Salmon and Avocado Sushi
I love sushi. In fact, I love Japanese food full stop. The flavours, the textures, the abundance of seafood. It really is my kinda food. The one thing that doesn’t rock my world though is the rice. I like rice. I REALLY like rice, but to be fair, it doesn’t like me. I have learnt over the years that a lower carb diet works best for me. I don’t get so bloated, I have far more energy and I don’t get that mid-afternoon slump that has me racing head first into a sugar feeding frenzy. This change in lifestyle meant that I was missing out on one of my favourite lunches – salmon sushi. I used to eat it at least 1-2 times per week. Sometimes it was homemade, but realistically most of the time it was from a fav sushi shop down the road.
Not content on missing out, I changed the rice for egg, added exactly what I wanted, and now most weeks I have this for lunch at the beginning of each week. Add a dollop of wasabi, a drizzle of sesame mayo and I’m back in Japanese eating heaven.
Enjoy!
Ingredients – this makes 2 full nori rolls
4 eggs
Small dollop coconut oil
2 nori sheets
100gms smoked salmon
½ avocado
1 carrot
Handful of lettuce
Wasabi
Sesame dressing
Break 2 eggs into a bowl and whisk with a fork. Heat a medium sized frying pan over low/medium heat and add a very small dollop of coconut oil. When oil has melted, pour the egg into the pan. Tilt the pan slightly from one side to the other to allow the egg to cover the base of the pan completely. Cook for about 20seconds. Gently pull in the sides of the setting egg, tilting pan slightly so that any liquid egg hits the base of the pan. Once set, carefully flip over, to ensure the egg omelette is fully cooked. Repeat with the other 2 eggs and set aside to cool.
Peel and thinly slice the carrot into long strips. Slice the avocado into thin slices (if not eating immediately drizzle with a little lemon juice to avoid going brown).
Place a nori sheet shiny side down onto a sushi matt. If you haven’t got a sushi matt use a clean tea towel or some baking paper. Lay one of the egg sheets onto the nori. I always need to cut this to size – you can either layer the cut off egg into the sushi or if you are like me, just eat it 😊. Leave 1-2cm of the nori at the end with no egg on it, so the sushi can stick down once rolled.
Across the centre of the egg layer the salmon, avocado, carrot and lettuce. Drizzle across sesame dressing (only if you have it. There is no need to go buying this. I add it because I love it).
With your fingers, wet the edge of nori sheet where there is no egg. Roll the sushi matt over carefully to enclose the filling, tucking the front edge of the nori into the roll. I always give a gentle squeeze at this point to ensure the filling stays tightly in place. Continue to roll the sushi until well sealed. Roll the sushi back and forth in the matt to tighten and seal.
Leave to sit for a minute or two before cutting, in order for the nori to settle into itself.
Notes on Ingredients
Use whatever protein floats your boat. I always use salmon as I find it is the easiest thing to use. Some days I use fresh salmon, other days smoked salmon. I have also used leftover cooked salmon that I’ve mixed together with a bit of cream cheese, cracked pepper and finely cut lemon rind so that it holds together ok. Use chicken or prawns or whatever you fancy as your added protein. It’s your sushi, so you do you.
Lots of places add red capsicum to their sushi as it looks and tastes great. I don’t do capsicum, so you won’t see that in my sushi. But if you love it, go ahead and throw it in.
If you are like me and make this on a Sunday for your early in the week lunches, your avo is always going to end up looking second rate by the time you go to eat it. I do drizzle with lemon juice when I make it, but it will likely go a bit brown. It still tastes great, and for me that’s all that I care about.
I’m a fan of wasabi, so you will always find that close by. I don’t like soya sauce if my sushi doesn’t have rice as there isn’t really anything to soak the liquid up with and it always just goes wrong for me!
I do love a good Japanese mayo or a sesame dressing to drizzle on the cut pieces though. If you are feeling super fancy, sprinkle on some toasted sesame seeds. Honestly, it’ll take you next level.