Carole Food.

I love a California roll! Sweet ‘crab’ and creamy avocado is a match made in heaven. I’m not one to make sushi at home, but this deconstructed sushi bowl is one of my favourite easy meals to make! If you don’t like imitation crab then you can use whatever protein you want (or real crab if budget allows!). 

Why you’ll love this dish 

• Versatile - what’s great about this dish is you can substitute it for whatever proteins and veg you have! Cooked salmon or tuna are both obvious contenders. For veg, edamame would be great, or finely chopped pepper and carrot. Slices of radish would also be very delicious! 
• Meal prep - this is a great dish if you want to meal prep your lunch - it's perfect for both working at home or in the office lunches! Just make sure you mix the avocado with a bit of lemon or lime juice so it doesn’t go brown. It’ll keep in an airtight container for about 3 days in the fridge. And it’s best to put the sriracha mayonnaise on right before you eat it! 

What ingredients do you need for this dish (includes possible substitutions)? 

Cooked rice: the best kind rice to use here is either sushi rice or jasmine rice!

Seafood sticks: this can be substituted with a different type of protein if you wish, e.g. salmon, tuna, tofu… Real crab would obviously be very delicious too! 

Cucumber and avocado: I like the freshness and creaminess that the cucumber and avocado brings, but similar to the above, you can substitute this for whatever your favourite vegetables are, or whatever you have in the fridge! 

Nori: you can use the full sheets or the smaller snacking sheets here. 

Light soy sauce: essential to season the dish! 

Sriracha mayonnaise: you can either buy this or make it. If you’re making it all you need to do is mix together mayonnaise and sriracha!

Furikake: furikake is usually made up of toasted sesame, nori, salt and sugar. Adding it to the dish is entirely optional. You can substitute with white/black sesame seeds if preferred, or just leave them off. But I like adding it for the extra fibre! 

What to serve this with? 

You don’t need to serve this with anything! But if you really wanted something with it, then it would be excellent with a side of miso soup or some Japanese pickles (tsukemono).

Instructions 

Prepare all the ingredients 

The main part of this recipe is just prepping the ingredients! If you don’t have any cooked rice to hand, then you’ll need to start with this. Then very finely dice your cucumber and avocado, the key thing here is that you want them all to be as similar size as possible. Finally, chop the seafood sticks up and finely slice the nori sheets.

Assemble the dish 

Place the cooked rice into a serving dish (or two separate bowls), then top with the seafood sticks, cucumber, avocado and nori. Sprinkle over some soy sauce, then sriracha mayonnaise and furikake. Serve with extra soy sauce and sriracha mayonnaise. And that’s it! 

FAQ 

What’s the best way to store this dish? 

Place in an airtight container in the refrigerator then enjoy cold! 

Can this be frozen?

I wouldn’t recommend freezing this.

If you’re looking for another easy dish, be sure to try out these recipes: 

• Creamy 10-Minute Noodles
• 10-Minute Tomato Noodles
• Honey Chilli Butter Aubergine