring vegetables with a cross-hatch pattern can help them absorb sauce.
Seasonal fruit’s inherent acidity and sweetness can make revelatory pairings. Try pear, persimmon, mango, and even kiwi, which Sonoko Sakai, the Los Angeles–based author ofJapanese Home Cooking, favors for its tartness. Segments from pomelo or grapefruit are great with fattier, charred fare like grilled squash, especially if you’ve drizzled them with a little toasted sesame oil. For very firm or under-ripe fruits, quick-pickling in rice vinegar, some sugar, and salt for as little as twenty minutes can help mellow tannins and bring out savory qualities. Kin Lui and his partner Ray Wang of Shizen in San Francisco and Tane in Honolulu employ this principle on spicy pickled green mango at their lauded all-vegan sushi restaurants, albeit over a longer pickling period.
Besides transforming underripe fruit, quick pickling in general is a fantastic way to layer brightness into sushi. Sakai recommends quick-pickling chopped hardy vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, leeks, or radish in a rice vinegar brine, which complements the sushi rice.
If you’d rather not pickle, aromatic garnishes also lend bright notes with acid, herbaceousness, or spiciness. Put out fresh shiso, either whole leaf or chopped. Grate fresh ginger or daikon, which can offer two different kinds of bite that work well with soy sauce’s deep umami saltiness. Dab a little spicyyuzu kosho烤蔬菜,或者添加一些国际扶轮ce before you roll. Or take a page out of Ito’s book and zest lemon or lime to lift the flavor of grilled vegetables or fatty avocado. Sakai sometimes uses minced fresh chili, which she’ll blend, along with sesame seeds and minced fresh ginger, directly into her rice.
Once you get rolling, you’ll start seeing sushi where you might not expect it. Over the years, Sakai has grown fond of tart pomegranate seeds in her sushi in winter, while in summer, there’s fresh dill. As she says, “If you’re just doing it homestyle, you don’t have to worry so much.” Sheet of nori, fill, wrap, dip in shoyu, and repeat.
