Tasty Tuesday - Nori Rolls

Today's recipe has quickly become an Elimination Diet favorite for both my cousin and myself, and I suspect we will both continue making them for the rest of our lives. I love sushi - it is practically a food group in my eyes, and even though I have to make a few concessions on the elimination diet... no ahi, no salmon, no crab, no anything that is traditionally involved in a great sushi roll. Well, other than seaweed and rice. I love these rolls because you can pretty much put anything inside of them. I am currently rolling them with a homemade pesto garlic sauce, carrots, avocado, green onions, red cabbage, celery and cucumber. If you have the rice all cooked up, these babies are a breeze to throw together and wrap up nicely to be taken as lunch the following day. In fact, I will be enjoying a roll today for lunch.

I got this recipe from the Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen blog - I love their cookbook, their blog, I'd even like to get my shit together enough to go listen to one of their seminars/classes up in Bellingham. Plus, the site is a terrific resource for anyone with food allergies. They have link to other blogs that are vegan, gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free and raw food only. Its such a fantastic resource, I whole heartedly recommend spending some time perusing their site.

Okay, on to the recipe. Please note, I made my rolls with sweet brown rice, but they can also be made with quinoa if you choose to do so. You will need nori sheets (these can be purchased at almost any grocery store, I got mine at PCC Natural Markets), sweet brown rice, and fresh veggies. You will also want to purchase a sushi rolling mat - these can also be found at the grocery or World Market has some great one for $4.00.

We'll start with the sauces:

Garlicky Pesto Sauce

1 cup pine nuts

Basil Leaves (I used 2-3 bunches)

5 garlic cloves

1/4 water

1/4 EVOO

Put all ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth.

Ginger Plum Sauce

1 tbsp kuzu (found in the international foods area of grocery store)

1/2 cup water

4 plums, pitted

1 cup 100% apple juice

1 - 2 inch piece of ginger
1 tsp sea salt

Place plums, apple juice, ginger and sea salt in blender and blend until smooth. Dissolve kuzu and water in small pan (not on heat yet). Whisk blended plum concoction into the pan with the kuzu. Turn heat to medium high and let simmer for 10 - 15 minutes.

Nori Rolls

1 cup sweet brown rice

2 1/2 cups water

pinch of sea salt

Nori sheets

Avocado, thinly sliced

Cucumber, julienned

Carrots, julienned

Red Cabbage, thinly sliced

Green onions, thinly sliced

First, bring water, rice and salt to a boil in a medium sized pot. Cover, reduce heat to simmer and let cook for 45 - 50 minutes, or until all water is gone. Set rice aside. Lay a Nori sheet out on your bamboo mat. Spread rice over the nori, leaving a a two inch portion at bottom without rice. Spread pesto sauce on rice at the top, arrange vegetables on sauce. Tightly roll the sushi up starting at the vegetable end. You can 'seal' the nori to itself with a by running a little bit of water on the edge.

I am super excited for Phase 3 and getting to add salmon to these babies. But for now, I will just have to settle for vegan Nori's. They're still delicious!

What's YOUR favorite type of sushi?

Do you have any rolls you make at home?