QUINOA SUSHI

Today is the first time ever that I made quinoa sushi. I have never tried it before and was not very sure if it would work. Well, let me tell you that it was scrumptious! It is a fantastic alternative to rice sushi if you are trying to cut down with your carbs. I made a Crunchy Asian salad - one of our favourite salads - to go with it and we had a fantastic lunch! Yummo!

Ingredients

Quinoa
100 g tri-colour quinoa
700 g water, plus extra for soaking
30ml sake
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Filling
4 nori sheets (seaweed sheets)
1 carrot, julienned
1 Lebanese cucumber, cut into thin batons (approx. 5 cm long)
1 egg omelette, cut into strips
1 avocado, cut into strips
wasabi paste, to serve
soy sauce, to serve
pickled ginger, to serve

Preparation

Quinoa
Place a bowl onto mixing bowl lid, then weigh quinoa into it. Add just enough water to cover and leave quinoa to soak for 2 hours. 

Drain quinoa through simmering basket and discard soaking water.
Place water and sake into mixing bowl, insert simmering basket with quinoa and cook 17 min/Varoma/speed 1. 

Meanwhile, put the rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a small pot and heat until it starts to boil and the sugar has been dissolved, about 1-2 minutes. Cool.

Transfer quinoa into a bowl and stir rice wine vinegar mix through quinoa and set aside to cool.

Filling

While the sushi is cooling, prepare all the filling ingredients. Cut the cucumber & avocado into thin strips, julienne the carrot, make an omelette and when cool, cut into long strips.

Working 1 sheet at a time, place nori sheet onto a bamboo sushi rolling mat shine side down. Cover the bottom third of the nori sheet, closest to you, with one-fifth of the cooled quinoa (approx. 1 cm high).

Place one-fifth of the carrot, cucumber, omelette and avocado on top of the quinoa (horizontally). Roll the mat over to enclose the filling, creating a cylinder shape. 

To seal, use your finger to rub a small amount of water along the far edge of each sheet, then press sheet down to seal.

Repeat with remaining 4 nori sheets, quinoa and filling ingredients. Cut the rolls into 6 pieces with a hot knife.

Serve sushi immediately with wasabi paste, pickled ginger and soy sauce on the side.

Makes 4 portions.