Vegan Sushi Bowl Recipe
This vegan sushi bowl is so delicious and easy to make. It is filled with fresh veggies, rice, tempura tofu and sweet potatoes, and many other delicious ingredients. You can customize this recipe to whatever ingredients you like or to fit your diet. This is now my go to lunch and can be as simple and quick as you want to make it!
Secret Health Benefits
Many of these ingredients also have secret health benefits. For example, sweet potatoes are really high in beta keratin and other vitamins. I also used tofu in this recipe which is high in protein while also being low in cholesterol and good for your heart.
While these health benefits are great, the most important part of this sushi bowl is having alternatives for fish. Most people are aware by now that the ocean is being severely overfished. This can cause a collapse in the food web and cause a loss of other species such as sea turtles and coral. Not only that, approximately 500,000 - 1 million tons of fishing gear is discarded into the ocean every year, and fishing gear makes up about 10% of ocean waste.
How to Make Vegan Sushi
For this recipe I started off by chopping a sweet potato into bite-sized cubes, I also used tofu but you can use whichever one you like better, they are both the same method.
I then made a tempura batter with flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, and club soda. Start by mixing all the dry ingredients together and then add in the club soda.
I then started heating up the oil. I made mine in a wok but you can use whatever pan/pot you have as long as it’s deep enough to submerge the tofu or sweet potato pieces. You also have to use a good frying oil. I used safflower. Dip them in the batter and then fry until golden. Should take about 1-2 minutes.
Then place on a cooling tray lined with a paper towel to catch the excess oil.
While those are cooling, go ahead and make the sauce which is going to be made of soy sauce, sesame oil, scallions, sriracha, and vegan mayo. This sauce is inspired by spicy ahi tuna poke.
Mix all of those ingredients together and taste for seasoning. Then add some of your tempura to a bowl with the sauce and toss until every piece is coated evenly. You need less sauce than you think so be careful with how much you use.
For the rest of the bowl, I used rice seasoned with furikake, which is made up of sesame seeds, nori, salt, and sugar. On top of that I put my “poke”, some fresh cucumbers, sprouts, extra seaweed and some more chopped scallions. You can really add whatever you like though. Avocado would be amazing, you could also do fresh greens, carrot ribbons or edamame, it's completely up to you and what you have available.
Vegan Sushi Bowl Recipe:
Tempura:
- 1 cup flour
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup club soda
- 2 cups frying oil
- 1 medium sweet potato
- and/or one block firm tofu
Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped scallions
- 2 tablespoons vegan mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons sriracha
Other ingredients:
- White rice
- Furikake seasoning
- Toppings of your choice!
Instructions
- chop a sweet potato and/or tofu into bite-sized cubes
- make the tempura batter with flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt and club soda.
- Start by mixing all the dry ingredients together and then add in the club soda.
- Dip them in the batter and then fry until golden
- Then place on a cooling tray lined with a paper towel to catch the excess oil
- To make the sauce combine soy sauce, sesame oil, scallions, sriracha and vegan mayo
- Toss the tempura with the sauce
- Assemble the rest of the bowl with rice and toppings of your choice
Tasty Sushi Ready for Serving
This recipe was so easy to make and perfect for lunch. The tempura is perfectly crispy and delicious paired with fresh vegetables. It is also so important to find good sustainable alternatives for fish since our oceans are being extremely overfished which is causing huge environmental repercussions. It’s great to take little steps toward sustainability!