20 Surprisingly Easy Sushi Recipes That You Can Make at Home

Dragon Roll

If you go out for sushi regularly, you’ve probably had a dragon roll. It’s an American sushi invention like the Philadelphia roll, volcano roll, and softshell crab spider sushi.

There’s usually no raw fish, just crunchy shrimp tempura on the inside, making them appealing to sushi beginners. It’s often topped with spicy mayo and avocado. Advanced sushi eaters might want to add eel sauce, grilled unagi, and roe.

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Chirashi Sushi

Don’t want to worry about delicately assembling your sushi? Put it all into a bowl to make chirashi, aka scattered sushi. Start by seasoning rich with vinegar, sugar, and salt to taste.

From there, add a mix of seafood and vegetables as toppings. Chirashi often has shiitake mushrooms too, but it’s really anything goes as long as you build it around Japanese flavors like dashi, wasabi, and mirin.

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Spicy Tuna Roll

Craving sushi, but can’t afford sushi-grade tuna? Believe it or not, you can make homemade sushi with canned tuna. This is a quick sushi roll to assemble once you get the hang of the process.

The tough part is learning how tight to wrap the sheet or nori around the rice and other fillings. It needs to be firm enough to stick, yet not squeezed together to the point the seaweed can rip.

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Super Veggie Onigirazu

To make a kind of sushi sandwich, try onigirazu. This method involves wrapping a bunch of fillings – more like the amount you’d find in a sandwich – in rice and a whole sheet of nori to make a big sushi that’ll take two hands to eat.

This one is loaded up with vegetables like carrots and red cabbage, but the best part of onigirazu is getting creative with fillings. Make it with panko-crusted chicken katsu, leftover stir fry, or a combo of Spam and egg for a breakfast sushi sandwich.

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Temaki Sushi (Hand Roll)

The lazy way to enjoy sushi is by making a hand roll. And why not? You get all the same flavors with a lot less work, and this way, you can serve several people without needing to assemble a variety of options.

This blog has temaki sushi suggestions for everyone – including green beans, pickled radish, cilantro, and okra. And for protein, add sashimi-quality fresh fish, uni, sliced tofu, or boiled shrimp.

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Teriyaki Steak Sushi Burger

Think outside the bento box, and try this new take on sushi. These burgers – which replace the bun with a rice patty – recently appeared on a NYC restaurant menu with raw ahi tuna and two kinds of aioli.

This recipe takes it to the next level by lightly frying the sushi rice patties, and for real burger flavor, adding tender teriyaki steak.

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Inari Sushi

Not all sushi has to be rolled in rice. Inari is a kind of stuffed sushi made from aburaage fried tofu pockets that are filled with mushrooms and vegetables.

This inari mixture can be frozen, so make extras to speed up the inari sushi-making process next time. And if you don’t want to make your own dashi from kombu and bonito flakes, look for the powdered version, which is similar to bouillon stock.

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Morimoto’s Tuna Pizza

For a new way to serve sushi, turn a tuna roll into an awesome pizza with this recipe from Iron Chef Morimoto. Start with a small flour tortilla. Then top with a mix of classic sushi ingredients like eel sauce, plus pizza toppings like cherry tomatoes and olives.

The finishing touch is an anchovy aioli. This recipe makes a lot of the creamy sauce, so use half of it or less – as calculated in the macros – to keep the fat content down.

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California Rolls

Getting sushi in a plastic container is a gamble for several reasons – including the macros. You don’t always know exactly what’s in the filling. Sometimes it’s nutritious, but then it could be smothered in spicy mayo without any fresh veggies.

Make it yourself, and you can also choose to use crabmeat instead of imitation. The fake stuff is made from white fish, so it still has protein, just not anywhere near as much as the real deal.

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Sashimi Salad with Matsuhisa Dressing

Nobu restaurant is one of the top names in gourmet Japanese cuisine, whether you want something as simple as miso-marinated black cod or as exquisite as this sashimi salad.

