Adventures in Vegan Sushi

I'm five weeks in now, and things are getting crazy.  As of Saturday, our kitchen has been completely converted from the average American kitchen (minus the microwave, we've been without that for years), to an exciting new version of what I'm guessing is the not so average American VEGAN kitchen!!  Our fridge has had a complete makeover and now is stuffed with veggies, sprouts, fruit, nuts, seeds, coconuts and my friend Ciera's all time favorite...Kombucha!

Even the sneaky little not so healthy pizza on the second shelf is completely vegan!  It feels so good to know that no animal or plot of land was harmed in the stuffing of my fridge or my face!


 My husband Lukas has been wondering about alternatives to the plastic containers we use for extra food, and we've thought about maybe glass but don't know how well that will seal or if there are any good size options out there so let me know if you have any ideas about that!

After our weekly Farmers Market trip we stopped to pick up a new food processor, so now with our Vitamix (generously donated by my mom) and our dehydrator, we are off and running.  In honor of all this new beauty in our lives, and as a gift for Lukas cause he's been SOOO with me every step of this transformation; I decided to step out of my fear and try one of the recipes that has been freaking me out ever since I got Juliano's RAW: THE UNCOOK BOOK.

RAW was my first raw cookbook and I got it halfway through our cleanse when I was running out of ideas.   I was so excited when it arrived at my house I screamed and did a little dance around my kitchen...(you have to understand the state I was in, having given up everything only 1 week before and needing to feel like I was eating MEALS, not carrots!)  Needless to say, RAW came to the rescue and I've made so many versions of his recipes since then.  But...dunh dunh dunh.... here comes the scary one...

RAW VEGAN SUSHI

Yikes!  (I loved real sushi when I ate fish, but this?--and making it myself??)  Could I do it??  I was damn well gonna try!  (And ignore the fact that I really, really dislike the taste of seaweed.  Yuch.)  So with Lukas' encouragement, I pulled out all the ingredients I've been slowly gathering together, opened up my trusty RAW uncookbook, and set to work...

I had already prepared the mac cream the day before for "cheese" and crackers, so that was one less step!

Mac Cream

1 cup raw macadamia nuts

1 cup raw cashews

1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/4 cup shoyu (soy sauce) or 1 1/2 tsp. sea salt

1 tablespoon garlic

Blend above ingredients until creamy.

Keeps 2 days in fridge!

 Now for the sushi:

Cream Sushi

2 sheets raw nori

4 carrot sticks, sliced thin

4 cucmber sticks, sliced thin (leave skin on)

4 horseradish sticks, sliced thin (I couldn't find this, so I skipped it)

6 whole chives

1 recipe of mac cream

1/4 cup marinated portabelo mushrooms

4 apple slices, sliced thin

lettuce leaves, enough to cover (we used red leaf lettuce from our garden)

On a sheet of nori arrange a few horseradish, cucumber, carrot sticks and chives along the edge of the nori closest to you with the ends sticking out of each end of the roll. Gently spread half the mac cream on top of the vegetable sticks, being careful not  to allow the mixture to touch the nori.

Add a layer of portobello mushrooms, apple slices, and lettuce leaves (cover any wet ingredients with leaves so the nori doesn't get wet). 

Roll, slice into bite-size pieces and...eat it all up!!!

  

The rolling part got a little tricky, so that's Lukas above, helping me finish the job!  The recipe didn't say how to seal the nori, but Lukas figured out that if you get it a little wet on the end and rub it gently together it sticks.  Voila!! 

Now this time it took me about 40 minutes from start to finish, but I made them again yesterday for lunch (with my own little variation) and it took me 15 minutes!  Who said good food can't be fast!  The best part is I can now say that I have actually made sushi in my own home.  Way cool.

Just another exciting day in my little vegan life.

With a very full and happy belly.