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Wild Springtime Sushi Rolls
In honour of International Sushi Day, I made some fun and easy-to-make springtime maki rolls with foraged ingredients.
For these rolls, I harvested some wild asparagus, fiddleheads, milkweed shoots, ramps (wild leeks), and dandelion flower petals. Still, you could make them with lots of other fun wild edibles, like blanched nettles, lambsquarters, cattail shoots, hostas, wild onions, edible flowers, mallow, dandelion leaves, chickweed, etc.
Note: Fiddleheads and milkweed shoots harbour some toxicity when eaten raw, so be sure to cook them in boiling water as I instruct in the recipe.
The flavour of these rolls is quite elegant and straightforward – what you’re getting is the flavour of the wild ingredient nestled in seasoned rice, and not much more. I think simple preparations like this are great for delicious spring wild edibles.
If you’d like to make them more interesting, try adding pickles or poached seafood.
For a more detailed pictorial on how to roll sushi rolls, check out my venison kimbap post here.
- Prep Time1 hr
- Cook Time15 min
- Total Time1 hr 15 min
- YieldServes 4
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups raw sushi rice
- 3 cups water
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 2 stalks asparagus, tough ends cut off
- 8 ramp leaves (wild leeks)
- 4 milkweed shoots
- 1 cup fiddleheads
- 1 cup dandelion flower petals (no green parts)
- 5 nori (seaweed) sheets
- Japanese soy sauce to serve
Preparation
Rinse the rice until the water runs mostly clear. Add the rice, water, sugar, and salt to a medium pot and bring to a boil, stirring so the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom. Cover, reduce heat to low, and cook without disturbing for 15 minutes (or whatever the package instructs).
Once done, remove from heat and let rest (without removing the lid) for 5 minutes. Stir in the rice wine vinegar, then transfer rice to a baking sheet or large container to cool down.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add a big pinch of salt. Fill a large bowl with cold water and ice cubes.
Add the asparagus to the boiling water and cook for 1 minute. Transfer to bowl.
Add the ramps to the boiling water and cook for 30 seconds. Transfer to bowl.
Add the milkweed shoots to the boiling water and cook for 5 minutes. Transfer to bowl.
Add the fiddleheads to the boiling water and cook for 10 minutes. Transfer to bowl.
Discard the water.
Lay out 1 nori sheet, shiny-side-up, and use a wet spoon to spread the cooled rice across the bottom 2/3rds of the nori sheet (the open section will be facing away from you). You want the layer of rice to be thin, but still a tad fluffy. Now lay down the two asparagus stalks on the side closest to you. Roll the bottom of the nori sheet over the asparagus and roll to the other side. Place a few grains of cooked rice along the top edge (these act like a glue to keep it from unrolling) and finish the roll. Lay it seam-side down while you make the others.
Repeat with the other ingredients.
For the ramp roll, follow the same directions with the rice, but lay the blanched leaves down, overlapping, so they cover the rice. Roll.
Save the dandelion flowers for last. Once the other items are rolled, mix the petals into the remaining rice, then follow the rolling instructions.
Use a very sharp knife (I recommend a fish fillet knife that has been wetted) to slice the rolls into sushi. Keep in mind that you’ll want to eat them in one bite, so don’t make them too big.
Serve with Japanese soy sauce to dip. Enjoy!
Notice how I didn’t have you scroll through pages of mundane nonsense to get to the recipe? Notice that there were no annoying pop-ups or ads? That was on purpose!
I want finding and using my recipes to be easy for you, not frustrating. That does translate into a lot of lost income for me though. If you made this recipe and loved it, would you consider “buying me a coffee” and donating a buck or two through the Buy Me a Coffee app? It will help me keep pumping out recipes like this one!