The recipe by Chef Nobu Matsuhisa stars yellowfin tuna – or any high-quality fresh fish like bluefin toro or salmon. And since it contains no rice and uses an oil-free dressing, this protein-rich sushi can be enjoyed anytime without wrecking your meal plan.

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Kimbab (Korean Seaweed Roll)

This might look like regular sushi at first glance, but it’s a similar seaweed roll that’s popular in nearby Korea.

The rice can be seasoned with either rice vinegar, as in Japan, or with sesame oil. And either way, you’ll want to mix in some sesame seeds. There’s also a variation in the filling, which can include beef, kimchi, a piece of pork cutlet, or even American cheese.

Kimbap can even be made in a triangle form, called samgak, which is designed to stay fresh longer so you don’t have to eat it right away.

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Oshizushi with Crab

If you’re worried you’ll make a mess while attempting maki rolls, try oshizushi instead. This style isn’t wrapped in nori seaweed, so you don’t have to carefully roll it with a bamboo mat or saran wrap.

It’s simply pressed into a mold and then sliced. To make this without special oshizushi equipment, assemble the crab sushi in a pastry mold or small springform pan for effortless removal.

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Sushi Rice

You can’t make sushi without really great rice. Technically it’s not even sushi without the right kind of rice since the word means “seasoned rice.”

So make room for the carbs in your macros, and grab the key seasoning: rice vinegar. The most important part? Be sure to use a short-grain rice, or else it won’t be sticky enough to use for sushi.

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Fresh Tomato Gunkan-Maki

There’s more to vegan sushi than the cucumber roll – in fact, you can pick up a whole book of creative veggie variations.

Popular Japanese food blogger Izumi Shoji put together a collection of vegetarian maki rolls, sushi bowls, temarizushi balls, and stuffed inari. Get The Vegetable Sushi Cookbook for recipes like Balsamic-Simmered Celery Nigiri and even grapefruit sushi rice.

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Tamago-Yaki

If you’re going to leave out the rice from sushi, another option is to make a kind of Japanese omelette called tamago. It can be made on the stove, preferably in a pan with straight sides, like in this recipe.

Or, bake it in the oven at a low temperature until the eggs are set, about 15 minutes. Using a silicone pan makes it easy to get the tamagoyaki out and will keep the eggs from browning in the oven.

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Sushi in a Cup

This is super convenient sushi that doesn’t come in a plastic container, and it’s even easier if you have a rice cooker.

While your seasoned rice cooks – including kombu seaweed to add dashi stock flavor – dice an avocado, cucumber, and salmon. And if you have time, make a tamagoyaki Japanese omelet to cut up for this simple sushi cup.

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Brown Rice & Quinoa Sushi Salad

Vegetarian sushi becomes a simple salad with this recipe from Hiroko’s American Kitchen: Cooking with Japanese Flavors. Known as the Martha Stewart of Japan, Hiroko Shimbo has written several cookbooks, including The Sushi Experience, which bring together Japanese cuisine and Western techniques to make fusion food more accessible.

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Datemaki Sushi

If you can find hanpen, it’ll upgrade your egg sushi roll. It’s made from dried and ground white fish. That might sound odd, but it’s the same base as imitation crab meat, only it’s mixed with grated yam.

Hanpen can also be homemade, but you can more easily replace it in this recipe with white fish, scallops, or shrimp.

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Mochi Sushi

Dessert sushi can be made with sticky rice and sliced fruit, but it’s more fun if you use homemade mochi. Luckily, it’s not hard to make as long as you can get ahold of the sweet rice flour.

Mix with water until you have a sort of pliable dough, and then shape in any way you like to hold your fresh fruit dessert.

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Temarizushi Smoked Salmon Balls

This easy sushi recipe uses smoked salmon. However, temari sushi can be made with a variety of thinly sliced ingredients, basically anything that can be used as a wrap, including vegetables and sashimi.

The rice balls can also be topped with popular sushi garnishes like furikake seasoning, roe, and chives. And you won’t need a bamboo rolling mat for this one, only plastic wrap to help form the temari sushi balls.

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