Sushi feels like a restaurant thing until you make it once. No bamboo mat needed, no raw fish if you'd rather not, and the compartments do the plating for you. The rolls go in the big section, something crunchy and something fresh in the smalls, and lunch looks like you tried much harder than you did.
Makes 2 bentos. Prep 30 minutes.
Ingredients
For the rolls
- 1 cup sushi rice, uncooked
- 1¼ cups water
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar, 1 tbsp sugar, ½ tsp salt
- 3 nori sheets
- 6 oz salmon: sushi-grade raw, or cooked, or canned
- 2 tbsp mayo (Kewpie if you have it)
- 1 to 2 tsp sriracha
- ½ cucumber, cut into thin strips
To fill out the box
- Veggie chips or sweet potato chips
- Cucumber, cut into chunks
- Optional: soy sauce in a Solo Snack Box
Method
- Rinse the rice until the water runs clear, then cook it. While it's hot, fold through the vinegar, sugar and salt, and spread it on a tray to cool to room temperature. Warm rice tears nori.
- Make the filling. Flake or dice the salmon and mix it with the mayo and sriracha. Taste and adjust the heat.
- Roll it. Lay a nori sheet shiny side down on plastic wrap or parchment. Spread rice over about three quarters of the sheet, leaving the far edge bare. Lay the salmon and cucumber strips in a line near the edge closest to you. Lift the near edge with the wrap and roll tightly, pressing as you go. Dab the bare edge with water to seal.
- Chill 10 minutes before slicing, so the roll holds together. Use a sharp knife, wiped clean between cuts.
- Fill the Trio. Rolls in the big compartment, cut side up so they look like something. Veggie chips in one small, cucumber chunks in the other.
- Soy sauce in a Solo, sealed, so nothing goes soggy.
Packing note
Chips in their own compartment is the whole trick. Loose in with the rolls they'd go soft by noon.
If you're using raw salmon: buy sushi-grade from a fishmonger you trust, keep it cold throughout, and pack the box with an ice pack. Raw fish shouldn't sit above 40°F for more than two hours. For a school lunch or a box that spends the morning in a warm bag, use cooked or canned salmon instead. It's just as good in a spicy roll.
Three easy swaps
- Cooked: roast a salmon fillet, flake it, mix with the mayo and sriracha.
- Canned: drain well and treat it like tuna salad.
- No fish: avocado and cucumber, with a little sesame.
Keeps: best the day it's made. Rice goes hard in the fridge after about 24 hours.