Spooky Sushi!

October 26, 2015

Happy Halloween you frightful foodies!

The goblins and ghouls (or should I say Captain Americas and Elsas) are getting ready to hit the town and with all that candy strewn about, it’s great to have some more healthful options available for when the sugar wears off. My little Vegan Chef, Red Riding Hood and Rainbow Jellyfish have already given this Spooky Sushi solid reviews. Their only hesitation? “Oh, but they’re so cute!!! I don’t want to eat them!” That hesitation didn’t last long.

These little mummies and ghosts are the perfect finger food for a Halloween party. Or prepare them as a fun family dinner (serve with a side of veggies, steamed edamame, miso soup or grilled tofu to name some ideas) before heading out to trick-or-treat. This can even be a fun Halloween craft to do with your kids. They’ll have a great time assembling and then devouring their creations!

Your Spooky Sushi can be prepared a couple of hours in advance (just cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature) but should be enjoyed as fresh as possible. And feel free to get creative! I made mine with only rice and nori but go ahead and fancy them up with veggies, plant-based proteins or seeds and see what you come up with. I already have plans to make little snowmen with actual carrot noses for the Christmas season. : )

Ingredients (makes about 25 Spooky Sushi):

2 cups sushi rice (dry)
1.5 tbsp rice vinegar
1.5 tbsp cane sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 sheet nori (dried seaweed for sushi… NOT the crispy seaweed for snacking)
soy wrappers (optional)

Tools needed:

scissors
hole punch
nigiri sushi mold (you can also mold them by hand but the mold makes it a lot easier!)

Cook your sushi rice. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk the rice vinegar, cane sugar and salt. Place your cooked rice into the bowl and toss to coat evenly.

The vinegar, sugar and salt mixture

Next, prepare your mummy bandages, ghost mouths and eyes from the nori sheet. Wash and thoroughly dry your scissors and hole punch. Use your scissors to cut strips about 1/4 inch wide for the mummy bandages. Also use your scissors to cut circles for the ghosts’ mouths freehand. Use your hole punch to punch out eyes from the nori sheet. Set all these nori shapes aside as you prepare your first rice molds.

Nori and soy wrappers I used to make extra little pumpkin-colored sushi as garnishes.

Preparing to assemble

Fill your nigiri sushi mold with rice, pressing down firmly into the compartments with the back of a small spoon so they’re nice and compact. Put the lid on and press down. Then carefully remove the nigiri from the molds. It helps to continually dip your hands in water as you work, since that helps keep the rice from sticking to your fingers. If you’re doing this by hand instead of using a nigiri mold, simply wet your hands, grab a small amount of rice and press it into the desired shape.

Filling the nigiri mold

Voilà!

Now comes the fun part. Again, making sure your hands are moist, wrap your rice molds with the nori strips, leaving a little space for the mummies’ eyes to peek out. Then carefully place on two of your hole-punched nori circles as eyes. For the ghosts, simply lay on your hand-cut circle as the mouth and pop on two eyes. Repeat this process with the mold and nori embellishments until all the rice is gone. I also used the orange-colored soy wrapper to wrap a mini sushi roll and then sliced them up as garnish. They looked like little pumpkins!

Serve to hungry monsters both big and small. Your Spooky Sushi will vanish before your eyes!