I dreamed of this recipe when I was craving my favorite sushi roll and decided that I could make it myself, in the form of a salad, since I am not an itamae! This salad was served as lunch for part of an Asian fusion week at my place. I served this with spicy jalapeño cream cheese filled wontons made with halved egg roll wrappers and post-meal fortune cookies. I can also see that this makes a great side to dinner or as a packed lunch for work or school. Do what I’ve done here or adapt again to fit your own favorite sushi roll!

Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 cup long grain white rice

1 ¾ cup of water

1 avocado

1 cup mini carrots

1 cucumber

4 imitation crab sticks

1 cup frozen shrimp

Fried onions

Sriracha Mayonnaise

soy sauce

1. Steam or boil carrots long enough to soften. Cut them into small pieces lengthwise. Place in a mug in the refrigerator to cool. Peel and cut the cucumber into equal pieces, also place in a covered container in the refrigerator.

2. Put water and rice in a covered pot and let it soak for at least half an hour. I let mine sit overnight. When ready to cook, bring to a boil uncovered then cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until the rice has absorbed the water.

3. Let the rice cool enough to later refrigerate or chill.

4. Put the shrimp under running cold water to defrost. Put in an appropriate size bowl.

5. Cut the imitation crab into small bites. Put in another bowl of appropriate size. Place both in the refrigerator.

6. When all of these ingredients are ready to combine, first make a bed of sticky rice in the bottom of your bowl. Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit. Use a spoon to scoop the contents into one piece, then cut each half into 4 slices. Fan 4 slices over 1/3 of the rice in each bowl.

7. Place cucumber sticks in another third of your rice. Place the carrot sticks in the last 1/3.

8. I served the salads like this with the options of adding shrimp and / or faux crab and then dressing it yourself with fried onions, Sriracha mayonnaise, and soy sauce to taste, but you can certainly make the whole salad for your guests.