One of my all time favourite foods is sushi. There is something about those bite sized, delicious little rolls that when dipped in tamari sauce are irresistible to me.
I can remember being in university and going to all you can eat sushi with my best friend and boyfriend at the time, and the three of us ordered enough sushi to literally cover the entire table. I’m not sure how we managed, but we ate it all. I didn’t know then what I know now, and the idea of eating sushi at a restaurant doesn’t make me feel very good.
Take for instance one of my favourite rolls – the one I have made in this recipe – sweet potato tempura rolls (I always added avocado because I mean c’mon, who doesn’t love avocado?). I used to pick this roll as a “healthy” option, and truthfully it was one of the only options to have as a vegan. However let me shed some light on tempura for you.
I was pretty upset when I found at that for a year after being vegan and indulging in sweet potato tempura rolls, that it actually wasn’t vegan at all. They use egg to make the batter, and despite having asked several restaurants (who all said it did not contain egg) a lovely japanese woman informed me that tempura is always made with egg.
It is deep fried cornstarch.
Don’t even get me start on cornstarch. Anything that is non-organic, refined and concentrated should be avoided in any healing diet – or any whole foods diet for that matter. Whole foods are not refined, or concentrated, they simply exist in all their delicious glory!
Let me enlighten you a little bit on corn. Any corn that is non-organic likely comes from a monsanto seed, and as such should be avoided like the plague. Most corn is genetically modified, and who knows what the effects of it are in our body. There is not enough conclusive research to test out whether the GM corn is actually safe for us to eat, and personally I don’t want to be someone’s science experiment, so as much as I possibly can, I avoid it.
It is deep fried in vegetable oil.
Let’s talk vegetable oil. When I was a kid I thought vegetable oil was good for you because it came from vegetables. Well let me shed some light on the vegetable oils we are mass consuming. They aren’t technically made from vegetables. They are almost always a mix of soybean oil, and cottonseed oil. I don’t want to get into a whole discussion on vegetable oils, so until such time as I write my own article, check out this one from the Wellness Mama.
She does a great job at explaining why we ought to avoid vegetable oils in our diet, how they are made, and what some of the negative health consequences are.
So this recipe my friends is vegetable oil, cornstarch, gluten, and everything bad-for-you-free!
Totally vegan
Gluten free
Delicious
Simple
Noms
Ingredients:
- 1 cup brown rice or quinoa (cooked)
- 1 Medium sweet potato chopped
- ½ cup walnuts ground
- 2-3 tbsp coconut oil
- 2 avocados sliced
- 8 sheets of nori
How to Make This:
- Cook your grain of choice – brown rice or quinoa.
- While this is cooking, preheat the oven to 350 and chop up your sweet potato into long pieces which would resemble French fries. Coat the sweet potato pieces in coconut oil, and in ground walnut. This ground walnut will give it that “tempura” feel without all the bad stuff! Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes – checking in at about 10 minutes. The thinner you slice the sweet potato, the quicker it will cook! Chop your avocados into slices and place to the side.
- Once your sweet potatoes and grain of choice are done, place nori sheet (shiny side down) on your bamboo sushi roller.
- Place rice or quinoa on over approximately half of the sheet, leaving about a half an inch of space at the top. Make sure you put the rice right to the edges of the Nori! Put on your sweet potatoes and avocados in a nice line (feel free to sprinkle some of that excess walnut ground into the rolls for an extra crunch!
- Holding the closest edge of the bamboo mat, roll the nori away from you. You may have to hold on to some of the filling to make sure it doesn’t spill out. Keep the roll nice and tight. Once the maki roll is closed, begin to pull on the side of the bamboo mat furthest away from you, while continuing to roll your maki roll. This will ensure tightness. Rub a bit of warm water on the edge farthest from you. This will help the two sides of nori stick together.
- Complete all your rolls first (depending on how much you fill them you may have exactly 8, or slightly less than 8). Use a wet, and sharp knife to first cut each roll in half, and then cut each roll into 6-8 pieces depending on how large you want them.
- Serve with Tamari or Coconut aminos and ENJOY! Any excess walnut ground can be sprinkled on top of the cut maki rolls.
