My favourite way to eat sushi!

I loooooooove sushi bowls. Whilst I'm a big fan of Makizushi (hand rolls), I often find that the rice to filling ratio in is off – way too much rice for me. I like mine with loaded with filling and drenched in sauce. If you have made many of my recipe you might notice that sauce features heavily and I am of the belief that the more sauce the better! So thats why I love sushi bowls – I can add lots of veggies and smother it in sauce without it all dribbling down my chin like it does when I eat sushi!

My kids would live on sushi rice if I let them, so sushi bowls are a regular meal for our family. I like that you can pretty much just chuck whatever you have lying around in your fridge onto of some sushi rice and call it dinner. When I am feeling lazy I make as super simple version for the kids with sushi rice, a fried egg, sesame seeds, soy and chopped up nori. And they love it. It's funny how kids seem to enjoy the dinners you put the least amount of effort into. Funny and annoying!

For this recipe I have crusted the tofu in sesame seeds because yes, I like to make as much work as possible! But you could totally just fry the marinated tofu or even just use plain tofu and simply pour the marinade over the top of the tofu in the bowl. It will still taste good and save you time. But if you can be bothered, give the sesame crust a go as it really adds a nice texture to the dish.

Feel free to play around with this recipe adding your favourite sushi ingredients. Though don't skip either of the sauces! The mayo and the tofu marinade/dressing really bring it all together and in my opinion, essential. Totally fine to use store bought mayo and you can just about get away with using plain soy sauce.....but go on, how much better would it be with ginger and garlic?

Sesame Crusted Tofu Sushi Bowls

Prep and cooking time: Approximately 1 hour plus extra time for marinating the tofu.

Serves: 2

Dietary guide: This recipe is vegan and gluten free if using GF soy sauce. To make it FODMAP friendly make sure to only use the green part of the spring onion, omit the garlic in the marinade and mayo and use broccoli heads instead of broccolini. You may also need to limit the avocado 1/8th per person if you don't tolerate it well.

Cooking tips to make it a simpler version: There are a number of ways to cut back on the prep for this dish to make it simpler and quicker. You don’t have to marinate or coat the tofu in sesame seeds. Just fry the plain tofu lightly in a pan with a little oil and just use the marinade as the sauce and sprinkle the sesame seeds on top (you will need to toast them first). You can buy in your mayo and just serves the wasabi and chilli on the side. You can also just use plain steamed rice instead of sushi rice - there is still enough flavour in this dish without it. If you choose these adaptations, this is a pretty quick meal to prep.

Ingredients

2 cups of cooked made up white or brown sushi rice (refer to packet instructions)

1 avocado thinly sliced

2 baby cucumbers sliced or ½ a cup of sliced regular cucumber

1 bunch of broccolini

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

1 teaspoon of sesame oil

1 tablespoon of chopped spring onion

¼ cup of coriander leaves (optional)

1 sheet of nori chopped in to strips with a pair of scissors

½ a cup of cooked shelled edamame (optional)

A handful of baby spinach leaves (optional)

For the tofu

1 teaspoon of minced garlic

1 teaspoon of finely grated ginger

4 tablespoons of light soy sauce

2 tablespoons of mirin

2 teaspoons of sesame oil

2 teaspoons of maple syrup

250 of tofu (firm, not silken)

¼ cup of cornflour

¼ cup of soy milk

¾ of a cup of white sesame seeds

¼ cup of vegetable oil for pan frying

For the mayo*

1 teaspoon of American mustard

2 tablespoon of soy milk

1 green chilli roughly chopped (remove the seeds if you want it miler) (optional)

1 teaspoon of wasabi paste (optional)

100ml of mild flavoured vegetable oil

1 teaspoon of lime or lemon juice

¼ teaspoon of salt

¼ teaspoon sugar

1 small garlic clove

*If you are not vegan, you can replace this with a ¼ cup of store bought Kewpie mayo. Just mix through some wasabi and or chopped green chilli.

Instructions

First marinate the tofu – ideally for at least 2 hours. Chop the tofu up into large bit sized squares (about 2.5cm squared) and place into a square or rectangular container that fits the tofu snuggle – this means the marinade will cover more of the tofu. Mix all the ingredients for the marinade together in a small bowl and pour of the tofu. Refrigerate the tofu for at least 2 hours, ideally overnight.
If you haven't already made the sushi rice, make it now.
Next make the mayo. Prepare the garlic by “creaming it” - grind the garlic and the salt in a mortar and pestle until it forms a rough paste. Add a teaspoon of the veg oil and mix together. Scrape out the creamed garlic into a 2 cup capacity jug. Add the soy milk, mustard and lime/lemon juice, wasabi and green chilli if using. Emulsify for 30 seconds using a handheld stick blender. Add the oil in a slow stream whilst continuing to mix with the stick blender. Taste and adjust for your tastes i.e. add more wasabi if you like it stronger. Refrigerate until needed – it will thicken up more in the fridge.
Take the tofu out of the marinade and place on a plate– make sure to keep the marinade, we will be using that later.
Pace the corn flour, soy milk and sesame seeds (from the tofu ingredients in three seperate small bowls. Dip a piece of tofu in the corn flour and shake it around to ensure it's evenly coated in the corn flour and then transfer to the soy milk bowl. Gently toss in the soy milk until all covered and than place in the bowl with sesame seeds. Using your hands or gently shaking the bowl, coat the piece of tofu with sesame seeds. You may find it helps to press the seeds on a little bit with your hand to make sure they stick. Place the sesame crusted tofu onto a plate lined with baking paper. Repeat until all the tofu is done.
Heat the vegetable oil (about a ¼ of a cup) in a frypan on low-medium heat. Add the tofu – if your pan is large you can cook the tofu all at once other wise cook in 2 batches. After a couple of minutes you should see the sides of the tofu start to go light brown, when this happens turn the tofu over. I like to rotate my tofu four times to make sure each side goes nice and golden but if you don't have the patience for this, just make sure 2 sides of the tofu is done. Drain onto a plate lined with paper towel.
Wipe down the fry pan, turn up to high heat and add a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Cook the broccolini for a few minute on both sides or until just done (keep it crunchy). Season with a little salt and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil.
Now time to assemble the sushi bowl. Divide the rice among 2 bowls. Top with the broccolini, sliced avocado, cucumber, edamame and spinach if using, tofu, spring onions, coriander, nori and a good dollop of the mayo. Use the remaining marinade as a sauce, either pour it over the bowl or serve it on the side. Enjoy!